Dark River: A Novel (Volume 30) (American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series) - Softcover

Owens, Louis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0806132825 ISBN 13: 9780806132822

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000

Synopsis

Jacob Nashoba’s journey has taken him from his Choctaw homeland in Mississippi to Vietnam and finally to a small reservation in the mountains of eastern Arizona. A tribal ranger, he lives among people far different from any he has known. Balanced precariously between isolation and community, he is drawn to both the fastness of a remote river canyon and the Apaches who have come to be the only family he has.

Nashoba’s world is peopled by, among others, a bright young man who sells vision quests to romantic tourists, a determined elder whose power makes her a force to be reckoned with on the reservation, a resident anthropologist more "native" than the natives, a corrupt tribal chairman, a former Hollywood extra who shouts at reservation women the scraps of Italian he learned from other "Indian" actors, and the ranger’s estranged wife. Confusion and violence follow their encounter with a right-wing militia group training secretly on tribal land. The contrast between these Rambo types and the various Native American characters typifies the sardonic humor running throughout this novel of contemporary Indian identity.

About this title

About the Author

Louis Owens (1948–2002), who was of Choctaw-Cherokee-Irish descent, was Professor of English at the University of New Mexico. He is the author of several books, including Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel and the novels The Sharpest Sight and Bone Game.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Jake lay on his narrow bed, his head pounding while the coyotes celebrated another night of survival and a dawn that would come in two hours. He thought of grabbing the deer rifle and blasting the hillside to shut up the shrill-voiced things, but the very idea made his head hurt even more. Thunder muttered in the corners of his little room, and then he realized what had really awakened him. He heard the outside door to his office pushed shut and then soft steps. The door to his bedroom moved, and then she was standing beside his bed, a tall shadow.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0806132825
• ISBN 13: 9780806132822
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 296