Blonde Indian: An Alaska Native Memoir (Sun Tracks) - Hardcover

Hayes, Ernestine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0816525382 ISBN 13: 9780816525386

Publisher: University of Arizona Press, 2006

Synopsis

In the spring, the bear returns to the forest, the glacier returns to its source, and the salmon returns to the fresh water where it was spawned. Drawing on the special relationship that the Native people of southeastern Alaska have always had with nature, Blonde Indian is a story about returning.

Told in eloquent layers that blend Native stories and metaphor with social and spiritual journeys, this enchanting memoir traces the author’s life from her difficult childhood growing up in the Tlingit community, through her adulthood, during which she lived for some time in Seattle and San Francisco, and eventually to her return home. Neither fully Native American nor Euro-American, Hayes encounters a unique sense of alienation from both her Native community and the dominant culture. We witness her struggles alongside other Tlingit men and women—many of whom never left their Native community but wrestle with their own challenges, including unemployment, prejudice, alcoholism, and poverty.

The author’s personal journey, the symbolic stories of contemporary Natives, and the tales and legends that have circulated among the Tlingit people for centuries are all woven together, making Blonde Indian much more than the story of one woman’s life. Filled with anecdotes, descriptions, and histories that are unique to the Tlingit community, this book is a document of cultural heritage, a tribute to the Alaskan landscape, and a moving testament to how going back—in nature and in life—allows movement forward.

About this title

About the Author:

Ernestine Hayes is an assistant professor of English at the University of Alaska Southeast.

From Booklist:

Hayes, now an English professor and historian of her mother's Lingit tribe, poignantly relates the sad details of her youth and early adulthood, adroitly interspersing these often-sordid memories with stories of tribal history that have been passed on for generations. Living alternately with an aunt and her maternal grandmother due to her mother's stay in a tuberculosis sanitarium, and with no siblings or father for support, Hayes learns to fend for herself, combing the docks near the cannery where her grandmother works for discarded fish heads for their evening soup. In and out of detention homes as a teenager and failed relationships as an adult, she eventually returns to Juneau and her roots. There Hayes reclaims her heritage, especially the Lingit worship of and reliance on the land and all it supports, a way of life she hope to pass on to her grandchildren. This sometimes raw, consistently honest memoir is a rewarding, evocative, ultimately uplifting view of Native life. Deborah Donovan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0816525382
• ISBN 13: 9780816525386
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 200