Customer Reviews

Blonde Indian: An Alaska Native Memoir (Sun Tracks)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This gorgeous and unusual book should be required reading for both lovers of memoir and anyone who lives in "Indian Country" (which, really, is most of us.) Hayes layers narratives of self, land, history and tribe in an unusual way that feels utterly organic. She also offers real insight into both the brokenheartedness and the joy that characterize modern Native people's experience. Though it is not without minor flaws, I give this book 5 stars because it is amazing and unique.

Ernestine Hayes has captured what it means to grow up with one foot in white culture, the other in a native way of life she must struggle to keep alive and burning in her heart. I loved the way native stories wove in and out of her experiences. I hope she has another book in the works because I want to read more of what she has to say.

I do not lightly speak of this memoir as Spiritual Pilgrimage. Ernestine Hayes, a Lingit woman born into the Wolf House of the Kaagwaantaan clan shares an intimate glimpse into the very heart of the spirituality of her grandmother who cautioned her to listen, "To her words, to the wind, to the trees and the sounds in the night." The legends, dreams, stories of home and survival are at once poetic, lyric, humble, and fierce. A first read revealed a complex story of loss, racism, a prodigal life "wondering in a dark forest called California, and a humble home coming, awakening and remembering who she is. A second read revealed a woman so rooted to the land, language, stories, and culture that she could not escape home, even though she did, in fact, leave home for 25 years, because home, the language, landscape, and legends of the Lingit people, were imbedded in her very bones and nature.
This is a braided memoir that weaves strands from Ernestine's life and extended family, Lingit legends, the Lingit teachings of the grandmother and mother, dreams, and the tale of Tom into a cohesive narrative that doesn't shy away from the hard stuff--racism imbedded in the churches, government, schools, and white culture and the effects of alcohol, suicide, and homelessness. This memoir should be required reading in every Alaska History and social studies class, and by every school teacher hired to teach in Alaska. I want to read more by this author.

Excellent demonstration of the loss and regaining of spirit. More than just an aboriginal snap shot, this book is a vital look at loss of spirit in our western culture at large.

By weaving myth, memoir, and parallel fictional story lines, this book manages to be modern while retaining a strong indigenous voice that reminds me of the stories I was told as a child. I grew up in the Alaska Native community, and reading this book always makes me want to return home, to the streams, mountains, and oceans that I belong to.

I am only rating this as a 3 stars because I found the book a little hard to follow at times when the "story" wandered off into mythological glaciers, bears, wind, etc a bit too much making it hard to remember where the girl was in the story when the story returned to it.

I certainly get what the book is about. It is a gritty story of an Indian girl that lived a life I would NOT want to imagine. It is a story of the terrible effects of TB and alcohol on the native peoples of our lands.

Having Comanche and Cherokee grandparents I understand a lot of the context in the story concerning how devastated they were by the loss of their language,culture, and lands.

That being said...I think the book was written by a remarkable woman that is lucky she lives thru it all.