{"id":9788,"date":"2021-07-12T11:32:42","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T15:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=9788"},"modified":"2021-09-09T07:26:37","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T11:26:37","slug":"episode-386-your-home-on-native-land-book-i-wrote-on-first-nations-people-sad-result","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=9788","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 386 YOUR HOME ON NATIVE LAND…BOOK I WROTE ON FIRST NATIONS PEOPLE…SAD RESULT"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 386     YOUR HOME ON NATIVE LAND…BOOK I WROTE ON FIRST NATIONS PEOPLE…SAD RESULT<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
July 2021<\/div>\n

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When I wrote \u2018Your Home on Native Land\u2019, I was quite proud of the result.   I felt I was doing my small bit<\/div>\n
to right the wrongs suffered by our First Nations people.  Well, the old adage that pride goeth before a fall<\/div>\n
soon deflated my pride.  <\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n
\u201cDad, you must publish your stories.  Get an agent.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cKevin, I do not want to go through that grief.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cBut the stories are good.\u201d\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSo say you\u2026an agent, then a publisher will put them through<\/div>\n
a meat grinder along with my soul, if I have a soul.  I would rather<\/div>\n
just muddle along and hope someone actually reads the stories<\/div>\n
on the internet.”<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Writing is a tough and thankless job that triggers more criticism than compliments.<\/div>\n
I wonder why so many people actually write and publish books only to have<\/div>\n
the manuscripts taken apart\u2026sometimes brutally.  I have been on both ends<\/div>\n
of this.   For a few years long ago, I was the book critic for the OSSTF BULLETIN.  Loved<\/div>\n
doing the evaluations but now wish I had held back some of my smart ass comments.<\/div>\n
Those comments hurt people.  I wish it had not been so.  I was young and thoughtless.<\/div>\n
One book in particular should have been treated better.  Title? I think it was about an owl<\/div>\n
and life experience.   I rushed the review\u2026said things that must have hurt the author.<\/div>\n
Regret that deeply even now … the review was 50 or so years ago. Very few ever<\/div>\n
read it thankfully.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
  So far I have authored and co-authored<\/div>\n
around 13 book and several filmstrip histories (Filmstrip?  That word means nothing today).<\/div>\n
All the books had to grind their way across the burning coals of criticism.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\u201cAlan. you must be a rich man from the royalties!\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
What a joke.  The Canadian writer, Hugh Garner, framed one of his<\/div>\n
royalty checks.  It was somewhere around $2.50!    He cursed about that<\/div>\n
in his book \u2018One Damn Thing and Another\u2019.  I know the feeling having received<\/div>\n
such a check myself.  Today publishes do not send out such checks. Ten dollar<\/div>\n
minimum royalty to get a check.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Some checks were larger and reasonable but no check<\/div>\n
was ever humungous.  Young writers should never quit their day jobs.  Any author<\/div>\n
will tell you that. (Publishing is a tough game as well\u2026involves investing lots of<\/div>\n
cash that may never return.)<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Advice: \u201cWrite because you want to write\u2026as if you have something<\/div>\n
worth saying.  Never expect a financial reward.  That will keep you sane<\/div>\n
and reduce the number of expletives you will use.”<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
  This book titled<\/div>\n
YOUR HOME ON NATIVE LAND comes to mind.   Never seen a copy?  Little wonder since the<\/div>\n
book was likely ground into paper dust several years ago.  Before that happened<\/div>\n
the publisher, Jackie Stewart, delivered 30 copies to our house.  Most are still here.<\/div>\n

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<\/font><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The legends of our indigenous people are fascinating and plump with meaning.<\/div>\n
Particularly the Legend of Creation which is told something like this”<\/div>\n

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LEGEND OF CREATION<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\u201cHigh above the clouds lived the Sky People<\/div>\n
One day, a crack appeared in the sky a hole, where<\/div>\n
a big tree had fallen over.<\/div>\n
Sky Woman , who was pregnant, looked down through the hole\u2026slipped<\/div>\n
and fell.<\/div>\n
As she fell, a pair of loons saw her and caught her on their backs, saving her<\/div>\n
from drowning.<\/div>\n
But they could not hold her, so they cried for help.<\/div>\n
Then a great SNAPPING TURTLE emerged fro the water world and <\/div>\n
Sky Woman dropped on the turtle\u2019s back.<\/div>\n
But his back, though large, was not large enough to hold<\/div>\n
her forever.<\/div>\n
So all the creatures of the water and air were called to a meeting to see<\/div>\n
what they could do for Sky Woman.<\/div>\n
The snapping turtle said, \u201cWe must have some earth.\u201d<\/div>\n
And so the beaver and the muskrat and all the birds that could<\/div>\n
dive tried to get some mud from the bottom of the ocean.<\/div>\n
They failed.<\/div>\n
Then the great snapping turtle found some mud already lodged<\/div>\n
in a hidden place in its own mouth.<\/div>\n
\u201cHere is some mud.Rub it on the edges of my back and it will grow.\u201d<\/div>\n
They did, and the turtle\u2019s shell grow to become the land we know<\/div>\n
as North America.*<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
(*First Nation story tellers of eastern North America repeated versions of this story<\/div>\n
\u2026with the same core truths\u2026expressed<\/div>\n
orally,  hence variations.   Indigenous people of western North America used<\/div>\n
ravens in their legends.)<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
THINK ABOUT IT:  GIANT SNAPPING TURTLE and PLATE TECTONICS<\/div>\n

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The Legend is not that much different from the scientific<\/div>\n
explanation of plate tectonics\u2026great masses of rock floating<\/div>\n
above the earth\u2019s liquid magma.   One touching theme in the<\/div>\n
legend is First Nation respect for all living things on the earth\u2026<\/div>\n
and also recognition of women as leaders.<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n

<\/font><\/div>\n
MY THOUGHTS AS I BEGAN TO WRITE<\/font><\/div>\n

<\/font><\/div>\n
  Why did I choose a boy rather than a girl?  Boys, in my<\/span><\/div>\n
experience teaching high school for 30 years, just do not read as well as girls.  So I wrote a book<\/font><\/div>\n
that I hoped boys would read as well as girls.  I created an indigenous boy to tell the story of his people. He asked<\/font><\/div>\n
questions that his wise grandmother answered.  All using first person dialogue between the boy and his grandmother.<\/font><\/div>\n

<\/font><\/div>\n
Seemed like a good idea.  It was not.<\/font><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
End of story.<\/font><\/div>\n

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Well not quite the end.  If I had not taken on the task I would never have got the<\/font><\/div>\n
phone call that led me to the Lubicon Cree\u2026a small tribe that was forgotten.<\/font><\/div>\n
Next story.<\/font><\/div>\n

<\/font><\/div>\n
alan<\/font><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPISODE 386     YOUR HOME ON NATIVE LAND…BOOK I WROTE ON FIRST NATIONS PEOPLE…SAD RESULT alan skeoch July 2021 When I wrote \u2018Your Home on Native Land\u2019, I was quite proud of the result.   I felt I was doing my small bit to right the wrongs suffered by our First Nations people.  Well, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}