Fiction Native American & Aboriginal
Adam's Tree
- Publisher
- Radiant Press
- Initial publish date
- Jul 2019
- Category
- Native American & Aboriginal, Literary, Short Stories (single author)
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781989274057
- Publish Date
- Jul 2019
- List Price
- $22.00
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781989274071
- Publish Date
- Jul 2019
- List Price
- $20.00
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Description
Adam's Tree is a fictional account of life on the Cowesses First Nation in Saskatchewan during the 1940's and 50's.This period in history finds forces like regulatory policy, World War II, systemic racism, and the long reach of the depression defining reserve life and rural relationships. These short stories are told from the perspective of various characters on the reserve: an Indigenous teenage girl named Sophie, men who return to Cowesses after the war, struggling with untreated and unacknowledged PTSD, settlers like the local school teacher and the "Indian agent". This book contributes to the dialogue on reconciliation, freeing Indigenous voices during a period of time that is rarely written about. It encourages readers to examine the sources and meaning of today's inheritance of complex relations.
About the author
Gloria Mehlmann grew up on the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan, before striking out to become a public school teacher (1962-1983). Her various careers include serving as a public library trustee and as Director of Aboriginal Education. Mehlmann has been recognized repeatedly for her contributions to educational, aboriginal, and civic initiatives, culminating in the Saskatchewan Centennial Medal in 2005. Author of Gifted to Learn, a memoir, 2008. Recipient of an SLTA honorary Lifetime Membership 2004. She is now a full-time writer and lives in Nanoose Bay, BC.
Excerpt: Adam's Tree (by (author) Gloria Mehlmann)
And at that moment, a tall, hefty man stepped up to the sleigh and pointed a rifle at Belle's head.
"I'll tell you what the trouble is," he growled. "You're the damned trouble! The whole damn bunch of youse. Not a goddamned soldier among youse!"
"What are you talking about, Ronnie? It's me, Stanley, your brother. What'n hell?!"
Ronnie ignored that. He wrenched the glinting barrel from Belle's head to Norman's heart. "I'm in charge! And I'm the major general! Right, Smoky?"
The young boy beside him squeaked, "Yes, sir!"
Sophie knew that something was horribly wrong. Stanley had tightened the reins at this odd reference to soldiers.
"Tell them, Smoky!" Ronnie ordered.
The thin boy, of no more than ten or so, called out, "He's the major general and he's in charge!"
"Tell them so they hear!" shouted Ronnie.
"He's the major general and he's in charge!" Young Smoky's voice cracked in the cold air.
Ronnie addressed the travellers. "Tell me I can't go to war! Tell me the army can't use me! I'll show you!" Spit flew from his lips.
Ronnie loosed a blood-curdling screech that turned moonlit faces ashen. Sophie shrank into a ball. Cries of shock and consternation were stifled in coat sleeves and covers. Ronnie's gun roamed to Alex. Stanley slipped the reins to Norman, who'd never held a team in check and clearly didn't want to now. He shook his head, hiding his hands under the folds of his parachute. But Stanley thrust the reins hard at his chin and leaped down to stand in the snow beside Ronnie. Norman took the reins.
"Come, brother." Stanley spoke in smooth, gentle tones to Ronnie, who lowered his gun for a moment. "Think of the women and kids all cold out here. And hungry, too."
But Ronnie's cry seemed to claw its way through churning guts into his lungs. He whirled around and put the gun to Stanley's head.
The horses jumped in their traces. Alex grabbed the reins. He sawed the bridle bit in the horses' jaws back and forth, bringing them to a standstill. Sophie had never heard such a cry from any human or animal. All the more frightening, Ronnie shouted at them to get the hell off the sleigh. Everyone but Sophie obeyed. She sat as still as a mouse, watching the passengers sinking into the deep snow. They clung to one another in a road lashed with snowdrifts, a nearly invisible road stretching to nowhere safe.
Cookie's boots filled with snow. Belle whispered that her legs felt burning, real bad. Ronnie wobbled as he closed in struggling to hold a roaming rifle at eye level. Sophie caught a whiff of alcohol. Slowly, she heaped the blankets around her, trying to make herself appear like a pile of covers. The only movement coming from the boy and his dog were puffs of breath, rising in the air.
Editorial Reviews
"If, since Hemingway, the benchmark for complex short stories is their "iceberg"-quality--i.e. the fact that the largest part of what informs a complex and well-written story is actually hidden underneath the surface of what appears on the page -- then Mehlmann's stories easily reach this level of complexity. Her characters and conflicts have profound psychological depth, but only a fraction of that complexity is manifest on the surface, while underneath there is an entire world of what is displaced, repressed, "forgotten," dis-remembered and untold; with nuanced dialogues and roaring silences, this book will captivate and be of interest to all readers, regardless of their ethnicity, nation, gender or socio-cultural standing. Indigenous authors in Canada today are producing world literature that does what oral traditions and literature in any language have always done: teaching us who we are, who the others are, and how we must live as good human beings so that coming generations can also live meaningful lives on this planet."
--Dr. Hartmut Lutz, professor emeritus and former chair of American and Canadian Studies: Anglophone Literatures and Cultures of North America at the University of Greifswald, Germany
"The stories and memories contained in this book are honest, gritty, harsh, and uncensored. They depict a reality that needs to be told. It is about the resilience of a People, who have lived through racism, poverty, hatred and blame - but in the end - continue to build with unwavering pride."
--Carol Rose Daniels, author of Bearskin Diary
