Louise Erdrich’s new novel Shadow Tag was released today.
H/T The Millions
Fiction
“Big Love” Subplot Re: Indian Gaming and Corrupt Financial Backers
The show may be called Big Love, but there’s no love lost between Bill Paxton’s character and the one played by Canadian Adam Beach.
The fourth season of Big Love, which stars Paxton as polygamist Bill Henrickson, debuts Sunday on HBO Canada. Beach is on hand to play Tommy Flute, the son of Bill’s Indian Gaming Casino partner, and Tommy really doesn’t trust Bill – in some ways, with good reason.
“We might have a problem – you,” a menacing Tommy tells Bill after receiving news that the FBI has visited the tribal offices to sniff around Bill’s financial activities. Obviously, the reservation hierarchy doesn’t want to get dragged into anything messy, and messiness just seems to follow Bill around.
Academy Award winner Sissy Spacek also will be a guest-star later in the season.
Onion: Interior Employee Caught Embezzling 50,000 Wolves
From the Onion:
BILLINGS, MT—In what is being called the largest wildlife embezzlement scheme in more than 40 years, Department of Interior employee Stephen Kendrick, 48, was caught Monday diverting large sums of wolves from Yellowstone National Park into an offshore Cayman Islands reserve. “We initially became suspicious when we noticed an unusually large surplus of elk this year,” said Jon Jarvis, director of the National Park Service. “After a closer look, it was clear someone was skimming wolves off the top. We should have known. On his salary there was no way he could have that many wolves.” This is the largest wildlife misappropriation in the United States since 1968, when the FBI closed down several Chicago pet stores that had illegally obtained more than 300,000 cottontail rabbits in the nation’s biggest-ever bunny laundering scam.
Linda Hogan to Speak at Aquinas College Next Week
As part of the continuing Contemporary Writers Series at Aquinas College , Linda Hogan, one of the most influential and provocative Native American figures in contemporary American literature, will read and speak in the Wege Center Ballroom on the Aquinas campus. The event will be held on October 29 at 7:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
Hogan, a Chickasaw poet, novelist, essayist, playwright and activist, grew up in a military family, spending most of her childhood in Oklahoma and Colorado . Hogan received her master’s degree in English and creative writing from the University of Colorado , and was the writer-in-residence for the states of Colorado and Oklahoma . In 1982 she became an assistant professor in the TRIBES program at Colorado College , Colorado Springs after which she became an associate professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota . She then moved to the University of Colorado as a professor in the English department. She left that position to become a full-time writer. Hogan’s writing is prolific, and she has distinguished herself as a political ideologist and an environmental/philosophical theorist.
Call for Papers: Law and Lit at CUNY — 2010
Kevin Maillard at Faculty Lounge has posted a call for papers for CUNY’s Law and Literature symposium. As the organizers and hosts of the only (so far) symposium on American Indian Law and Literature (our 2007 Indigenous Law Conference), and contributors to the only (so far) special symposium issue of a law journal dedicated to American Indian Law and Lit (American Indian Law Review’s volume 33, issue no. 1), we sincerely hope to see some American Indian law and lit papers at CUNY.
McSweeney’s: Lewis & Clark Humor
Here. An excerpt from “Manifest Destiny Wagon pool” by Jimmy Chen:
Capt. William Clark,
First off, thank you for being so kind—we’re all very excited about the Westward Expansion and most grateful that you’re offering transportation. Being unable to simply disappear and rematerialize somewhere in Oregon (despite being ordained by God to expand the country), I have the honor of asking you for a ride.
A bearer of burden I must be: I noticed from the bulletin that you will be leaving on Wednesday. This presents somewhat of a logistical problem for me, as I’m having a tapeworm removed the day before and doubt I’ll be recovered sufficiently for the journey until Thursday at the earliest. Also, my psychiatrist wants to go over a few key points with me about stresses the journey may present. (I’m suicidal, but just technically.)
Sincerely, Capt. Meriwether Lewis
Supreme Court Justices Keep Citing Cases Roberts And Alito Are Too Young To Remember
From the Onion:
Although three years have passed since both men joined the court, Chief Justice John Roberts, 54, and Associate Justice Samuel Alito, 59, said they still feel foolish whenever more senior justices refer to cases decided “way before” they joined the court. “One time—one time—I asked what World-Wide Volkswagen v. Woodson was, and Stevens goes off on this tear about me still being in diapers when Earl Warren was inventing Miranda rights,” Alito said of the 88-year-old justice appointed by President Gerald Ford. “God, sorry I didn’t get my law degree before World War I, geez.” According to court clerks, the two younger justices occasionally get so frustrated with the constant teasing that they take a bus to go spend time with their friends in the 9th Circuit.
Onion: Year of Law School Now Mandatory for 25 Year Olds
From the Onion:
WASHINGTON—Under the provisions of a bill approved by Congress and signed into law Tuesday, every 25-year-old American, regardless of prior life commitments, is now legally obligated to enroll in a full year of study at one of the nation’s accredited law schools. “This new measure gives us the means to compel 25-year-olds to simultaneously placate their parents, impress their friends with complex-sounding legal jargon, and effectively avoid any real-world responsibilities for another full year,” said Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN). “We can think of no better way for our young people to squander their postcollegiate aimlessness.” Congress is reportedly seeking further legislation that would provide for an additional nine months of grumbling over LSAT prep, and up to five years of whining about paying off student loan debt.
NYTs Theater Review: Darrell Dennis
From the NYTs:
A RAUCOUS burst of drums, a howling coyote and a whistling flute are the first things the audience hears in “Tales of an Urban Indian.” Then the mystical sounds quiet down, and Darrell Dennis, creator and star of this solo show, adds the punch line: “Now that we got that out of our system, let’s begin.”
Mr. Dennis, hailing from the Shuswap Nation in British Columbia, aims to explode stereotypes in the play, which has returned to the Public Theater after a run at its first annual Native Theater Festival last fall. From the start this semi-autobiographical play about a young actor who moves from a reservation to Vancouver presents a counterpoint to movies like “Dances With Wolves.”
“I can’t shape-shift,” Mr. Dennis says in the show. “I can’t even make it rain, for God sakes!”
Through March 15 at the Public Theater.
MSU Speaker Series: Robert Dale Parker on January 26, 2009
Robert Dale Parker (Illinois) will be speaking here on Monday, January 26, 2009 at 11AM. The talk is at the Castle Board Room at the MSU College of Law. Lunch will be served at noon, and it is FREE!
Prof. Meg Noori (Michigan) and Prof. Pat LeBeau (MSU) will serve as commentators.
Prof. Parker will be speaking about his book “The Sound the Stars Make Rushing through the Sky: The Writings of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft” (Penn. Press). His website about the book and Jane Schoolcraft is here.
Turtle Talk 
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