Ravenshadow

Publisher Marketing: In RavenShadow, the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers winner, the Sioux's rhythmic nature of time is rendered in stunning detail. A tale of lost faith and crowning redemption that is destined to become an American classic. Before he was born, Joseph was chosen to carry the sacred ways of his Sioux people. But instead of walking the good Red Road of his people, he put his feet on the White Road of basketball and booze, women and the blues. In following the white man's road, a road that was not his, Joseph Blue Crow has lost his Lakota heritage and is haunted by the loss. After the inexplicable suicide of the woman he loves, and as he sinks into alcoholism and despair, he stands on the precipice of suicide-a train roaring to his car on the railroad tracks. His best friend tells him, "You got to go on the mountain." Blue's journey takes him on a torturous path. As he is guided by a shaman and a spirit bird, under whose wings lay the shadows of the past, he revisits-and relives, going from the present world to the past-the massacre of Wounded Knee, standing beside his people and family as they fall under the gun and cannon fire. Will Blue find redemption and healing? That is the center of this extraordinary story. "With the skill of the fine novelist that he is, Win Blevins takes a modern Oglala Sioux radio jockey into the spirit world of his ancestors, including the stark tragedy of Wounded Knee. RavenShadow has the impact of a hurled war lance."-Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee "Win Blevins has long since won his place among the West's very best. RavenShadow adds a new dimension to reputation." -Tony Hillerman "Best known for Stone Song, his vivid, lyrical novel of the life of Crazy Horse, Blevins here introduces Joseph Blue Crow, a 1990s Lakota Sioux who calls himself a Great White Doubter. Narrator Joseph feels he is red on the outside but white on the inside ("I thought the white way was the way, and the red way should get left behind"). "Although born a full-blooded Sioux and raised on the reservation, Blue is poised to escape his destined poverty when he gets away to college and discovers booze, basketball, and girls. "Succumbing to the temptations of this exotic white culture, he discards his Indian heritage, his family, and friends. His experiences as a young man in Seattle are harsh. He encounters overt racism, but it is his girlfriend's suicide, and the almost simultaneous death of his grandmother, that prompt him to return to the reservation, feeling a traitor to himself and his people. By 1990 he is 40, divorced, an alcoholic disk jockey on a blues radio station in South Dakota. "Finally, compelled to seek peace by a friend and the spiritual vision of a raven, Blue immerses himself in Sioux tradition, turning to the sweat lodge and the sacred pipe. His quest culminates in a pilgrimage, the annual Big Foot Memorial Ride, which commemorates Wounded Knee, the bloody event the whites call a battle, but the Sioux call a massacre. "En route, with the help of a medicine man, Blue's spirit is transported to that bitter cold day in 1890 when the Seventh Cavalry fired on a village of starving Sioux, including some of Blue's own ancestors. His soul is redeemed by his difficult vision, though the journey may be both painful and beautiful for the reader."- Publisher's Weekly "A strong, thoughtful story of minorities within the dominant white culture."- Kirkus Reviews "RavenShadow is a true inspiration." Wordcraft Circle of Native writers and Storytellers, names Win Blevins Writer of the Year for RavenShadow. "No one can come away from this magnificent work without feeling humble and meditative about the artificial life he has created. It is a book that transcends man and reminds him of his close relationship to his creator." The EL Paso Times Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 09/27/1999 pg. 73 (EAN 9780312865658, Hardcover) Kirkus Reviews 10/15/1999 pg. 1603 (EAN 9780312865658, Hardcover) Booklist 11/01/1999 (EAN 9780312865658, Hardcover) - *Starred Review Contributor Bio:  Blevins, Win Win Blevins is an American author of historical fiction, narrative non-fiction, historical fantasy, and non-fiction books, as well as short stories, novellas, articles, reviews, and screenplays. He has written many books about the western mountain trappers, and is known for his "mastery of western lore." His notable works include Stone Song, So Wild a Dream, and Dictionary of the American West. According to WorldCat, the Dictionary of the American West is held in 728 libraries. Blevins has won numerous awards, including being named winner of the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement in writing literature of the West being selected for the Western Writers Hall of Fame, being twice named 'Writer of the Year' by Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers, winning two Spur Awards for Novel of the West.