Crooked River (23 page)

What is the truth—
débwewin
—and what is the fiction in the story of John Amik? Although
Crooked River
is a work of fiction, the idea for this novel began with an actual trial. In 1812, a Chippewa Indian named John O'mic was held captive for two months, tried by a white jury, and convicted of murder in Cleveland, Ohio.

As I delved deeper into this story, I learned that the year 1812 was a time of particular unrest and growing fear in this region—among both whites and Native Americans. One historian wrote, “Nowhere on the American frontier was the clash of cultures more violent than on the Ohio frontier.”

During this turbulent period, the legendary Shawnee leader Tecumseh was trying to create a confederacy of Indian nations from Alabama to the
Northeast to negotiate for Indian lands and protect them from further loss to white settlement. War between Great Britain and the United States loomed on the horizon, and the British were supplying weapons to Indian nations. At the same time, white settlers continued to push westward—often breaking agreements made in earlier treaties with the Indians. So, as I researched this story, I began to see that the imprisonment and trial of John O'mic took place in an environment of growing conflict and violence.

I was also surprised to learn that John O'mic was held captive in the cabin of a settler who had his family living inside the cabin at the same time. His family included a small child, a thirteen-year-old girl, and a young woman. What did they think about the Indian imprisoned in the loft above them? I wondered.

When I write about history, I am often interested in the side of the story that has not been told. So, I began to consider writing about the events of 1812 from the perspective of one of the children in the cabin. At the same time, I found myself drawn to the voice of John O'mic. What was
his
story? What would he say about the events as they unfolded around him? That is how
Crooked River
became a “two voices” story.

The language of the Carvers came from books, letters, and journals of this time period. Phrases such as “truth to speak,” “white as a wall,” “strange to say,” and “worn to shadows” came from these places. An important source for Rebecca Carver's voice was the unpublished diary of a young girl
named Emily Nash, who lived in northern Ohio during this time. In fact, Peter Kelley's rattlesnake story was based on a dramatic account in her diary.

Sadly the language of the past sometimes reflected the prejudices and hatreds of the past. Some of the characters in
Crooked River
use words such as “savages,” ”half-breeds,” and “beasts” to describe the Native American people. It was with a heavy heart that I put these words into the story. They were used on the frontier and found in the historical documents I read. Appallingly, even the governor of Ohio used this language in an 1812 address to the Ohio legislature in which he called the Indians “hordes of barbarians.” As a historical writer, I could not ignore the language of the past, but I hope that it causes readers to reflect upon the destructive nature of these words.

Although the word “Indian” was used in the past, many Native Americans feel it is a word that does not accurately reflect the diversity and history of their cultures. “Native American,” “First Nations People,” and “indigenous people” are more frequently used today.

While I have used the common name “Chippewa” for this novel, I should point out that the Chippewa nation is known by several different names. The ancient name for the Chippewa people is the Anishinabek, which translates as “original people” or “beings with bones, flesh, and spirit.”

In the 1800s, “Chippewa” was the name that white people often used for this nation. During this time period, the people of this nation usually called
themselves the Ojibways. The name can also be spelled “Ojibwe,” “Ojibwa,” and “Ojibbeway.”

As I studied the language of the Ojibwe people, I was fascinated by the beauty of the words and their sounds. Ojibwe is sometimes called a verb-based language because of its emphasis on words that describe action and movement. I chose to use story-poems for John Amik's voice because I felt that poetry best reflected the powerful, descriptive language found in the speeches, songs, and stories of the Ojibwe. A wonderful resource for exploring the poetry within Native American songs is
I, the Song: Classical Poetry of Native North America
, edited by A. L. Soens.

Whenever possible, I used Ojibwe words and phrases in John Amik's passages. Phrases such as “many strings of lives ago,” “when the trees did not weep for us,” and “his words roll like logs in white water” all come from Ojibwe sources. Since dreams hold great spiritual power for the Ojibwe people, I wove together dream descriptions from several Ojibwe songs and stories to create Amik's spirit dream.

During the research and writing of
Crooked River
, the most memorable moment for me occurred when I read about
Animiki
—the Thunder Beings, or thun-derbirds—who are a powerful element of the spirit world for the Ojibwe people. I was fascinated to discover that there are a number of stories and songs within the Ojibwe oral tradition that tell of captives or others being saved by the powerful Thunder Beings. The chant recited by John Amik, “circle above me a cloud,” comes from one of those songs. The image at the top of Amik's chapters is a thunderbird.

In the Cleveland trial of John O'mic, a storm did suddenly appear at the moment of his execution. White observers called it a “terrific storm which came up with great rapidity” and described how the crowd scattered in its wake. So,
Crooked River
gave me the opportunity to weave together written history and oral history in a unique way.

Although most of the details of John Amik's trial have been imagined, I used accounts from several Indian trials in Ohio and elsewhere to create the fictional trial scenes. A trial in 1821 involving the testimony of a well-known Seneca leader named Red Jacket provided the scene where the use of the Bible is questioned, for instance. The place names found in the novel are also fictionalized for the most part; however, the name “Crooked River” has sometimes been used to describe the winding Cuyahoga River near Cleveland, Ohio.

Although the homeland of the Ojibwe nation once stretched throughout the Great Lakes region, only small areas of land still remain. For decades treaties were made and broken by the United States and the government agents who negotiated them. Today, reservation lands exist in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and the Dakotas as well as Canada. However, there are currently no lands in Ohio that are held by the Ojibwe people or any other Native American nation.

While working on this novel, I often drove on a road called Chippewa Road, past a housing complex called Chippewa Place, over a river called Chippewa Creek. The story of John O'mic caused me to stop and
wonder, What do these names mean? Who were— and
are
—the Chippewa people? When were they here? Why did they leave?

Crooked River
gave me a glimpse into the lives of the frontier people and the “original people,” the Chippewa. Although I am not of Chippewa heritage, I believe that all of us, of any background or culture, can
begin
to understand one another and the places of our present and past. There is still much more to be learned, but I am honored to have been given the chance to try.

—
Shelley Pearsall

Baraga, Frederic.
A Dictionary of the Ojibway Language.
St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1992.

Bial, Raymond.
The Ojibwe.
New York: Benchmark Books, 2000.

Bourgeois, Arthur P., ed.
Ojibwa Narratives of Charles and Charlotte Kawbawgam and Jacques LePique, 1893-1895.
Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994.

Densmore, Frances.
Chippewa Customs.
St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1979.

Hurt, R. Douglas.
The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.

Jefferson, Thomas. “Letter to Benjamin Hawkins, August 13, 1786, Paris.” Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 1, General Correspondence, 1651-1827.

Johnston, Basil.
Ojibway Heritage.
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990.

Kirkland, Caroline M.
A New Home, Who'll Follow?
Edited by Sandra A. Zagarell. Piscataway, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1990.

Nelson, Larry L., ed.
A History of Jonathan Alder: His Captivity and Life with the Indians.
Akron, Ohio: University of Akron Press, 2002.

Nichols, John D., and Earl Nyholm.
A Concise Dictionary of Minnesota Ojibwe.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995.

Soens, A. L., ed.
I, the Song: Classical Poetry of Native North America.
Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1999.

Stone, William L.
The Life and Times of Red Jacket.
New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1841.

Tanner, John.
The Falcon: A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner.
New York: Penguin, 1994.

Van Tassel, David D., and John J. Grabowski, eds.
The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History.
2nd ed. Blooming-ton: Indiana University Press, 1996.

Vennum, Thomas, Jr.
Ojibway Music from Minnesota: A Century of Song for Voice and Drum.
St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1989.

Warren, William W
History of the Ojibway People.
St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1984.

MUSEUM RESOURCES

Van Andel Museum Center

Public Museum of Grand Rapids

Anishinabek: The People of This Place
(permanent exhibit)

272 Pearl Street NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504

Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan 6650 East Broadway, Mount Pleasant, MI 48858

I would like to gratefully acknowledge my editor, Joan Slattery, assistant editor Jamie Weiss, and my agent, Steven Malk, for their guidance and encouragement. My gratitude to Marcy Lindberg for her continuing support. I am also indebted to Dr. Philip Weeks, Professor of History at Kent State University, Matt Lautzenheiser and Karen Lohman of Hale Farm and Village, and Jackie Fink, who reviewed early drafts of
Crooked River.

Finally, a special thank-you to the following young readers, who took the time to read and share their thoughts about the manuscript: Virginia An-gelo, Samantha Ballash, Alex Bruck, Karilynn Cotone, Alex Coundourides, Mandy Czaplicki, Ashley Erlanson, Dominick Ferlito, Lauren Fiffick, Leanna Gruhn, Rebecca Hannan, Crystal Hill, Tim Hogan, Jack
Holzheimer, Matthew Marecki, Mariana Medakovic, Shauna Nighswander, Jackie Piatak, Van Pollard, Sarah Popovitz, Vicky Reynolds, Josh Rikard, Emily Rosko, Lauren Saintz, Zach Scicchitano, Christine Smienski, Dan Sweet, Matt Unger, Bridget VanDen-Haute, and Molly Vogel.

Miigwech.

Thank you.

Reader's Theater

Growing up, I spent many hours acting out scenes from my favorite books, and later, participating in school and community theater productions. Reader's theater is a special type of dramatic presentation in which specific scenes in books are adapted into short scripts. Readers take on the roles listed in the script and read their parts aloud, usually without any special costumes, props, or scenery. They use only their voices and simple movements or actions to play their roles.

I've found that reading a scene out loud sometimes gives an entirely new perspective on characters and their actions. On the following pages, I've adapted several scenes from
Crooked River
into short reader's theater scripts, so that you can play the part of one of the characters in the 1812 trial.

—Shelley Pearsall