From: pwiseman at harcourtbrace.com <pwiseman>
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 14:54:53 -0400

I so admire the books that Cindy and Joe published at Dial. Maybe this dialogue will alert some reprinters to these fine books and to bringing them back in print.

Joe and I first worked together on THIRTEEN MOONS ON TURTLE'S BACK, published at Philomel. I had contacted Paula Gunn Allen after reading her SPIDERWOMAN AND HER GRANDDAUGHTERS to write a book for me and she put me in touch with Joe, whom I knew by reputation as a storyteller. I'm so grateful that she did.

I've learned a great deal from Joe's approach to writing for children. He's a great storyteller and careful researcher, but more than that he knows the culture about which he writes from his Abenaki heritage and good work for the last decades. For instance, in writing SACAJAWEA, where Joe worked from letters and journals, there were translations that came up that contained nuances that made vast differences.

In English we would say, " I see a bear." In Native language the phrase is,
"The bear shows itself to me."

Joe's point of view, values and cultural background are a basic part of his storytelling.

We've worked together on many books, and are now finishing SACAJAWEA, which Joe has told from two alternating points of view, Sacajawea's own and William Clark's. The Clark chapters begin with actual diary extracts from historic document and the Sacajawea chapters begin with storytelling. To think that this young woman at l6, newly married, and a new mother travelled on this expedition is amazing. Though there are other books on the subject, Joe's is the only one I know that is written by a Native American author. I think this book will raise consciousness about this heroine and be useful in curriculum.

I appreciate Joe as a writer, researcher and careful storyteller. Joe says in his introduction:

One of the questions asked of historical fiction: how much of your story is fiction and how much is history. I have attempted to be absolutely true to the journals .... This also holds true for the dialogue, which is drawn directly from the journals... But what about those who kept no journals, Sacajawea in particular.... I have tried to make certain that the events as she describes them are seen through a Native eye.

Eileen Charbonneau, a contemporary relative of Sacajawea, said about the book,
"I found the book filled with a wonderful spirit any many things that have not been written about before."

There is so much that we cannot know about Native history, as so little was recorded and so much as been lost. I hope that SACAJAWEA takes a step, the best we can at this time, toward correcting that.
Received on Mon 25 Oct 1999 01:54:53 PM CDT