BOOK CLUB: A journey through the Indian world
In "We Survived the Night," Julian Brave NoiseCat takes a road trip through Native America -- and finds a place where being related still means something
Join us today, Wednesday, November 26, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern when we announce our December pick. Watch on desktop at The Ink or join us from a phone or tablet with the Substack app. The Book Club is open to all supporting subscribers of The Ink, so join us now to take part!
What I love best about We Survived the Night is that the more time I spend on the page with author Julian Brave NoiseCat, the more I feel as if I am traveling in the company of a friend. We’re invited to be companions on his odyssey, one in which he seeks to become the best version of himself by probing his own history and journeying out to meet some of the people who’ve kept alive the culture and traditions that enable him to feel more rooted in the world.
In the course of NoiseCat’s sojourn, he spends time with a vast cast of heroic characters he brings to vivid life. There’s Arlinda Locklear, a Lumbee and one of the country’s foremost experts on Indian law. She successfully argued a precedent-setting case on behalf of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe before the Supreme Court, establishing the rights of tribes to try their own citizens for crimes committed on their territory.
We also meet Paulette Moreno, who served as grand president of the Alaska Native Sisterhood, one of the nation’s oldest indigenous civil rights organizations. She introduced NoiseCat to the ingenious method of herring egg cultivation used by the Tlingit, a system that enables them to harvest herring eggs without killing the herring, whom the Tlingit believe are “fish with free will and a strong sense of morality.” Both Moreno and “Herring Woman” Louise Brady are working to preserve Tlingit ways and to take on the commercial herring industry, which is wreaking havoc on Sitka’s ecosystem.
In Bella Coola, located in the heart of Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest, we are introduced to Noel Pootlass, head chief of the Nuxalk Nation. At a potlatch NoiseCat is invited to, Pootlass takes the floor “in a regal sea lion whisker headdress plaited with ermine pelts, and a red-trimmed button blanket embroidered with an eagle crest.” “He moved with the pride of his history,” NoiseCat writes.
In his travels, NoiseCat has found fellowship and purpose. In many of his encounters, he’s also found hope: the old ways are slowly being revived.
Next week, on Wednesday, December 3, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we’ll close out our discussion of We Survived the Night with one more live conversation with author Julian Brave NoiseCat, who has given us so many moments of enlightenment and shared connection.
As we finish up our reading of We Survived the Night this Thanksgiving weekend, how should we be thinking about it? For our Book Club members, we offer some ideas below.
The Ink Book Club is open to all paid subscribers to The Ink. If you haven’t yet become part of our community, join today. And if you’re already a member, consider giving a gift or group subscription.