an overview of Rivers in Her Eyes

2006-02-28T18:06:00.000-08:00

(please click on the italics/colored phrases to travel)

Considered by many as the most tragic acts of genocide since the Indian wars of the 1800's, attempted forced relocation of Dine (Navajo) from their homeland in Arizona is the theme of Rivers in Her Eyes, by antoinette nora claypoole.

For over 20 years some Dine (Navajo) have resisted that forced relocation program that would take them from their altar.

Beginning in 1984 the author, antoinette claypoole, helped provide support to those impacted by this U.S. government policy. Rivers In Her Eyes is a fiction book which tells a story of life in such a crisis, based on events which happened to and around the author.

In this historical fiction, antoinette creates a complex and rivetting canvas of story. While using occasional Dine phrases weaving language creatively, the book relies on contemporary history of resistance to relocation AND images and myths from European tribal cultures. With this effect she instills a sense of timelessness in the reader, a universal dream of how to survive these times. As human beings needing one another.

The book includes an extensive appendix and endnotes documenting these facts, actual letters written by Dine resistors, including Roberta Blackgoat and Pauline Whitesinger, as well as a public statement made by Chief Arvol Looking Horse. All the work helps the reader understand what we all face in these times.

As part of his endorsement of the project, Ed Little Crow, Lakota/Dakota poet and former member of the American Indian Movement says of the project and antoinette's efforts :

"Antoinette came from back East before the Freedom of Religion Act, before the changes for Indian Children in the Child Welfare System. Back in the 1970's. when she came to Oregon they were still arrresting Indians in small towns. She started working on Indian rights when it was not popular to be Indian. It takes a very special person to do this kind of thing".

TO ORDER A REVIEW COPY
of revised, second edition (2011)

contact:
watersongs@gmail.com

or write

po box 3026
ashland, or. 97520

Rivers in Her Eyes
(2006. Watersong Books, Ashland, Or.)

REVISED Second Edition, 2011. Release date Oct. 2011

180 pages
paperback
$24 usa/canada

ISBN 1-59975-648-X

(partial proceeds of sales go to families at Big Mountain, Az)

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an overview of Rivers in Her Eyes