on the prairie diamond

Since the intrepid world traveler and blogger Dean Rader of The Weekly Rader has been posting “Southwest Semiotics” on his site, I brought back some pictures from my latest escapades “back east”: Pictured here are American Indian headstones from the graveyard at Hampton University, when it was called Hampton’s Normal School for Blacks and Indians. [I was recently giving a reading from MK at William and Mary University in Williamsburg Virgina, not far from Hampton.] John Miller, a PhD candidate in American Studies was kind enough to drive us to the area, and we read aloud the names of the American Indian students buried at the cemetery. I don’t think there is an Indian family in America that hasn’t been affected by the boarding school experience.

My uncles were at Jones Academy, a boarding school in Miko Kings where Hope Little Leader first learns he has a gift, an in-down fastball that will eventually turn back time.