on the prairie diamond

And here are other echoes of my travels over the past two weeks. Pictured here, historian and Ojibwe scholar Brenda Child [author of Boarding School Seasons] and I are caught watching historian and Ojibwe scholar Jeani O’Brien [author of Dispossession by Degrees] demonstrate a baseball pitcher’s official wind up. Yes, we are in a hotel kitchen in an “after party” at the University of Georgia’s Native American and Indigenous Studies conference. PS: I am not Ojibwe.

Here I am in Rochester, New York at a Barnes and Nobles bookstore with the very savvy Moving Beyond Racism Book Club. They had all read Miko Kings and had some of the best questions about American Indian history contained in the book. They asked about the Dawes Act, The Four Mothers Society, and the difference between Civilized Indians and not so Civilized Indians. I told them to watch for the pictures on Dean Rader’s blog!

Here I am with my pub-buds, back home in Champaign, Il. From left to right are: Jan Davis, [AIS], John Kelly, Jodi Byrd, [Chickasaw], Aileen Moreton-Robinson, [Geonpul] and me.

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.

LeAnne will be reading and signing copies of Miko Kings at the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian in Evanston, IL on Sunday, May 4th, 1-2pm. For more information and directions to the museum, click here.

LeAnne reading from Miko Kings at the University of Georgia, April 11, 2008.

LeAnne will be in Rochester, NY on Sunday, April 6, 2pm to screen Indian Country Diaries: Spiral of Fire at the 2008 Rochester Native American Film Festival.  She will also be reading from Miko Kings on Monday April 7, 7pm at Barnes & Noble Pittsford, 3349 Monroe Ave.

LeAnne will be reading from Miko Kings and lecturing about the invention of baseball at the University of Chicago on April 3, from 6 to 7pm, International House, National Room 1414 E. 59th Street, Chicago. A reception will begin at 5:30pm.

If it’s Saturday, it must be Saint Paul! LeAnne will be reading from Miko Kings at Common Good Books at 7pm on Saturday, March 29th. For more information, click here.

And here too, is another echo from MSU. Asani, a First Nations recording group of three most talented and lovely native women leads participants at Returning the Gift in a group sing. If you’re looking for some incredible vocals, hot rhythms, and sounds, Asani’s for you! Check it out at: www.asani.org.

LeAnne will be reading from Miko Kings at Prairie Lights this Wednesday, March 26th, from 7-8pm. Contrary to popular belief, the land is not flat, the apples are plentiful, and the bookstores some of the best around. For more information, click here. Please join us if you’re in the area!

Between workshop sessions at Returning the Gift, Brenda Child (Ojibwe author of Boarding School Seasons) and Daniel Justice (Cherokee, author of Our Fire Survives the Storm) are caught on-camera talking about who they’re rooting for in this year’s tight race. I bet you thought I was going to say, Obama or Clinton. Nope, I meant Joba Chamberlain or Jacoby Ellsbury.

Related: Deadspin’s Baseball Season Previews of the Yankees and the Red Sox.