Touched by Thunder was written in Ireland by
Choctaw artist Waylon Gary White Deer. Invited to
represent the 1847 Choctaw Famine donation as an Afri
walk leader, he soon found histories and legacies
similar to those of tribal nations in America, resulting
in a bond with Ireland spanning almost two decades.
Touched by Thunder is an extraordinary journey of
remembering that resonates through issues like national
identity, religious bigotry, and clashes over precious
natural resources: concerns which impact both the Irish
and First Nations peoples. White Deer has his take on
them all. Touched by Thunder is not a usual memoir, nor
is White deer a usual person... His is the first
indigenous memoir that truly captures the drama, the
laughter, the wit, dangers, gifts and complexities of
being a native person of our generation... Joy Harjo,
Mvskokee Nation, author of Crazy Brave. Touched by
Thunder transcends memoir and becomes a time train
rolling through both Indian America and Ireland. There
are stops along the way; childhood, tribal communities
and ceremonies, Indian boarding schools, Irish
presidents, celebrities, children, divorces, Irish
America, tribal regimes, Indian art, Dublin, Mayo,
Clare, Nationalist Derry. We hear old songs and stories,
and the voices of tribal elders and priests, Irish and
Muslim immigrants and even the prophet Bubba, and there
are bold and luminous paintings set against the faint
greys of the 1847 Choctaw donation to Famine Ireland.
Each chapter is another train coach we enter visiting,
laughing, observing, reflecting, at times pursued by
grave robbers, rioters, pagans, zoogers, the RUC, tribal
bureaucrats, American colonizers, family ghosts. All too
soon the journey ends and we are left with an abiding
sense that we have traveled far... and well.
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