Moving stories of struggle, survival, love, and hope from a 1930s northern Michigan Native American community

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Contents

Introduction     1

Chapter 1. Boxcar Blues     3
Chapter 2. Indian Barber Shop     10
Chapter 3. Changing Times     22
Chapter 4. A Drowned Man     27
Chapter 5. Undying Love and Summertime Blues     35
Chapter 6. Back to the Blanket     43
Chapter 7. The Iron Monster     50
Chapter 8. Run to Freedom     55
Chapter 9. Black and Brown     62
Chapter 10. Three Potatoes Equals One Movie     70
Chapter 11. The Bobsled     76
Chapter 12. Merry Can Christmas     80
Chapter 13. Good Luck from Hard Coal     83
Chapter 14. Necessity, the Mother of Invention     95
Chapter 15. Good Talent, Good Times, and Good Friends     101
Chapter 16. Burnout at Indian Point     107
Chapter 17. Roller Skates and Bright Lights     114
Chapter 18. Summer's End     122
Chapter 19. Dark and Lonely Days     131
Chapter 20. Homecoming     141
Chapter 21. WPA to the Rescue     146
Chapter 22. From Boy Scouts to Jail     150
Chapter 23. The Pranksters     156
Chapter 24. The Freight Train Killed Oakley     164
Chapter 25. The Day I Stopped Killing Animals     173
Chapter 26. War!     175

Illustrations     following page 86

Description

Michael Blake's Dances with Wolves transformed denigrating Indian sterotypes and created widespread interest in Native American culture. The subsequent popularity of books on this topic underscores the power of a tale well told. While Blake's story relates the early chapters of Native Americans' survival struggles, later accounts of this struggle remain untold.
The Indians of Hungry Hollow authentically presents these later chapters. The days of Hungry Hollow have long passed, but the opportunity to capture its lessons of community, strong values, and an urge to thrive in matters of the heart and soul are still very much with us.
These are stories of survival, community, sharing, and caring. The situations are often dire: winter in the middle of the Depression; an Indian settlement illegally taken from its inhabitants and set on fire; boaters stranded by bad weather and threatened with death. But if the situations are extreme, the telling of the stories is consistently optimistic yet completely without self-pity or sentimentality, and the characters always find a way through the darkness.
Dunlop's unique style of storytelling is compelling and informative, and these historically significant stories help to elucidate the transition of the American Indian culture from post-tribal days to the present.
Bill Dunlop is a respected Ottawa elder and storyteller. Marcia Fountain-Blacklidge is a professional writer, counselor, and consultant.

Bill Dunlop is a respected Ottawa elder and storyteller.

Marcia Fountain-Blacklidge is a professional writer, counselor, and consultant.