When you write a novel, you have to make sure you spell all the names the same way throughout. One must keep a cheat sheet in order to remember this. One of the towns I mention throughout the Down the Prairie Rabbit Hole Romance Series is Whiteclay, Nebraska. It's easy to forget it's all one word and break it into two.
While I was verifying the actual spelling of the town's name, I came across an article in a website referred to as woundsofwhiteclay.com. The title of the article is "A Day in the Life (and Death) of Whiteclay". There is no date connected to the article so I can't tell how current the situation is, but I'm sure things haven't improved much there since it was written.
Whiteclay's claim to fame is four liquor stores. Those four liquor stores fuel the blight of alcoholism on the nearby Pine Ridge Reservation. I mentioned in The Last Solo Roller that this reservation sits on the poorest county in the entire United States. The woundsofwhiteclay.com talks extensively about the reality of life here for the Oglala Lakota people, the descendants of Crazy Horse's relations and comrades.
Read it if you dare. Read it before you go off to spend money on a Taylor Swift concert or buy a Tesla truck. Read it and weep.
I wrote the screenplay for The Last Solo Roller twenty years ago. I was as enamored then of the Lakota people as I am now. And just as saddened by the sense of hopelessness there.
I wanted to present the Oglala Lakota as a proud and richly principled people. Which they are. Go to one of their wacipis (powwows). They are beautiful and elegant and spiritual events. Many courageous Native Americans in political offices come from their ranks. So do many decorated military heroes.
A man who has been sitting in prison for too long for the FBI shootout on the Jumping Bull ranch in 1975 is Leonard Peltier. Many say his conviction and sentence were unfair. This tragic episode in the history of the Pine Ridge Reservation followed the Wounded Knee occupation of 1973. Read about a bunch of modern-day warriors trying to protect rights that have little more value than the paper they were written on. I mentioned it as well as Leonard in The Right and Left Hands of Love.
There is much that is fundamentally wrong with the state of affairs on this reservation. It's a war zone between people who want a better way of life for their children and people who rely on crime to thrive and drugs and alcohol to survive. My heart goes out to them all.
My biggest dream in life is to make money on my novels and give some of it to the schools of the Pine Ridge Reservation. I want to help pay for the computers they need to ensure their students have the same opportunities available to them that everyone else has. In The Sons & Daughters of Life's Longing, I introduce a girl by the name of Toby Birdsong who dreams of going to college and being a shining light for her younger siblings to follow. Tribal traditions and poverty threaten to stand in the way of her goal.
Until my own dream is realized, I write positive and empowering tales about a people I care deeply about. Every time a white buffalo calf is born, they celebrate. It signifies better times ahead. Don't we all deserve better times?
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