Description
Book SynopsisThough mystery, crime, and detective fiction are some of the most popular genres in the world, little scholarship currently exists regarding Native American writers and how they add new dimensions to this widely read literary form. Rather, the majority of scholarship examines the depiction of Native characters from the perspective of non-Native authors. Native American Mystery Writing: Indigenous Investigations analyzes how Native authors use the genre to foreground centuries of settler-colonial crimes and comment upon the ways in which these acts continue to impact Native individuals and communities today. Considering fourteen novels and two made-for-TV films, this book surveys a spectrum of settler-colonial crimes: the Osage oil murders, sexual assault against Native women, missing and murdered Indigenous women, the California mission system, suppression of spiritual beliefs, theftof land, children, and cultural itemsand, of course, murder. Examination of these texts shows how Native
Trade ReviewMary Stoecklein’s Native American Mystery Writing is a welcome study of a fast-growing and fascinating genre within the genres of Native American story-telling and crime fiction. Although non-Native writers have written mysteries with Native characters in major roles, never before have Native writers themselves produced as many ingenious plots and engrossing stories of fictional crime detection. Stoecklein’s analysis of the selected novels—their cultural relevance as well as their imagery and approaches to solving mysteries—is not only well-researched and reasoned but is also highly readable. It is truly an outstanding first book.
-- Tom Holm, University of Arizona
Table of ContentsForeword
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Native Americans and Mystery Writing
Chapter 1: Oil, Wealth, Greed, and Murder: Mean Spirit, The Osage Rose, and the Osage Oil Murders
Chapter 2: Violence Against Native American Women: Examining Justice in Elsie’s Business and The Round House
Chapter 3: Crimes of the Past are Crimes of the Present: The Ohlone, the California Mission System, and the Santa Cruz Killers in Louis Owens’s Bone Game
Chapter 4: Adaptations of Justice: Chris Eyre’s Reimagining of Tony Hillerman
Chapter 5: Restoring the Balance: Native American Female Authors, Detectives, and Series…So Far
Conclusion: Writing for Justice: Native American Mystery Fiction and Strengthened Tribal Sovereignty
Appendix A: Further Reading
References
