River Song

This is a story about contemporary American Indian life around the Washington State and Oregon border. The author begins his acknowledgments by telling us "...this novel places fictional characters in actual places and against some historical events." The acknowledgments continue to reveal his considerable research into the history and anthropology of the Indians who live along the Columbia River, even as to the variation in pronunciation and spelling of certain Native American words from band to band. Indeed, the book reads as if many of the incidents, conflicts and jokes in the story are embellished recollections of actual events. Although billed as fiction, River Song is more a chronicle on the folklore and contemporary lifestyle of some Northwest Indians. I'll call it Indian Gonzo Journalism.In River Song, you are going to read about the trials and tribulations of a people living in trailers or BIA housing, and who refer to The Treaty on occasion. They are stuck together by an ethnic bond, but in culture that allows them to con and cheat one another. These people know how to pronounce Tiskaatpama and Tsau-tsau; they might eat at Cimiyetti's restaurant or picnic in Happy Canyon or at Preacher's Point. Although the principal characters have common names like Danny, Jack, and Willis, you will also meet Iggy Two Medicine, Lucy Pretty Mink, and "one of the best-looking young women around Mission," who never wears a bra, called Trudy Two Sleeps, perhaps because her winnemucca has been here and there.These people survive near the bottom rung of the ladder by rodeoing, picking fruit and fishing. They save the Segram's Seven for "Code Blue Emergencies." As migrant workers, Danny and Jack work along side illegal immigrants, Mexicans, who are the brunt of all their jokes.River Song is not just about the economic struggle of a band of contemporary Native Americans. Mr. Lesley tells us something of their history, and their beliefs, about Steah-hah masks, Night Ghosts, Weyekin animal spirits, and the value of dentalia shells. Danny, the protagonist, has a vision of the Chinese Massacre of 1887 on the Snake River, an actual event. At first, Danny doesn't know the relevance of this vision, doesn't recognize the river, and is even uncertain as to whether the victims are Indians or Chinese with suntans. To sort it out, he consults Wauna the medicine woman and we learn how these people tame their ancestral spirits.Being a Yankee raised amongst buttercups and maple trees, I also learned more than I ever wanted to know about the vegetation in Northern Oregon. Up there they have bunch grass, hackberry, klamath weeds, service berries, snake-biscuit, blue bachelor buttons, bitter brush, camas bulbs, lupine, cheat grass, balsam root, rock lilies, and bluebells, to name a few. Leslie Craig did teach me something valuable, though. Now I can to tell the difference between Indians and Chinese with suntans. The Indian is the one telling the Mexican joke.

"River Song" picks up where Lesley's previous novel, "Winterkill," left off. Unfortunately, it's not as strong as its predecessor, since some of the situations the characters become involved in seem a bit contrived. Lesley seems to resort to the device of suspense to keep the story going: early in the novel, the main character, Danny Kachiah, has a disturbing vision which he spends much of the novel trying to figure out by visiting, among other things, a medicine woman on the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho. It seems that this whole aspect of the story was added just to tie in certain actual historical events and give the characters an excuse to travel about the countryside in Eastern Oregon and Idaho. Also, Danny eventually figures out where his vision took place, but Lesley never really explains how. In the hands of a lesser writer, this would have been grounds for tossing the book aside, but Lesley has such a talent for evoking place and time that it's hardly noticeable while you're reading. Thus, Lesley's engrossing style tends to gloss over these and other shortcomings, making "River Song" a very compelling tale. The other aspect of the story, the struggle of the Native Americans along the Columbia River to maintain their fishing rights and thereby preserve their traditions, is handled very well. In a very direct yet unassuming style, Lesley adeptly describes the frustations of the River People in dealing with the U.S. government, the local authorities, commerical fishing operations and sport fishermen and even windsurfers. As with "Winterkill," the characters in "River Song" are very believable, and you often find yourself thinking about them as real people - which attests to Lesley's talent as a top-notch writer.

A wonderful novel about the cultures and the rivers of the Pacific Northwest. This is one of my favorite novels. When I teach it, my students find that it changes the way they look at the world. Read it!