In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

127 8. Indian-Looking Indians 8 1996 Question: How many Shinnobs does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: One, but the time must be right for it to happen. Fond du Lac Follies has been motoring nowhere. That’s right. After months of having to be somewhere, now I just sit at home and work. How radical. A writer who writes? Like a lot of people, I have to commute to work. Nowadays, my commute is measured in feet. The computer is just a few steps across the bedroom. I really appreciate that when I think of how I used to commute. A job down near Chicago required a forty-five minute drive one way. To add to the fun, it was rush-hour traffic. Thousands of people I didn’t know were trying to crash me up on the way to work, then on the way home. Another long commute was one where I drove 106 miles one way. No rushhour traffic? I just had to weave in and out of the deer herd that lived alongside the road. I was glad when that job ended. It was putting a strain on my rez car with all those miles. One drawback to working at home is I can’t call in sick. First of all, there is no one to call. Second of all, I wouldn’t believe any of my excuses anyway. One more drawback is I don’t look like I am working when I’m staring out the window trying to put my thoughts in order. My wife will say something like, “Well, as long as you’re not typing anything, dump the dog, walk the garbage, change the oil, get oatmeal from the store, babysit, shovel the grass, cut the snow, or something.” I have to convince her that I must think before I write. There is another drawback. I can think of the dumbest reasons to leave the keyboard. Wait, is that a dog? I thought I heard a dog 128 Anishinaabe Syndicated somewhere . . . is one of them. I know the mailman gets here sooner if I stand outside and watch for him. Any reason to leave the typomachine is a good one. I really like it when relatives stop by to visit. Getting caught up on the latest gossip is always a good reason to leave the writing. There is no way around it. Writing is hard work. I used to think working construction was hard. There, all I had to do was move heavy stuff from here to there. Writing is much more complex than that. I have to move heavy thoughts from here to there. But in spite of the drawbacks, I would rather be doing this than anything else. We Shinnobs need to make our voices heard because the mainstream press seems stuck on subjects like the O. J. Simpson murder trial, the Tonya Harding Olympic assault (where is she now?), and the conflict in Bosnia. The more I watch TV and read newspapers, the more I realize that we need our own media, something that lets the world know that we are still here. I get tired of watching and reading about other people all the time. I have found a way to cut my bingo costs in half. Easy beans, my wife went to work at the bingo hall and she can’t play bingo there anymore. I’m glad the weather has been cold. It gives the weather people on TV something to talk about. But I keep hearing the same thing over and over. “Last night was the coldest one we ever had.” Here we go again with the cultural arrogance. Does that white man think they invented weather or something? Do you suppose it ever got colder here on Turtle Island before the white man came? The records are just over a hundred years old. What about the glaciers? I think it might have been colder here when the ice in what is now called Minnesota was a mile high. I don’t think it was balmy or even cool. It was cold. I know because I have heard parts of the old stories that told of the people moving out of this area because of the glaciers. It could be that I am looking at it all wrong. The weather people on TV are not serious. They’re a comedy show in disguise. The an- [18.118.0.240] Project MUSE (2024...

Share