| Title | : | Mean Spirit |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0804108633 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780804108638 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 384 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1990 |
| Awards | : | Pulitzer Prize Fiction (1991) |
Mean Spirit Reviews
-
Cherokee Hands
we drove into town
on a warm autumn day
in two thousand six,
and I could feel it even then,
it was here in the air.
we were in the land of
the Cherokee,
in the heart of our nation-
of stomp dances
shell shakers, and kenuche.
and it is here that we set up
our new home
in an old farm house,
on land that once belonged to
to a young Cherokee woman
and her new white husband.
she was given a land
of rolling hills,
tall grasses and trees
here in Oklahoma
where even rocks grow,
it was all of 160 acres.
some white men married Indians,
and I can't help but wonder when
she died three years later
if it wasn't by her husband's hand,
because this was one of the ways
back then that the white man
had taken our land.
this land has passed through
many hands over the years
from the Osage,
to the Cherokee,
to the white man,
and was cut again
to a mere 1/2 acre
when it finally passed into
my own Cherokee hands.
I visit the town's cemetery
where many chiefs of the cherokee
lie under a grove of old shade trees,
and I think when I am gone
i hope someone will scatter my ashes
in that hallowed ground
where we all remember
when this land was once
only in Cherokee hands.
Note: And this is what most of the book is about. Killing wives in order to get the land. -
Mean Spirit was the debut historical fiction novel by poet and essayist Linda Hogan. Because of her literary background the prose as combined with Native American beliefs and magical realism was hauntingly beautiful throughout the book. The main storyline is focused on Belle, the beekeeping matriarch of the Graycloud family and her ranching husband, Moses, their children and grandchildren, as well as the Blanket family where oil has been discovered on their land in Watona, Oklahoma. Another key figure is the master storyteller, a writer and a diviner, Michael Horse, who also keeps the fire of his people burning for posterity. There are many diverse characters, including the quieter ways of the Hill Indians, appearing throughout the novel to advance the plot as well as many narrators with different points of view.
"Moses could hear the Indian preacher speak, 'And when the spirit touches us, there won't be any more danger here on earth,' said the evangelist. 'No mean spirits walking in this land, no smallness in people, no heartaches, no sorrow, nor any pain.'"
Having previously read the non-fiction account Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, it detailed the plight of the Osage people as they were driven from their homeland in Kansas in the late 1800s to the new territory of Oklahoma by the early twentieth century, west of the Mississippi River in Indian Territory. But this riveting book, Mean Spirit, embraced the heart and soul of what happened to the Osage people in Oklahoma when it was discovered that their allotments of land were rich in oil and they began dying oftentimes under suspicious circumstances in the 1920s. Stace Red Hawk was a Lakota Sioux Indian based in Washington, D.C. and working for the FBI, when he became aware of the suspicious deaths of the Native-Americans with oil-rich property subsequently coming to Oklahoma to investigate further.
The book cover describes this lovely book in this way:
"Yet for all its darker tones, MEAN SPIRIT is no simple melodrama. Suffused with a rich vision of the natural world and the possibilities for mankind within it, rendered with the grace, compassion, and wisdom of a truly assured writer, this is a book that captivates even as it instructs, a book of lasting importance."
On a personal note, I have to say that I loved this book. I first saw Linda Hogan, a Chickasaw poet, novelist and essayist, at The Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver in 1990 when she so graciously autographed my book. While I was enthralled with her message and returned to that same bookstore to listen to her speak, I have no explanation as to why I am now just getting into her beautiful work but I have a few more of her lovely books to work my way through, of course all thoughtfully inscribed and autographed. -
He thought that even a prophet, even a warrior, could not survive the ways of the Americans, especially the government with rules and words that kept human life at a distance and made it live by their regulations and books.
Today, I had my first lecture for a class on medieval women, specifically with regards to their subversion of and by texts written about and by them and all the ramifications of the ecclesiastical in the phrase "body of evidence". It's the sort of theological narratology I can sink my teeth into not only because of a heritage of Catholicism and a newfound pleasure in the medieval thanks to the Canterbury Tales, but because of the in-your-face paradigm of, yes. This is power, what with the dissenters and the burnings and who knows when a female Pope is going to rear her head in the brave new world of the 21st century. Or will it prove the second millenium. What I'm getting at is Elisabeth of Schoenau's fraught relationship with the written word, never committing talk of Judgment Day to paper and always ready with an alibi when it came to her prophetic mortifications. Exist at a certain position on the hierarchy, and you are what you're written.Father Dunne argued with Horse, "You can't add a new chapter to the Bible."
The only people I'll trust to laugh in the face of genocide are those who've actually faced it. This work takes in handfuls of the bitter dregs that Almanac of the Dead swims in, so when push comes to a shove that's coupled to a measure of better prose, this academically trained and bitter reader is going to go for Silko. For those of you who like your mysteries and your broad character spreads and do not feed on rage like I do, this is a story that will only give you a "happy" ending if you've reevaluated your sense of "happy" by the end of it. You'll have to go to someone else if you want a knowledgeable take on how this work fits into the spectrum of Native American/First Nations/indigenous fiction with regards to whether it's trope-filled appeasement or true quality, but if you do, bear in mind the commentary has little worth if the commenter has no investment of life in the matter. People are well trained to care only about their own representational selves, and it takes more than the much abused biological function of empathy to break that habit.
Horse furrowed his brow and looked at the priest, "Hmmm, do you think I need more thou shalts?"Go without any of the peace you have found here. It is the only way toward change. Go with a confused and angry mind.
This work's especially good at grounding history in a mainframe that refuses to avoid interactions with events such as the Boxer's Rebellion due to the usual reasoning of one minority group at a time in a sea of white. Same goes for the whole money goes this way, culture goes that way, you can't possibly be your own person when you've got a whole thousands of years mystique behind you and yadda yadda yadda. You may not be especially tantalized by the mystery, but you'll learn a whole lot."Jesus, Belle, this is serious," the sheriff said. "Violence never solved anything."
"You're wrong about that. Around here violence solves everything." -
Linda Hogan’s novel about the Osage tribe during the Oklahoma oil boom blends historical facts, Native spirituality and magical realism in a drama about cultural survival, greed, murder, and love—love within families, between men and women, and love for the earth and all that lives on it.The story focuses on multiple protagonists: the members of Greycloud and Blanket families, the seer Michael Horse, and Stace Red Hawk, a Lakota man who comes to Oklahoma as a federal investigator looking into the murders of Indian people for their oil-rich land.
Hogan uses an omniscient narrator to change points of view seamlessly among the major players in the story. The style is suited telling the story of a People, as well as the stories of individual people. Her language is precise and vivid with character-driven flashes of humor. The complex plot is tightly crafted, a compelling story that never slows down. I was impressed with how perfectly she wove every seemingly small and incidental thread back into the narrative, and how elegantly she timed each shift in point of view.
The tragedy in this story has a Shakespearean breadth and depth. Though it has a thread of hope, it is hope surrounded by destruction. Hogan reminds us that we don’t stand outside of nature, and if we try, we will suffer the consequences. At the point where the book almost starts to preach, in the voice of Michael Horse, the humor of his friends taking him down a notch softens the message without erasing it. This is a serious work but you’ll never feel like you’re taking your literary medicine. Hogan captures the heart of Native culture, including the importance of good story-telling. -
I can't understand all the adoration this ponderous novel has garnered. I suppose because the subject matter is about an oppressed minority, readers are able to participate in the political progress implied by the subject matter (they participate through their "liking"). Artistically the book is nightmare of too numerous characters all with similar motives and personalities, a shifting genre that never settles on a clear purpose (runs from melodrama, to magical realism, to naturalism), a voice that wavers between a children's book (short choppy sentences that repeat ideas in redundant sequences) to lyrical privilege to character's thoughts. The plot is uneven and difficult to follow (characters appear, say, on page 7 and then reappear on page 176 without re-introduction or clue to their salience). Symbols sre simplistic and suffer from obviousness. Is this story politically relevant? Yes. Does it need to be told? Yes, repeatedly. But the execution of the novel reminds one of overwritten prose from a creative writing class.
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I thought I would enjoy this more the second time. But NOT
-
"Uncle Sam was a cold uncle with a mean soul and a mean spirit"
Confession: This book has been on my shelf, unread, since shortly after it was published. I met Hogan briefly and she autographed this book.
I learned, after reading KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, that Hogan fictionalized the story that Grann wrote about -- nearly 20 years before, and without Grann's exhaustive research.
I'm so glad I read the nonfiction first. I could trace the 'truth' through this novel...while at the same time, being affected emotionally in a totally different -- and deeper -- way.
Natives living in eastern OK during the 20's thought they had struck it rich with the oil discovered on their land...oil they still owned the rights to...they became immensely wealthy overnight, and became targets for every greedy white in the state.
This book begins with the murder of Grace Blanket, the richest woman in OK...We see the story through the eyes of the Natives who are trying to live in peace (and prosperity). But the forces against them are too strong.
Just like in Grann's book, the Federal Bureau Investigators become involved...and a Native detective appears in Hogan's fictional Pawhuska. Stace Red Cloud, a Lakota, is trying to find his way in this early 20th century world, and he moves farther from the white world through his work here.
At the heart of the book is Moses and Belle Graycloud, who are trying to hold their family and community together, to be good neighbors. But as the greedy whites continue to circle, and kill off their friends, it becomes clearer and clearer that there will be a breaking point.
I was fascinated by the plot points Hogan wove into her book that must have been known facts...Hale as the murderer, the white ally who was murdered on a train, the investigation by the fledgling FBI...it's all part of her narrative...and it makes such a powerful story.
As I read, I marked all the points that Hogan used what was known about this time...there are so many 'facts' in this book, facts made more horrible because she was able to fictionalize and add the pathos and interior monologues to her characters.
I am grateful for this book, and for the ugly truth it tells...where Whites profess that THEY are the 'real' Americans, and somehow deserve all the land and the riches and the rights. I am sorry it took me so long to read it. -
This is a remarkable portrayal of a people in the most desperate of situations, and in their response to those circumstances, reveal who they truly are - admirable, courageous, and accepting - countering the meanness about them.
The story is set in Osage Indian territory in Oklahoma in the 1920s and begins with the murder of Grace Blanket, "the richest Indian in the world," though there are allusions to earlier violence, mysterious deaths and cover ups. Certain greedy individuals plot to kill off natives holding title to oil-producing land around Watona such that the land of these peaceful natives seems as if possessed of evil spirits.
A wonderful mix of characters - natives, oil moguls, FBI, and local law enforcement interact in a raucous era of riches pitted against old ways. Hogan depicts the history artfully, intending to show this is not just a race war, but a war against the Earth itself.
Linda Hogan, a master writer with something to say, also paints a true to life picture of the times and their troubles. -
Another book I had to read for my Native American literature course. I enjoyed it. So I'm not sure why I didn't bump it up to 4 stars. The story was good. But there was something lacking for me. Maybe it was partly because some of the stories for some of the characters felt unfinished. Although I believe, that was part of the author's intent. Or that some story lines felt haphazard or disjointed. Like they weren't cohesive. But there was something that just didn't quite make me REALLY enjoy it. I wish I could have.
-
*The beginning of the novel intrigued me and I was interested in learning the history behind its plot, but overall, the book dragged. Here is what I liked:
*The imagery of the first page is wonderful--those sleeping in their beds under the open summer skies.
"Belle and Horse walked against the violent wind, leaning into it. Horse's black pants whipped up against his legs. Belle's hair flew away from her face like seaweed pulled in a furious rip tide" (18).
"John Tate was a small, fussy man with only one eye and every time Moses looked into it, he could see nothing warm, nothing human" (20).
"The chickens had gone to roost for the night, and they were softly clucking, and out in the distance, the white-faced cattle were still grazing, looking disembodied" (26).
"Moses could hear the Indian preacher speak, 'And when the spirit touches us, there won't be any danger her on earth,' said the evangelist. 'No mean spirits walking this land, no smallness in people, no heartaches, no sorrow, nor any pain'" (70).
"A white sign, visible even in the dark, read 'Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company,' and then past that, the land stretched out beneath the dark hand of night…" (70).
"…the law would certainly think Benoit was a sharp corner in a lover's triangle…" (77).
"'They believe in single file,' Ben said, as if that would tell her everything she needed to know about the place, and it almost did" (87).
"A white man and a black woman were married in the light of a lamp post with two dogs for witnesses. The justice of the peace inked the dogs' paws and stamped their prints on the marriage license while the newlyweds kissed" (88).
"'The law is on their side because it's their law'" (111).
"Other drivers were outside putting the cloth tops up on their convertibles, looking west, reading the rolling clouds that spelled thunder" (139).
"He wanted the white people gone, wanted to turn time around as if it were the steering wheel of his roadster" (144).
"They oohed and ached over 'the way of the milk'" (147).
"They wore their blankets wrapped about their shoulders and when Joe Billy walked up the hill to where the sing was to take place, he thought they looked like a dark range of mountains" (151).
"For the children, it was all refreshing and glorious pandemonium. And even the sky complied as the clouds twisted above them" (156).
"…ghosts of fog rose up from water" (170).
"Love, Lettie thought, it hurts and gladdens us no matter what a woman's age" (177).
"…Horse told her, 'I am writing a new chapter of the Bible'" (269).
"'For instance, where does it say that all living things are equal?'
"The priest shook his head. 'It doesn't say that. It says man has dominion over the creatures of the earth.'
"'Well, that's where it needs to be fixed. That's part of the trouble, don't you see?'" (270).
"'It's beautiful, but Hell has four such rivers,' Belle said to him" (271).
"Many of the fields had been burned black, and those that were not burned had been overgrazed by hungry cattle the world-eaters raised. It was a desolate sight" (271).
"He vowed he would eat or drink nothing that was offered in this broken world, hell's tinderbox" (272).
"Cal was wearing the clothing he'd stolen from the scarecrow in Belle's cornfield" (272).
"She held her emotions in check and tried to empty herself of anger, for it was dangerous to have strong human feelings feed a situation such as this" (274).
"…the beautiful creatures who were hated by those who lived in what they called the light" (275).
"A picture of the world was forming in his mind. One eye opened, one eye closed, that was the world, only half of a scale of justice" (329).
"'I was at death's door, the top step, and with a hand held out to knock'" (361). -
(taken from a paper I had to write for the book)
Mean Spirit by Linda Hogan tells the tale of the Osage Indians, and how they were murdered for oil and property, and oppressed by the government. It is a tale of magical realism that, while firmly trenched in the reality of the situation that faced the Osage, also contained dealings with ghost and the magic of nature. Nature was burdened just as much as the Osage, and it wasn’t going to give up without a fight. Nature became a main character in Mean Spirit all on its own.
John Stink’s ghost is a prime example of nature trying to reach out to the Osage. Stink fell dead in the street in the novel, and was buried by the society. However, his spirit refused to go to rest, and his “ghost” wandered the land, with the Osage shunning him because a ghost is bad luck. Whether or not this was an actual ghost is hard to tell. Through most of the story, you believe it is a ghost, however, we find John Stink actually touching Belle towards the latter third of the novel, and Belle believes she is dead. When she finds out she is really alive, John Stink questions his own death. To me, the ghost represented nature’s way of telling the Osage that something wasn’t right if they didn’t already know. There was something wrong going on, and nature couldn’t intervene directly. It could only give guidance and clues to the Osage. Stink finally realizing that he could be alive symbolizes nature saying that a part of the problem was over and done with, which would be the death of Jess Gold. Jess was behind part of the murders, and with his death, nature had some retribution.
Also, there was the killing of the 317 eagles. Nature seemed to have let this happen. Eagles are pretty smart, and for a group of hunters to be able to kill 317 of them seem odd. It would appear that this is another clue to Belle, and to the readers, that something isn’t right. While she already was upset, Belle grew even more so after this. She went from mourner for Grace, to an advocate for justice. Though the white people, and truly some of the Osage, probably thought she was crazy at this point, Belle knew that nature was off-kilter. She needed to do something to protect it.
At one point, nature seems to fight back itself. The white men are drilling for oil with China nearby watching, and the ground began to shake, and the ground explodes. Hogan writes, “Despite the roaring fire, China thought she could make out Hales’ words. ‘It’s burning out all the oil in the goddamned earth,’ he screamed. ‘Plug it! We’ve got to plug it!’” (186). Hogan goes on to write, “It was like watching hell rise up. She knew then, she knew that the earth had a mind of its own. She knew the wills and whims of men were empty desires, were nothing pitted up against the desires of earth” (186). China bears witness to nature fighting against the oil men. Nature couldn’t protect her children from murder, but it could protect itself from being murdered through oil pumping.
Nature is a main character in Mean Spirit through its many clues as to something being wrong, as well as its own actions against the parties responsible for damaging it and the spirit of the Osage. It blends with the magic of the Osage spirit to help weave a tale of murder, greed, justice, and finally freedom. -
Mean Spirit by Linda Hogan evokes an astonishingly real sense of loss as the inhabitants of Watona, OK and its surrounding area come to grips with the evaporation of their traditional ways and the incoming, overpowering culture of greed brought by the burgeoning oil industry in the 1920's. While the story is a mystery, it is not solved by a single detective or amateur sleuth. Each main character, separately and in his or her own way, seeks the truth of why so many Indians in the community have been murdered.
Though very sad and told in third-person omniscent point of view and with sometimes passive writing, Hogan's story is a loving, beautifully lyrical portrayal of Native American life as it shifts between the old ways and the new. But with the rise of new ways, comfort is lost and survival is found in returning to the old ways. The eternal connection between human and the earth is palpable, a feeling we should all understand speaks far more truth than any highly organized religion, government or other entity pretends to give. -
Out of all the books we've read for my Native American Folklore class, this was definitely the best.
Hogan achieves a truly wrenching depiction of what it was like to be a Native American in the 1920s. Through the lens of both the law and the oil rush Hogan's characters are beaten down to the point of hopelessness; a story we never hear in our history classes.
Hogan has too many characters in her novel. I had to draw my own family tree just to keep them all straight. I understand that this was just for a full spectrum picture but it is distracting when you have to keep referring to a piece of paper to keep the story straight.
That being said, if you ever wanted to know the seedy underbelly of what happened to native culture, pick up this book for a minute. It looks like a crappy airport novel at first, but this book is the absolute embodiment of "don't judge a book by its cover." -
Depressing and accurate historical fiction of horrific human behavior and greed that pocs the history of the United States. I would say this is a must read for anyone interested in contextualizing the atmosphere of fear and confusion that was generated in the Osage community during the 1920's oil boom. Also, perhaps a good read, if you want to understand the history and way American Oil Companies profited from the murders of the Osage people. A good companion book of Non-fiction is "The Deaths of Cybil Bolton: An American History" By Dennis McAuliffe.
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A chilling incredibly sad beautiful wonderful timely story of a people ruined by greed which drove drives America still. The beauty and purity with which these people loved the earth and how their lives were intruded upon and shattered is heartbreaking. The story beckons one in and won't let you go.
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Linda Hogan’s 1990 novel Mean Spirit is a fictionalized version of real life events that took place in Oklahoma during the early 1920s after oil was discovered under land owned by members of the Osage Indian tribe. Almost as soon as the oil was discovered, white men schemed to take the newfound wealth for themselves by forcing the Osage families from their homes or by marrying Osage women who held the mineral rights in their own names. Multiple members of the tribe were murdered, and whole families were forced to flee the region in fear of their lives. Even today (this quote is from 1990), according to Hogan, “Non-Indian shareholders still receive Osage Indian annuity checks, shares in the Mineral Trust, and unwarranted benefits as shareholders.” Mean Spirit tells the story of the people from whom the “non-Indians” stole all that money.
The beautiful Grace Blanket never expected to become the richest woman in the entire Oklahoma Territory, but after oil is discovered beneath the otherwise worthless reservation land given to her family by the US government decades earlier, that is exactly what she is. The Blankets have so much money they are running out of things to spend it on — and some of the other Osage families who live near the Blanket family are having the same problem. But that is not the only problem the Osage families have because, unbeknownst to them, the struggling white families living in the nearest town, the various oil men who come to the territory, and the very government agents responsible for protecting the rights of the Osage tribe all want that money for themselves — and some of them will do anything it takes to get their hands on it.
When members of the tribe start committing “suicide,” dying from “heart attacks,” and otherwise dropping dead all over the reservation, other Indians like the Blankets and the Grayclouds are at first a little slow in realizing just how much danger they are all in. It is only after their pleas for help are ignored by Washington D.C. officials, and the bodycount continues to rise, that they realize they are under a relentless siege by outsiders that will not end until all of the oil money has been stolen from them. The more traditional among them literally pack up and move to the hills where they feel safer; the less traditional families load up all of their belongings and leave the area completely, abandoning their property in the process.
Linda Hogan tells the story from the points of view of multiple characters who struggle to deal with the reality of what is happening to their family, friends, and neighbors as they are picked off one by one by the scavengers around them. The Indians have no place to turn to for help because even the one agent from Washington who has their best interests at heart, himself an American Indian, is treated by his fellow agents as if he is losing his mind. By the time the Osage get some semblance of justice and protection, it will be way too late. There is no just compensation for murder and theft of this scale when no one really seems to care.
Bottom Line: Mean Spirit is based on a shameful segment of American history that even today too few people know about. It covers the same events that, twenty-seven years later, became the basis of David Grann’s well-received nonfiction book on the same subject, Killers of the Flower Moon. Before writing the novel, Linda Hogan (who is herself a member of the Chickasaw tribe) spoke to people who are still separated from the land that is rightfully theirs because their ancestors fled the area in the middle of the night. The story that Mean Spirit tells is a moving one, but Hogan’s fiction style is somewhat labored and, as a result, the book’s 375 pages do make for slow reading. This one requires patience, but it is well worth the effort. -
In the early 1920s, dozens of members of the Osage tribe—instantly wealthy after the discovery of oil on their reservation—were systematically killed in one of the most shocking murder conspiracies in American history.
The Osage became the richest people per capita in the world.
“They lived in mansions and had chauffeured cars. They had servants, many of whom were white. These images belie long-standing stereotypes of Native Americans that trace back to the first contact with whites."
“Prejudice provoked a scapegoating of the Osage for their wealth, and the U.S. Congress literally holds hearings about what the country could do in response. Lawmakers appointed local white guardians to approve every expenditure by the full-blooded Osage, down to the toothpaste they purchased at the corner store. It’s a system rooted in racism, done under the pretense of enlightenment that the Osage needed protection.”
Some white settlers even married their 'marks' to legally become the next of kin before murdering their spouses.
As the body count rose in the early 1920s, the Osage saw no action from local and state law enforcement personnel. There was a tremendous amount of corruption in Osage County. The power structure was able to buy off lawmen. In some cases lawmen were directly complicit or turned a blind eye.
And this is when, newly appointed director J. Edgar Hoover sent investigators to Oklahoma.
From: "History" The FBI’s First Big Case: The Osage Murders
BY CHRISTOPHER KLEIN // APRIL 24, 2017
I like Amber Foxx's review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Linda Hogan’s novel about the Osage tribe during the Oklahoma oil boom blends historical facts, Native spirituality and magical realism in a drama about cultural survival, greed, murder, and love—love within families, between men and women, and love for the earth and all that lives on it.The story focuses on multiple protagonists: the members of Greycloud and Blanket families, the seer Michael Horse, and Stace Red Hawk, a Lakota man who comes to Oklahoma as a federal investigator looking into the murders of Indian people for their oil-rich land.
Hogan uses an omniscient narrator to change points of view seamlessly among the major players in the story. The style is suited telling the story of a People, as well as the stories of individual people. Her language is precise and vivid with character-driven flashes of humor. The complex plot is tightly crafted, a compelling story that never slows down. I was impressed with how perfectly she wove every seemingly small and incidental thread back into the narrative, and how elegantly she timed each shift in point of view.
The tragedy in this story has a Shakespearean breadth and depth. Though it has a thread of hope, it is hope surrounded by destruction. Hogan reminds us that we don’t stand outside of nature, and if we try, we will suffer the consequences. At the point where the book almost starts to preach, in the voice of Michael Horse, the humor of his friends taking him down a notch softens the message without erasing it. This is a serious work but you’ll never feel like you’re taking your literary medicine. Hogan captures the heart of Native culture, including the importance of good story-telling. -
Something about this one didn’t really stick with me. The sentences were too stiff. If your sentences are stiff, the whole book becomes stiff too! I don’t know.
Mean Spirit is interesting in using the Osage murders to reflect how, historically, settlers have apocalyptically destroyed the earth. It also writes the survivance (thanks Vizenor) of Indigenous people across history, their active presence in America — despite their outright murder and erasure. I think Hogan, as I would argue, uses Vizenor’s idea of the post-Indian to reflect the historical changes of Indigenous culture and tribes through their interactions, encounters, and relationships with settlers — in the same way that settlers have been changed through those processes too. Hogan’s novel, to me, uses the Osage murders to reflect both of these elements, post-Indian survivance and capitalism/settler-colonialism’s drive to extract all of the earth’s resources to the point of destruction. I am just unsure of how well Hogan does it all. Again, the sentences were stiff. My professor talked about how it sort of mimics a 1920/30s modernist style of economical Hemingway-esque prose. It cld be a fault of my own — I am not really a fan of that style at all. Thus, Mean Spirit did not do a lot for me. However, I would recommend it, it’s worth your reading time and is a good novel.
Also, I’m admittedly hesitant about it, given that some reviews have pointed out that Hogan, a Chickasaw writer, misuses (abuses?) Osage history because she stretches some of the genuine historical events to fit her own fictional narrative. Of course, this upset many Osage tribal members. So, I think, it brings up the question of ethical responsibility toward your writing material, especially if it isn’t your tribe and a part of a genuine historical event. I don’t know, I argue that Hogan is using the Osage murders to reflect a wider thematic and process of Native culture and history — but that only leads to another problem, erasure of tribal difference and complexities.
So, go into the novel with some reservations. That is part of where I am unsure of its effectiveness but also, I don’t know, the problem comes back to the sentence. I have this feeling that it’s stiffness could be a certain effect, and Hogan is certainly trying to mediate the gulf between the world of abstract white symbols (Vine Deloria’s terminology) and a more Indigenous framework of symbolism, but the sentences miss something mark in their attempt to do such a thing. The effect is a stiff and stifled prose that moves at such a slow pace, it is rigid and unmusical. I’m judging all of that from my own prose-values, but given that she is a poet, you think Hogan wld write sentences that flowed better. Some of the asides in the sentences are so on the nose, blatant, and obvious, that, to me, they really aren’t ever very effective. The style reminds me somewhat of Louise Erdich (I did just have to read Love Medicine) but it never has that overdetermined symbolism she uses either. The sentences are just too neat for their own good. -
The author of "Mean Spirit", Linda Hogan, is Chickasaw. She was raised in her Chickasaw family, as well as her mixed Indian community. Her work focuses on native peoples from her own aboriginal experiences as well as that of others.
Her novel, "Mean Spirit", set in the 1920s, is about white men that wedded Osage women and murdered them to have control of their land, wealth and oil. One main character, Grace Blanket, has no interest in Indian tradition and gets wealthy by owning land that strikes oil. While her newfound wealth at first aids her people, it eventually destroys them. This novel, a fictionalized account of the Osage murders of the 1920s, portrays generational trauma in various forms.
For example, the matriarch that raised Grace Blanket, Belle Graycloud, is a deeply spiritual woman that holds tradition and ritual sacred. “A few of the older people, including Belle Graycloud, conditioned their fields with words and songs, first sprinkling sacred cornmeal that was ground from the previous years corn, to foster new life.” (Hogan, Mean Spirit, Pg. 209, 2nd paragraph). Belle and the elders believed that the old corn would inspire or “tell” the new corn to grow. As she began to dress a scarecrow and tend the fields, Belle’s actions and beliefs embarrassed younger generations and sacred tradition was thought to be “superstition.”
Instead of relying on native spirituality, the younger generations chose chemical mainstream routes for crop tending instead of natural resources. This is one example of inter-generational trauma due to the lack of respect and representation of culture in younger generations. In addition, due to the horrifying, tumultuous changes within the lives of all involved, “Most of the Indian people lost trust in the whites.” (Hogan, Mean Spirit, Pg. 170, 5th paragraph). This is an example of situational trauma.
In "Mean Spirit", Hogan uses silence and mystery to convey oppression and marginalization of Native Indians. Her characters at first are silent due to oppression and later, silent in order to heal. White people were killing the Osage and tribes knew they needed to stay quiet in order to stay alive, but as the tribes rediscover new pathways to old traditions, they are put in touch with their own spirituality, nature and the universe.
This re-connection with tradition is re-connection with the environment. This is where hope enters in order to restore Osage spiritual traditions and heal Osage trauma. The land as well as tribes suffered from oil profiteering and in order to find some sense of identity, the Osage rediscover that connections with the biosphere are integral. In addition, silence as healing was traditional. -
This is a very powerful historical novel set in Oklahoma in the early 20th century when an oil boom grips the region, but Indians who own valuable land get screwed over by slanted laws and crooked law enforcement.
There are some unforgettable characters her, from Federal agent Stace Redhawk to the entire Graycloud family. The opening incident: a murder witnessed by children, is gripping, although the first half of the story may leave a few readers unsettled: just when you get to know a character it seems her or she gets killed/dies.
The middle 2/3rds is an excellent page turner as the conspiracy becomes more transparent, even if a lot of major events happen off the page, especially the bee incident. As Stace suffers a crisis of confidence, the story feels like it wanders a bit, just like him, and we see the legal incidents in "the white people courtrooms" from the perspective of the Indian characters: as outsiders with little say, spectators to the farce of justice which they are denied.
The very very ending had a nice twist and a drop off a cliff ending - which I love.
Part of me wishes that instead of all the headhopping, we could have just followed and been inside the head of one of the Grayclouds for all over Part I and then Stace for Part II. -
If you have read or thought about reading
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI then this is the book that is the heart and soul of that history. It is a good idea to read the two together.
This book sat on my shelf unread and moved everywhere with me for a long time, maybe 20 years. Am so glad I hung onto it. This was a good time to read it. It will remain on my shelves.
It's a long story, told in two parts. Without chapter breaks it reveals the inner rhythm of the life of its characters.
This is a healing book.
