Summer Cloud

Summer Cloud is a novel that splits the zones between contemporary and historical fiction, and is together a social study, character analysis, and religious inquiry. The story is realistic, even to an extent naturalistic, yet a mystical Spirit breathes and breezes throughout. Perhaps it can be compared with selected works of N. Scott Momaday (such as The Way to Rainy Mountain) in which he interweaves the historical with the spiritual, the realistic with the mythic. In addition, when one employs the term "creative nonfiction," Momaday would seem to be an exemplar. This book has interwoven a large number of nonfiction elements into a fictional tapestry. Because the novel is a cross-cultural exploration, it could be rather provocative among Indians and among those who study Indigenous cultures. The author has, therefore, annotated the discourse, like that of an academic treatise, with end-notes for each chapter and with a resources section at the end. If a reader asks, "Where did the writer ever get that notion?" (s)he can check the sources for more information.

The novel compares and contrasts the culture of American Indians - particularly that of the Hochungara (Winnebago) - with that of contemporary mainstream America three decades ago at the height of the Red Power movement. The central character is himself Ho-Chunk. He spent almost all of his childhood living apart from the reservation in alien Nebraska and in a rural Wisconsin homeland county without any other Native American presence. The story tells of his struggle to synchronize his red heritage and inheritance with the white culture enveloping him. He strains under the burden of mating the manners, mores, and morals of both cultures. In the course of the story's events, he must move beyond adopting an ethical system that has mere historic, nostalgic, pragmatic, or emotional appeal. At the appearance of a band of militants seeking to take back a portion of the original homeland, he becomes decisively engaged in matters of life and death, and he must adopt a system that means life and not death - for others both red and white as well as for himself.

The Church has had less than a perfect record over the past several centuries when it comes to cross-cultural relations with the Indians of North America. Yet even today, Indians continue to wonder what to make of Christianity. Some reject it completely as a hostile European invader. Others try to accept it, but at what cost to their cultural being? Still others attempt to mate it with Indigenous ways and means, with varying degrees of integrity. In this treatise, the main character is in such a struggle. He has been taught the testimony of Saint Peter, and he wonders if his words as recorded in Acts 2:39 are true: "For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself" (NAU). Summer Cloud is a story of an individual's search for faith and guidance, and the focus is on his desire to discover and embrace a faith and a power greater than ourselves ... red, white, or both.

Summer Cloud is also a survey of relations between Euro-Americans and Amer-Indians, generally between the years 1830 and 1976. It can serve as an introduction to Indian/American history.