Ghost Rider Roads, by Antoinette Nora Claypoole – a book review

Just released (Jan. 2012)

“Are you here to die? Because everywhere that I go I tell myself  do I want to die here?”

Robert Robideau, relating the words of Henry Crow Dog at Crow Dog’s paradise. Ghost Dance 1973

The late sixties and early seventies were a time unlike any other in Native American history. For the first time a nationwide indigenous network was born, an American Indian Movement.

AIM first entered the collective conscious on Thanksgiving Day, 1970 by seizing a replica of the Mayflower in Boston Harbor. The Trail of Broken Treaties, the retaking of land in Minneapolis for a schoolhouse, the standoff at Wounded Knee – it was a momentous time in history, comprised of real people and real stories.

Ghost Rider Roads tells those stories. Author Antoinette Nora Claypoole weaves a tale consisting of interviews and written reflections and her own assignments for Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles to make those times come alive for the reader. If these events are new to you, this book will take you back in time. If you were around then, this will bring back the memories and fill in the blank spots.

Annie Mae Aquash was a mother, a member of the Micmac tribe and a hard-fighting AIM activist. Her murder was unsolved for many years until the federal govt charged Arlo Looking Cloud and John Graham with the crime. The belief among many that COINTELPRO fed AIM paranoia until they murdered one of their own is the basis of the govt case and this belief made its way into the mainstream. Ms Claypoole takes this on, helping to put the onus back on the FBI.

The author takes on the Peltier trial and sentencing as well, reinforcing evidence that the Ojibwa/Chippewa was framed, using the governments own excluded evidence against them. Simply put, an innocent man has languished in prison for more than a generation.

There is no real sense of closure in the book, rather an understanding that the issues in Indian Country continue and the struggles for freedom and justice continue. Those who survived the ravages of COINTELPRO are now elders.

Will the new generation carry the torch?

After moving from the east coast to the pacific northwest, Antoinette Nora Claypoole participated in a lodge ceremony that deeply affected her.  Asking a Klamath-Modoc gentleman how she might express her gratitude, he asked that she use her writing skill to help his people. She is also the author of  “Who would unbraid her hair – the legend of Annie Mae”. Ms Claypoole resides in Ashland, Oregon.

Ghost Rider Roads is a new release available at local bookstores or amazon.com. Contact watersongs@gmail.com for education/tribal discount.

For information on ordering the book click here.