>> guest: well, i think i was very fortunate the first time because, um, i sent some poems to the greenfield review and joe bruschak. he, also, is a great writer and an editor. and he said, do you have any more? and i said, yes. so i sent my, more poems to him. and he made them into a book. and so that little book which doesn't exist, t out of print now -- it's out of print now but "calling myself home" was my first publication. and then i also was publishing in magazines. and it's almost as if there's a process. you usually start with small magazines, small presses and then, you know, just keep going until somebody recognizes your name. because they've seen it enough and then, you know, larger presses are interested.

>> host: well, your first novel, what was the process of getting that published? >> guest: well, i actually found the publisher first, and then he >> host: and who was the publisher? >> guest: it was lee gerner, and the press doesn't exist anymore either. so they were a part of, um -- >> guest: ricardo's second part of his question, andrew jackson betrayed the cherokee horribly. i heard some tribes refuse to use the $20 billion. >> guest: well, actually, some people write "indian killer" across his face, and some people put xs on him. some people put xs on him. he doesn't have a good reputation. that is for sure. >> host: next call from karen in

colombia, maryland. better push the button. >> caller: the teacher -- >> host: please start again. >> caller: i am a teacher and i have used your books in discussions with hospital staff and libraries and adult education classes. to great success with readers. i wonder two things. you use awareness of spiritual energy and the natural world in your work. is that something you started with or has it grown over time for you? and secondly, do you have a writing routine? >> guest: to answer the first part of your question, yes. i think i have always been interested in the land and the life of the land and the spirit.

the second part is i have a writing routine which is i like to write from the moment i get up in the morning. i like to start and i like silence and quiet. i usually don't like to stop but i have to at some point to do whether things like go to work and it is very hard to be working writers and not to have the luxury of being able to do your riding but other things interfere. it seems like internet these days seems like an interference. i keep going over my limit on my internet which is people get things bounced back to them because if i am travelling or riding that comes first. so my riding --writing routine is to write as much as possible.

>> host: next call from colorado. >> caller: glad to hear you. fascinating. but i want to make a comment. i grew up south of pine ridge in nebraska in port robinson and i was always taught that when you hear these tribal names, toomey i grew up thinking that is a form of respect. i wanted to know. and thank you. i am nervous so i will get off here. >> guest: you don't need to be nervous. i should be nervous. >> host: any comment about her mask comment? >> guest: everyone has a different way of looking at

whether reform of respect. most of us don't think it is a form of respect. tomahawk chop and, you know? is. >> host: next call for author linda hogan comes from ackworth, georgia. hi, vicki. vicki, you with us? >> caller: hi. >> host: please, go ahead. >> caller: thank you so much. i am so thankful to be able t >> caller: thank you. it is good to speak with you. i was born -- i was born--i am sorry. my brain isn't working. anyway. i was born in oak city, oklahoma. and my family -- my dad was born in arkansas. he is indian. his last name was tosh. we have never been able to get

any information about him. but yet we cannot find any information on that at all. i was hoping that maybe you could help me find information about the tajes. my dad was born in 1900 and my mother was born right outside the city of oklahoma. term last name was rylnand. there with indian blood on that side of the family as well. >> host: resources? where would she star? >> guest: i don't know where that is so i don't know who is there. but i would go to the local tribes in that area and go on

there website and most have lists of names. it is sort of a surprise when you find -- some time they have your family. your own name will be there and you don't know it and your children and everything. they have names of who they knew was there in the past. >> host: does the bureau of indian affairs have a lot of influence when it comes to policies of the chickasaw nation? >> guest: i don't know if insolence is the word but they do have a lot of -- they still have a lot of -- they still make a lot of decisions for tribes. they still do have a lot of influence, yes. >> host: in "mean spirit," in the 20s the oklahoma oil boom, a

lot of native americans have oil land, correct? and were quite wealthy. you write about how many were declared people minded, incompetent. and therefore could not receive all the royalties. was that a historical fact? >> guest: yes. most likely full bloods were declared incompetent. >> host: are there still native americans with the oil rights? >> guest: a few. i think it is very few. i think some of the oil rights are being collected by non indians. >> guest: >> host: want to read this portion from "mean spirit" that you write about. this is a letter that was sent and you will figure out what this means. >> guest: i know the letter

already. >> host: i am a young man with good set good habits and none of the bad, several thousand dollars and a good indian girl for a wife. i am sober, honest, industrious man and stand well in my community. i want a woman between the age of 18, and 35, not a full blood. i want one as near white as possible. i lived on a farm most of my life and know how to get results from a farm as well as a mercantile business. having means it is natural i want someone might equal financially as well as socially. if you can place me in correspondence with a good woman and i succeeded mary in her for every $5,000 she is worth i will give you $25. she is worth $25,000 you would get $125 if i got her. this is a plane business proposition and i trust you will consider it as such. >> guest: that is a real letter

taken from my research. not uncommon. that is how it was seen. it was seen as the business deal. >> host: why was this white man wanting to marry an indian woman? >> guest: he wanted her money. >> host: an allotment? >> guest: he was going to pay for every amount she was worth, pay a percentage to an indian agent to. >> host: who were the indian agents? >> guest: there were many of them. they turned over, i don't know the names of the people, but they were the people who were in charge of handing out money, the checks and setting up tables. >> host: were they indians? >> guest: they weren't. they were assigned by the government. >> host: our common was that? how frequent was that?

>> guest: that was everywhere. >> host: surely in iowa, you are on the line with linda hogan. >> caller: i have never read any of your work but i am sure going to. i am part irish and one fourth cherokee. i can't hear you. >> host: we are listening to you. >> caller: the stories of my grandfather passing on his life, we passed for irish because our family was scared to death to it meant we were native american. i didn't really admit it until i was in charge of lutheran world relief in my church years ago. and found out that there were people in my church that were not agreeable to giving any of the world relief items to native

americans. but are also wonder what kind of education did you get in grade school? because my teachers were so terribly prejudiced against native americans and didn't know since i was blond and blue-eyed and the rest of my siblings were dark hair and dark i'd like my mother, they didn't know i was native american and we're very outspoken and said it was good those savages were gotten rid of because they were so savage and so stupid. it was too bad we didn't have really smart savages like they did in south america. i wondered if you ever heard of any of that and have one more question. i thought of doing my grandfather's story which would be called probably cherokee charlie, and iowa farmer, telling the story of how prejudiced people were at the

time that he followed my irish grandmother to i'll up from oklahoma territory. and that he had changed his name, his age, everything in his background before he was allowed to marry this pretty irish girl who was also the daughter of a pastor. >> guest: i think he should definitely start writing. just sit down and right, enjoy the process and write about your grandfather. as for -- i am trying to remember the first part of your question now. >> host: facing prejudice. >> guest: i was very poorly educated. i didn't pay much attention in school. if anyone said anything like

that, i probably would have perked up right away. but i don't recall anyone say anything like that. in our school. on the other hand i went to school somewhere multi-cultural most of the time. >> host: military school? >> guest: schools in army neighborhoods or on bases. >> host: in your memoir you write about being a common law wife at the age of 12. how did that experience occur and did it affect you later on in life? >> guest: i was in love. it still affects me, i think. eyes still would like to find this man even though it was probably not healthy in that he was -- would have been arrested under other circumstances i

think. but i still wonder what happened to him and i would like to know. on the other hand, i don't know if it affected relationships i had with people later or not. it was a form of love that was important in my life. he was generous and kind to me. it was a good relationship. it sounds crazy but it was a good relationship. >> host: next call from globe, arizona. >> caller: i am paul, right next to the san carlos apache reservation. i have lived here my entire life. what i am particularly interested in is the relationship -- i should say the differences between native languages and english-language,

especially regarding abstract concepts. i feel that english words, because of its complex history, really are very difficult to use as a truly -- describing indian concepts, abstract concepts are difficult to talk about. i was just wondering if that is one reason why you might have used poetry as a way of describing something, because it is more metaphorical. and telling stories is so important. scott momathey lived in tucson. i had the experience talking with him. rely wonder what your comments are about this. >> guest: i think poetry is a way of saying what can't be said in ordinary language.

stories also -- do what they can tell, say things you can't speak in just conversational language. that is one of my main interest is the difference in languages and fought and hthought and how influences the way we think and there are many complexities to the system of understanding the world or seeing the world or knowing, depending on the language you grew up with. >> host: riverside, calif.. >> caller: independence day. >> guest: hi, ruby. >> caller: my question is indigenous people have been so stereotyped. are there any offers a have done

justice to any named figures in the past and also your comment about -- [inaudible] -- a good creator out there and does answered prayer and all things happening have been prophesied and don't give up on that. he is real. >> guest: i have a hard time understanding exactly what you were saying. your words. does anyone deal with stereotypes? yes. just about all the writers deal with stereotypes. i don't give up on anything no matter what. i am not too worried about that. >> host: linda hogan, why did you start writing until your late 20s? >> guest: i didn't really -- it

never occurred to me what for one thing. i didn't really discover contemporary literature until i was older. i went back to school as an older student. >> host: who was a professor who influenced your writing? >> guest: the first person who allowed me to take his creative writing class was at the university of maryland, rod belleipod. i was very nervous about going back to school and asked if i could go to his class and he said yes. i went to class and people were writing poetry and it was a workshop and it was exciting and it sent me into studying literature.

i had studied psychology before, but then i went into literature. i can remember working-class literature and i really related to the working class literature. more than anything else that i had taken. so that had a big effect on me. and also i knew that -- many of the writers, even riders that had been blacklisted i had met and i met later in my life. some of the older writers that were very incredible and amazing writers who had been ignored and influenced and lost their momentum because of history. >> host: you opened "dwellings: a spiritual history of the living world" by saying you prayed for an eagle feather. >> guest: yes.

the interesting thing is i worked with those -- take an illegal eagle feather. i wanted an eagle feather and i wanted that naming ceremony when i was young. we didn't have them that i knew of at the time. so yes. and then i had an eagle feather. >> host: what is the significance of an eagle feather? >> guest: i couldn't explain it to you. what is the significance? like having -- something that is so -- so special. it is like it could be used -- it can be used for helping,

healing, it can be used for speaking. it can be used -- like a speaker's rattle. it can be used for communicating with what ever you would conceive of as spiritual. i am holding one here. >> host: you say it is illegal to have an eagle feather. >> guest: not true. when i was working with birds it was illegal to pick one up or take it home. >> host: if i picked one up off of the ground it would be illegal for me to have? >> guest: keep it. you did not sway it. my father could display his. >> host: lee in worcester, massachusetts. this is booktv.

>> caller: very brief introduction, my paternal grandmother's grandfather was cherokee. i think a small part -- comes from that in terms of respect for place, respect for those who came before, the infusion of spirit in each living thing is unique consciousness. i am not familiar with your work and that is why we watch booktv. where would be the best place for someone like me to jump into your writing? >> host: linda hogan? >> guest: any place. you are not familiar with the work you might not read a lot of poetry. you might start with "dwellings: a spiritual history of the living world" or one of the novel's. on everything you said that sounds wonderful. >> host: ann vtols can you talk more about your next book, what you are working on next?

>> guest: indois is a performance piece. it is a 1-woman show. i am not a performer so i don't know if i will do it but i might try to see how badly it goes. for 30 years i thought about this story of media and i have done research on that story and to me she is and indigenous woman who was taken away. her father was the source -- she had -- she came from another world into her husband's world. and then he betrayed her. and so what i have done is taken that story.

i thought about it for so long. power could i work with it? what would i do to make this the story of a native woman? i put it in a contemporary setting where a woman is being interviewed from in prison. she is being interviewed. she has been interviewed before. she is kind of -- she does the many day. it has one woman answering questions and it is also poetry. not just a performance piece but also a poem. like i said my first language, it is what i love to do. it gives insight into the true story of medea who did not kill her own children. they were stoned by the corinthians because they were

worried mixed blood children would come into power. and they wanted children -- jason and his new wife's children to come in to power instead. she wasn't innocent because she did put the cape that would burn the new wife on her. she did give it to her as a gift because she had a knowledge -- it is about many levels of things about the knowledge of plants and coming from another place and being in a different culture and being isolated. it has so many levels. is hard to talk about. i am excited about it. my regular publisher didn't publish it because he wanted something long grant wanted me to do a new book which i didn't think -- i think it needed to be on its own.

so bryce milliken at king's press is doing it. the book is quite lovely. a friend of mine did the design. he is chickasaw. >> host: that is out when? >> guest: it is coming out in october. >> host: some of linda hogan's major works. "dwellings: a spiritual history of the living world," "the woman who watches over the world," "mean spirit" which is a pulitzer finalist, solar storms, power, and her most recent novel people of the whale. next call from nevada. >> caller: i was enjoying your talk today. a person mentioned androgens and

-- andrew jackson in an unfavorable way. i just finished reading a book about tecumseh, the shawnee indian who devoted most of his life according to the author to trying to join the indian tribes into a confederation which would be much stronger to fight the european innovation and taking the indian lands. what is the viewpoint from the native american standpoint about tecumseh compared to the favorable view.in this book? >> guest: we think -- i think he is amazing. he was wonderful. he was a profit. his brother was a profit. there -- they traveled together. he wanted to do something that

would have been an impossibility. that would have resulted in mass genocide. of the people in the southeast. but his ideas were really very good. when he came to talk to us, he gave a long speech about why he would not -- he was wrong on his reasons. but he was right not to join together. but tecumseh said this truth that i am not a fake or a phony, when i get back to detroit the earth will shake and buildings will fall. when he got to detroit there was the new madrid earthquakes where the building did shake and the mississippi river changed course for a while and new lakes were

formed. it was a major earthquake in that part of the country. so really, i wonder what it would be like if he was a round today. >> host: tecumseh is an angle sized name of that chief, is it not? >> guest: i don't know. >> host: you give his real name or his native american name in "the woman who watches over the world". >> guest: something starts, shooting star. [talking over each other] >> guest: had to do with a -- m --com --comet. >> host: how did it get to tecumseh? >> guest: because when the white men ritter he scared them by telling them there was going to be a flash of light through the sky at night and there was.

>> host: next call from michigan. hi, lillian. >> caller: been waiting and happy to talk to you. i don't know you but i am very happy to know that i am going to read all your books. i would like to ask you since you say you like the ocean you should take a trip to nova scotia and see the ocean but you will also visit the mctribe. i don't know if i have in the and in my background but i am told i have and it could be through the french. looking at you i have to say you would be surprised. if i bet you we look alike only my hair is darker. but i am old and it will get like that too. i am enjoying all your conversation and i have a very strong indian feeling if you understand what i mean about things in life and the earth and animals and i don't know why and

i get very angry when i hear discrimination. i left canada when i was 17 and came to america and before that i hadn't heard or seen discrimination against indians or black people. i am sorry to see that. i am an american how and when i came here i was kind of shocked that that is still going on. you know it and i know it. but i am going to read your books and i really commend you having -- you are such a good writer. >> guest: thank you very much. i would love to go to nova scotia. my cousin is married to a mic a mickma mickmack. i would love to go up there. that would be great. >> host: we have a tweet for you linda hogan, advice for a writer who has a passion for writing but does not have the ability to pay for creative writing

classes. >> guest: i think the thing is if you have a passion for writing and you love writing, you can do your own classes. do your own -- read the writers you love and right. you don't have to take classes. you don't have to go to school. in fact many of the writers who are doing well couldn't get into school for one reason or another. they thought they were not good enough, or for some reason it didn't work out. i remember barbara king saying her work was considered not good enough to get into a creative writing class. so i don't think you have to go to school or pay for the class to become a writer. just do it. those are my saying this. just do it. and the other one is just because it doesn't work this

time doesn't mean it won't work if you keep working on it. >> host: chris is on the line from new haven, connecticut. >> caller: dear lady, you are such an inspiration. i have been sitting here listening to you since i called. by hole questioning is changing. your name hogan to me means home. >> guest: let me guess where you are from. >> caller: from new haven. in a production of the play medea, if you ever write your book and it is turned into a movie i want to play creon. when you talk about your love of the ocean, and a woman from nova scotia talked about it. native people have been traveling to the ocean and across the whole continent

forever. i remember hearing the name council bluffs and i said why that? it is because it was pretty much equal distance from every place in north america that we could all meet and another if they was your use of the word we. earlier you were talking about -- the american -- you said we. you included yourself. you include the native people has also part of america. we are all american. so i thought about sacajawea who hooked up with lewis and clark. she didn't run into her brother who saved her life because he was chief of a tribe in idaho. she said there is my brother. she obviously traveled the world from idaho to st. louis and is going back. >> host: can you bring this to a

conclusion? >> caller: are you surprised you love the ocean even though you are from a landlocked part of the country? >> guest: we are river people. the mississippi, yes. the trading paths and the juries across the gulf of mexico. we were everywhere in the past. so there wasn't anyone who stayed in one place. we journeyed all the time. >> host: rachel in massachusetts, you are done with linda hogan. >> caller: i am delighted to speak with you. thank you. i wish my partner hadn't fallen asleep. he loves greek mythology and he would have been awed to hear about your medea project. we read your works aloud to each other and really love them. >> guest: thank you.

>> caller: i have to frame a question. >> host: you don't have to. if you just want to say hi we will move on. >> caller: i live in a community renowned for being very multi-cultural and yet i find we are still very isolated within our little groups. it is very hard to create those bridges. i appreciate how much reading can do that and reading aloud can do that. i wonder if you have any advice or ideas about breaking those boundaries? also i want to share a the bit. i was born in mexico to north american jews. i lived in puerto rico and have always been hyperconscious since childhood of the issues of class and race and it shocks me myself how little people seem to know about anything outside of their own experience and how little we

seem to empathize. >> guest: i have to say that i think being in the army, having a father who was in the army that that was a multicultural experience. living in oklahoma is not. so i feel the same way you do. i feel there is a sense of isolation, that i have and always felt. but i do see what you mean. you break down the boundaries and how do you break through the borders. but, um, i notice that one thing is i'm home, and i'm one thing is i am home and i am homesick for my friends and for the community i have been in before. . ãcf1 o cear-o cf1 o to

themselves in this different ways. >> host: mary manning e-mails in if, as you write, do you need to spend time alone? is after a journalism career, i find being alone helps deeper thinking, especially writing in journals by hand. >> guest: yes. yes. and yes. because i also write in journals by hand, and i haven't been able to find my favorite kind of journal, and i finally found one yesterday here in washington, d.c., and i was thrilled. so i'm carrying an extra little weight in my backpack. [laughter] >> host: do you use a laptop? >> guest: um, i do have a laptop, but i always write by hand first. and so i have to themselves in e different ways i have journals the same kind now.ible i try to get different colors di and it is not possible anymore but, to distinguish them in other ways. i right by hand and i need to bi

alone or i need total silence. my dog can be around or any ounn other animal or anybody can be k around but they can't talk. they're not allowed to talk in the morning. nevado, >> host: charles in california, you are on with linda hogan on booktv. hi. bravery i admire your bravery in the tar current political situation as you stand fast for the downtrodden. my question is do you feel thate the reason the other groups representing the orientals, black and latinos gain recognition and our indigenous that they should i people don't get the recognition that they should because if they were given that recognition andn the truth of the stolen lives t and stalin land were brought tod

a court of law that there would be tremendous compensation for what has been done to them? >> guest: well, i think to answer your question, >> caller: to answer your question is not the lack of recognition but the form of treatment--the president did sign an apology to the indigenous people of america. that was as far as it went. it wasn't a public apology like in australia or other countries. that was last year i believe. most people don't know about it and most of us don't know about it. so i think maybe there is a fear of that kind of compensation. and there is the agents and what

they went through on angel island and other people who have been -- sometimes i find the atmosphere to be shocking and frightening. there is nothing to be done except wait it out and see what is happening and to write letters and make phone calls and things like that. we live in a very -- we live in a dynamite situation right now. >> host: what does that mean? >> guest: we have people backed by corporations and money, who want to keep it. they don't want other people -- lack of fairness. look at wisconsin. who do we need the most?

we need our teachers. workforce. we need for people who are working class. those are the people who are losing the most. so this is happening not just in wisconsin. it is happening in new york. it happened in oklahoma. it is happening in other states. it is happening in other countries and other countries the fallout of our own greed. >> host: next call from eugene, oregon. >> caller: thank you for taking my call. i am honored to speak with you. i want to backtrack to a comment you were speaking about, native americans from oklahoma having oil rights. the bureau of indian affairs to this day, my brother-in-law is from one of those tribes. the government actually gets close to business for them and pays pennies for millions of dollars they make off of their

oil rights. in our country right now, having those rights taken from them by the government and making those choicess for them and the bureau of indian affairs making choices on finances for the currently. >> guest: it is true and they are doing it to all of us. there is a review, financial review of the dia which supposedly will take over ten years for the wrongs they have done and the money they have stolen. the same thing happens in other places where long rangelands are leased out for pennies a year. we had an incident with the forest being cut without us knowing about it on our land and timber rights given by the d i a to the timber industry. it is in court now. >> host: have you visited the

relatively new american indian museum? what are your thoughts about it? >> guest: you lot of slow contemplative time there. it is not a place you walk through quickly. and so i have been there but i haven't been able to formulate a very good thoughts because i have never been able to just be there for a few weeks and take things in and view the place slowly. >> host: bill in alabama, this is booktv's index program. this month linda hogan. >> caller: glad to see and hear from you. in the field of psychology, you will often see in textbooks a hypothesis called the or the and hypophysis --orphean hypothesis

which goes something like this, that people think in terms of the language that they learn. for example if we learned english we will think in terms of that language. if we learned italian we will think in terms of that language. and of course bilingual people are interesting to that extent. and also from that point of view the language which often governed of a fox that we have. i have a question regarding that hypothesis. can you tell from the spelling of this person's name if that may be a native american person? and what do you think about his hypothesis regarding how we think from our acquisition of language? >> guest: he was not. he was a scholar.

he was not native. i think probably the language has a great influence on how people think but so does the environment. and that ecosystem. we're talking about cultures also have strong influence and the language and the ecosystem actually go together. they work back and forth to get there. so the language is formed by the ecosystem. but there were a lot of people at that time thinking and coming up with a different theory is about language that were significant. >> host: sounds like he should read at the 22. lee -- "dwellings: a spiritual history of the living world". >> guest: yes. read "dwellings: a spiritual

history of the living world". >> host: when you say the ecosystem is important language development explain what you mean by that? >> guest: each people grew up in their own environment, their own ecosystem. their language and their worlds are really formed by what is in that environment. the artifacts that you find that archaeologists find have to do with certain environments. you wouldn't find those particular artifacts in another environment. the language especially is formed by what is in that environment. and so if you live in the desert, it creates a certain kind of person, a certain -- what is -- the english patient where they talk about different names for when. or you think about all the

different names for wind or different names for snow or different names for kinds of currents of water. all those things would be in a language that might not be in another language. >> host: theresa e-mails from bloomington, indiana are you familiar with helen hunt jackson's rating is and what is your opinion of those ridings? >> guest: she makes pretty strong statements that were important at the time that she wrote. on the other hand i looked at her journals at the college library and she didn't have a lot of experience with native people but she still really wanted justice. >> host: you write about how your childhood was a childhood of solitude. does that affect how you right? does that make you a writer?

>> guest: i don't think so. i don't think so. i had a quiet life. i didn't have a family that yelled. i didn't have -- it was just a very different kind of life than what most american people have. i don't think it made me a brighter. to school i . beauty opener or, you know -- operator or, you know, like going, becoming something else that was where i could actually make a living. [laughter] >> host: are your parents still alive? is. >> guest: no, they're not. >> host: just recently passed? >> guest: no, it's been a while now. >> host: and here is a picture of your >> guest: it has been a while. >> host: here's a picture of

your parents with tonya thunder horse. >> guest: her name is tanya parks now. >> host: and your granddaughter. rochester, new york. you are on the air. >> caller: how are you doing? a quick comment about tecumseh that you mentioned a few minutes ago. tecumseh was the or original name and it means shooting start in shawnee or whatever his mother's made in tribe was. metacomme metacommetfought with the new englanders in the 1600. my question to the lady, linda hogan, is how many indian tribes to they still have their own original language and are they producing more scholarly work in that language and do you speak any of the different tribes's

language? >> guest: almost all the tribe still have the language or are revitalizing. even have programs for children where they only speak language in school part of the time. and so emerging programs. i think that i have taken classes in chickasaw. i don't speak other tribal languages. if i did choose one i would try to speak navajo but it is way too complex so i am not sure i would be able to learn it. i am and amateur speaker. it is hard to learn another language and it is hard especially as you get older. >> host: why in many of your books have you chosen to write about tribes other than the

chickasaw? >> guest: you mean like in the novels? >> host: yes. >> guest: i don't want my own tribe to get mad at me. so i take political situations happening somewhere else and use that and that way i don't alienate myself. >> host: cynthia in arkansas, hello. you are on the air. please go ahead. >> caller: you know what? >> host: you got to turn down the volume on your tv otherwise you get feedback. we will put you on hold while you get the volume down and we will come back to you. san diego. good afternoon. >> caller: good afternoon and thank you for c-span for taking my call. some good questions and commentary today. i am curious.

this may have been commented on earlier today but i came into the program a few minutes late. recently there was a lawsuit that was settled from eloise cabal versus the united states government interior department that was finally decided on in the supreme court and i am wondering if linda hogan has heard of that. she may have commented on it when i had my tv on mute. if she knows anything about that i would be interested in hearing her thoughts. >> guest: i believe you are talking about the shoshone woman. i didn't know it was settled. i don't know much about it. i was surprised anything had been settled yet because it takes so long in court and i think she is still alive and i

know that the uranium miners, is still ongoing and everyone has passed on. it usually takes a really long time to get things taken care of. >> host: let's go back to arkansas. go ahead with your question or comment. >> caller: a question about the trail of tears. can you tell me something about this? >> guest: which one? >> host: the trail of tears. >> host: what specifically do you want to know? have you not heard of the trail of tears? >> caller: yes. >> guest: there were many. let's just say that it began in georgia with the cherokee when gold was discovered in georgette and laws were made that cherokees could not represent themselves in court. they lost their land because of

the discovery of gold and they were sent into indian territory and it continued up for -- from tribe to tribe. we were on monday last. d so we went, and we observed what was happening and who survived and how they survived and, um, went in smaller groups at different times. so, um, an went in smaller groups at different times. nevertheless, still not in good shape. those of us who survived were not meant to survive. >> host: what was the significance of pine ridge and wounded knee? >> guest: in the 70s? it won't everyone up. i was in school with connie who

called earlier at the time and my father and i both got notes from a newspaper that went out to all the native people all over the country. we both got it at the same time and we were horrified what was happening. united states government would call out tanks and everything, there were some people inside of a church. it was really significant in making everyone, just. it was the time of people becoming politically aware of what was happening. >> host: kathleen from oregon. we have a minute left. >> caller: i am glad to be able to ask you this question.

i have been writing off and on since i was 8 years old. the last few years i have written several native american, quote, legends and stories and people ask where do you do your research and i don't do it and my mother says she does it for what -- what i want to know if you are fine with your writing, when you sit down put pen to paper and it just flows for you? thank you for taking my call. >> guest: it is always good when writing just happens. i love that when you sit down and it just flows. it doesn't happen every time unfortunately. >> host: how many times does it happen? >> guest: i haven't recounted. about a fourth of the time may be. >> host: jennifer in boston. a second lesson to you. >> caller: approximately how long does it take to write one

of your books? >> guest: sometimes it takes -- depends on the book. sometimes it takes three years. sometimes it takes six. it just depends. it depends on whether it is poetry or fiction lose the novel i'm working on now is taking a very long time. i have other books -- >> host: which book is your favorite? >> guest: it is always whatever i am working on now. >> host: of the books you have written. >> guest: in the past? i don't know. that is very hard to say. i think i like solar storm