and thank you also for the chicago litfest. i'm really happy to be here. i think that i wrote this book initially because i was so appalled by the ignorance of nonnative people about native people including myself. and i, therefore, set out what i could to destereotype what i find is really a bad bob. it's been a bad problem for centuries and it continues today. and initially my idea was, well, i will just talk to a few native people and find out what they had about their own lives and the book became stronger, stronger, far-reaching and i ended up interviewing the indians of maybe mccain to the last chapters of a hawaiian chanter. and my object at the time was to destereotype thinking it would be helpful because native americans, in my opinion, are still harmed by the stereotypes about them. and -- but on the other hand, the book also became a sort of -- an extended family reunion for native people who sometimes might live in one part of the country, like here in chicago and maybe not know about native people in another part of the country. so that was ki