Readers and writers: Memories of an Indian boarding school and a tender (yes, tender) crime novel

Mary Ann Grossmann, Pioneer Press
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You’re probably getting ready to grill and putting the last touches on the potato salad right now, but when the celebration is over, take time to look here for the memories of a Native American woman who survived life at an Indian boarding school, and a tender crime novel (yes, tender) by a former “Seinfeld” writer. And we’ve got a couple of guides for your stay-close-to-home road trips.

“Golden-Brown Indian Girl: A Small Voice Gets LOUDER” by Donna F. Council (Independently-published, $19.99)

In my mind I pictured this golden-brown Indian girl in a little green dress with a trace of red around her collar and green trim in fringe around her waist, and long, black braided hair, as she stepped into our childhood nightmare. I was going to help this little Indian girl who stuffed so many losses for so long. I will accept her, appreciate her with her golden-brown, perfect round lips that seldom ever had a real smile. She never got a chance to grow up to live fully without the embarrassment and shame I feel. She also wanted to forgive herself, knowing it wasn’t her fault, not doing or saying anything to them. It was their fault.

— from “Golden-Brown Indian Girl”

On the the cover of Donna Council’s new book is a picture of a little Indian girl. With her big, sorrowful eyes, puzzled expression and a bottom lip that trembles with hidden tears, she is the scared, abused, confused child Council was when she was a child. Council and her four little sisters were taken from their parents and sent to Marty, the St. Paul’s Indian MIssion boarding school about 70 miles south of the family home in Mitchell, S.D.

Donna was 12 at the time and her terrible years at the school included bullying by other kids and nuns and dozens of rules that brought punishment if broken. The frightened children, who didn’t understand why they were taken from their homes, were told their parents didn’t love them and treated as though they were “just Indians.”

The U.S. government-run boarding schools for Indian children, begun in the 19th century to integrate the Indians into white society (which meant taking their land), lasted into the early 1990s in some places. Nobody knows how many children died, or were killed, in those bleak buildings that housed three generations of Indian children, some of whom committed suicide.

Yet, there was no one to protect them. The Catholic Church controlled the schools and the kids’ lives. If they survived, many grew up to feel worthless and afraid. Like Council, many later learned they had PTSD but they had stuffed their feelings The author’s mother and grandparents were in the boarding schools but never discussed their experiences. “They kept their pain deeply hidden inside,” Council writes of the generations before her.

Now, she is opening the door to let light shine into those dark corridors, dormitories and punishment rooms.

Council grew up, had two children and was a counselor for Indian youth. But that little Indian girl was always inside her. She acted like an adult, but the generational trauma from the boarding school never went away.

When she turned 55, Council faced her past and returned to Marty, now under control of the Yankton Sioux. With her daughter, she roamed the grounds and went into rooms she was forbidden to enter as a student.

In her mind, Council took the trembling little hand of the golden-brown Indian girl who was anxious, looking around.

“I told her, ‘No one will harm you or punish you. No nun will hit you or tell you that you are uncivilized, no good, or not loved.’ I reassured her she will not be staying; we are going home together.”

“Carolina Moonset” by Matt Goldman (Forge; $15.99 paperback, $29.99 hardcover)

It showed the dark marsh in heavy brushstrokes. A sprawling oak in the foreground framed an expanse of reeds. A tidal creek snaked through the reeds. The tide was out, and the creek’s muddy bottom reflected the moonlight. A clump of more oaks in the distance lay dark under the full moon shining above them. And behind those oaks, the dark shadow of an immense home, no light in the windows except for one on the second floor…A small brass plaque was affixed to the frame, not much bigger than a dog tag. It was engraved: CAROLINA MOONSET. The painting terrified me when I was a boy.

— From “Carolina Moonset”

Who is looking across the marsh at that lighted window? And who is in that room? That’s the mystery at the heart of Matt Goldman’s compelling and intricate new novel, a stand-alone after he wrote four crime stories featuring private investigator Nils Shapiro, beginning in 2017 with “Gone to Dust.”

It is impossible to categorize this book because it is seamlessly made up of so many parts — a family, old friends and enemies, secrets, characters so perfectly drawn you see them in your mind, impeccable dialogue, and a no-nonsense love story that turns two 40-something people into first-love teens. A starred review in Publishers Weekly described the novel as “…isn’t to be missed.”

Then there’s the Gothic nature of the lowlands, the weepy oaks, forbidding marshes, sun dancing on the water, feasting on freshly beheaded shrimp.

Joey Green has returned to Beaufort, N.C., to look after his father, a doctor who dedicated his career to working in a low-income clinic. Now Marshall Green has Lewy Body Dementia, a form of the disease in which the person loses short-term memory but can remember the past clearly.

When Joey’s mother leaves for a short respite trip, she warns her son that his dad must be locked in the house all the time because he wanders. Joey’s a dutiful son, a nice divorced guy with two kids. He’s responsible, too, but he’s also falling in love with Leela, whose parents live next door. She, too, is divorced with kids and, like Joey, is in her mid-40s.

The one night Joey forgets to lock the back door, a member of the wealthy, influential Hammond family is shot near the Greens’ house. Joey finds his dad standing among the bathrobe-clad crowd, watching the police do their work. Joey can’t find the old gun with the ivory handle his dad kept in his tackle box.

Then, the plot gets complicated. The dead man had a private will that even his wife, Gail, didn’t know about. He gave a considerable amount of land to the Greens and to Ruby and Lawrence. Ruby used to work for the Greens and is considered family. Joey is interested to discover that the land given to the two families was in the path of an entrance to an expensive development being built on that island.

When Marshall Green begins to hallucinate, he talks to his old friend, Trip Patterson, as though he’s in the room, and seems to be arguing with someone else nobody can see. Is it the beautiful African-American woman whose body was found caught in a shrimper’s net long ago?

As Joey talks to the characters, trying to find out who killed the rich guy so his father won’t be taken to prison, each fills in another part of the old story that involves two rich brothers and how they influenced so many of Joey’s inner circle.

Goldman, who lives in Minneapolis, writes perfect dialogue. Conversations between Joey and his fading dad are heart-breaking, and the half-pretend half-real conversational games Joey and Leela play are touching. They know they have only a week or so together but they will make the best of that time before they have to separate to go back to their kids.

It’s no surprise Goldman writes dialogue so well. He has written almost 500 TV scripts, including the first two seasons of “Seinfeld” and the episode of “Ellen” in which Ellen DeGeneres’ character comes out as gay.

Please put “Carolina Moonset” at the top of your spring TBR list. You will love it.

Goldman will introduce his book at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 8, at Edina Pubic Library, 5280 Grandview Square, Edina, in partnership with Once Upon a Crime mystery bookstore; 1 p.m. June 18 at Barnes & Noble, 3230 Galleria, Edina, and 7 p.m. July 27 in the Literature Lovers’ Night Out series, Zephyr Theatre, 601 N. Main St., Stillwater.

If high gas prices are keeping your travel plans close to home, here are two guides that will help you plan.

“Minnesota State Parks” by Anne Arthur and Signy Sherman (Adventure Publications, $22.95)

Filled with detailed maps and pictures, the book is arranged geographically. The fifth edition of this handy guide to all 75 state parks and state recreation areas is subtitled “How to Get There, What to Do and Where to Do It.”

Some parks, such as St. Croix, 16 miles east of Hinckley, are well known. But have you heard of Savanna Portage State Park, seven miles northeast of McGregor? Named for a route indigenous people used to transport canoes overland, the park can be explored on foot, skis or snowmobiles. Or how about John A. Latsch Park, 12 miles north of Winona? It’s essentially a wayside stop, good for a picnic, with a half-mile trail that leads to a view of the Mississippi River valley.

If you want to wander farther, “Destination Heartland” (5 Fields Books/University of Illinois Press, $19.95) will help you roam from the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center to the grounds of an ancient Native American city.

The author tells you how to get the most out of your visit and includes historic restaurants, small-town museums and other overlooked locations. It covers Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

Winding Trail Books is vacating its space in Milton Square at 2230 Carter Ave., St. Paul, while married owners Sue Costello and Rick Gahm look for new digs after being at their current location since July of 2019. Costello says they are working on a new location but it is not finalized and they don’t yet have an opening date. The effects of COVID, including closing the store for a while, slow customer return and author cancellations, made it difficult for them to stay in their building in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood they love. During the transition the store will host off-site author and reading events, Costello said. They encourage readers to order books online at windingrailbooks.com. Everything at the current location will be for sale, including shelving and some fixtures. 11:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 1, and Thursday; 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Friday. Satu5day, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. is closing day.

A new podcast, “This Queer Book Saved My Life,” debuts June 21. The podcast, created by J.P. (John Parker) Der Boghossian, will feature interviews with LGBTQ guests sharing the queer book that saved their lives, then meeting with the book’s author. Der Boghossian is founder and curator of the Queer Armenian Library and is past president of the Armenian Cultural Organization of Minnesota. He is equity and inclusion officer for Normandale Community College. Since 2015, J.P. has delivered keynotes and presentations at conferences throughout the Midwest on topics such as intercultural competency, LGBTQ health and racial equity, implicit biases and culturally responsive organizations. In 2020 Der Boghossian launched the Queer Armenian library, the world’s first devoted to books and media about Queer Armenians. He will release three podcasts June 21, then produce a weekly episode. The first programs will feature an array of authors including National Book Award finalist Carmen Maria Machado and Minnesota award-winning children’s book author David LaRochelle. For information go to: thisqueerbook.com.

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