Readers and writers: ‘Sinister Graves’ finds Ojibwe sleuth becoming her own woman

Mary Ann Grossmann, Pioneer Press
·6 min read

As Native people, we have known that in order to survive we had to create, re-create, produce, re-produce. The effect of the denial of our existence is that many of us have become invisible. The systematic disruption of our families by the removal of our children was effective for silencing our voices…However, not everyone can still that desire, that up-welling inside that says sing, write, draw, move, be. We can sing our hearts out, tell stories, paint our visions. We are in a position to create a more human reality. In order to live we have to make our own mirrors. — From Marcie Rendon’s artist statement about her writing.

Cash Blackbear is growing up and becoming her own woman in “Sinister Graves,” the third entry in Marcie Rendon’s series featuring 19-year-old Blackbear, an Ojibwe woman who has shut down emotionally after a cruel childhood in foster homes.

Rendon will launch “Sinister Graves” at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, at the Twin Cities Book Festival at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.

An enrolled member of the White Earth Nation in Minnesota, Rendon infuses her novels with compassion for Indigenous women who are missing or killed and never found. Cash’s toughness, commitment to justice and vulnerability honor those women.

“Cash is every Native woman who is resilient in the face of historical trauma,” the author says.

Cash is an intriguing character, a 5-foot-tall pool hustler and farm worker, who was rescued by Sheriff Wheaton when she was a child. She’s a help to the sheriff in solving crimes because she “knows things,” sometimes sensing what will happen in the future or getting murder vibes off a dead body.

Rendon introduced Cash in 2017 in “Murder on the Red River,” winner of the Pinckley Prize for debut novel and 2021 Friends of the St. Paul Public Library’s One Book/One Minnesota title. The second Cash adventure, “Girl Gone Missing” (2019), was nominated for Mystery Writers of America’s Sue Grafton Memorial Award.

Cash lives in Fargo where, in the first book, she helps the sheriff investigate the death of an Indian man. In “Girl Gone Missing,” Cash is a freshman at Moorhead State College and works with Wheaton to find one of her missing female classmates.

“Sinister Graves” finds Cash still in college. She’s living alone in her little apartment, smoking too much (it’s the 1970s) and drinking a lot of beer at the Casbah, the neighborhood bar. She still hasn’t ended her uninteresting affair with a married man.

When the Red River floods, the body of an unidentified Indian woman floats into town. The only clue to her identity is a small piece of paper in her bra that references a hymn in English and Ojibwe.

That clue leads Cash to a small church on the prairie, where she’s welcomed by the seemingly compassionate, handsome preacher and his uptight wife. Not too far from the house, Cash and her Indian friend Geno find the unmarked graves of two children. Hovering over them is a huge, dark cloud.

” ‘That was the biggest jiibay I’ve ever seen.’ Geno took a swig of his Coke.

Cash raised her eyebrow in a question.

‘Jiibay. Ghost. Dead ghost.’

‘Dead ghost? What do you man, dead ghost? What do you know about ’em?’

‘Know to stay away.’ ”

Tenacious Cash doesn’t stay away. After the sheriff and Geno head to the southwest where Geno will be an art student, Cash is alone in her visits to the pastor and his wife. The pastor says his wife, who sometimes acts strangely, is distraught over the loss of two children. There is another dead woman, and a baby crying at the parsonage. None of it makes sense to Cash as she delves deeper into what happens at the little church.

Cash is also making friends with some other Indian students, including a woman her age who’s as good at pool as is Cash. Growing up in foster homes where she was treated like a servant, Cash has never been interested in clothes. She just wears a clean T and jeans. But when her pool partner makes ribbon shirts to wear when they partner at a pool tournament, Cash smooths the soft silk and begins to understand she can care about what she wears. And when she’s in someone’s tidy little apartment, she looks around and thinks that maybe she could put a few things on her walls and make a more comfortable home.

This book ends with Cash in the most frightening situation in this series, with the dead ghost hovering.

In 2024 Rendon will celebrate the publication of “Stitches of Tradition,” which chronicles the journey of a young girl into womanhood through the bond she shares with her nookomis (my grandmother) as they sew ribbon skirts for ceremonies celebrating the women around them, illustrated by Ojibwe Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley.

Rendon’s other public readings from “Sinister Graves:”

  • 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 18, Once Upon a Crime, 604 W. 26th St., Mpls.

  • 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 24, SubText Books, 6 W. Fifth St., St. Paul

  • 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1, Birchbark Books, 2115 W. 21st St., Mpls.

  • 2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2, Next Chapter Booksellers, 38 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul

MORE ABOUT THE TWIN CITIES BOOK FESTIVAL

Sponsored by Minneapolis-based Rain Taxi Review, the free festival runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, in the Progress Center and Fine Arts building at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.

There will be an all-day exhibit hall with used books and records for sale, and tables for publishers and book-related organization as well as author events for all ages on stages in the Progress and Fine Arts buildings.

Marcie Rendon is not the only one to launch a new work.

Dessa’s “Tits on the Moon” is the latest in Rain Taxi’s chapbook series, published by Rain Taxi in association with Doomtree, the hip hop collective and record label of which Dessa is a founding member. This is a special ticketed festival finale at 5 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center. Attendees can pick up a $5 ticket at the Rain Taxi booth in the Progress Center between 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. the day of the festival.

The Minnesota Author Mashup includes 35 poets, novelists and non-fiction writers celebrating a publication this year. As an extension of the Mashup, the festival asked writers Abby Jimenez, Raymond Luczak and Chris Martin to offer insight into what books they admire. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. attendees will be able to meet with small groups of local authors to chat about whatever is on their minds.

“Where We Come From,” a children’s book by four Minnesotans, is getting lots of attention. Authors John Coy and Shannon Gibney will be at the festival with co-authors Diane Wilson and Sun Yung Shin appearing in a prerecorded discussion. In the book the authors explore where they each come from — literally and metaphorically — as well as what unites all of us as humans.

Among the presenters will be Vanessa Torres and Gary Eldon Peter, talking about growing up Minnesotan; a fiction showcase with Phong Nguyen, Robin McLean, and Akil Kumarasamy; a middle-grade showcase with Anika Fajardo, Brian Farrey and Kristin F. Johnson; and a poetry showcase with Major Jackson, Brenda Hillman and Stephanie Burt.

The festival has a website that offers authors’ biographies and times for readings and panel discussions. At the festival there is plenty of information about programs and how to navigate between the two buildings. There’s lots of free parking.

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