Linda Hogan's first novel is a wonderful example of historical fiction. She seamlessly blends a magical realism reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez with an historical acumen that would satisfy the most discriminating of readers. Her sparing but effective use of language is nothing less than enchanting. Mean Spirit would make an excellent addition to any course concerned with Native American studies, the American frontier, the relationship between nature and culture, or the effect of western influences (particularly oil and capitalism) on traditional lifeways. The writing is straight forward enough to make it accessible to both middle and high school students, but the sheer number of pages (375) would most likely make anything more than a selection intimidating to the younger readers.
The story is set in Osage Indian Territory, Oklahoma in the 1920's. Having originally emigrated from Kansas in the 1860's, some Osage, the “Hill Indians”, wanted nothing more than to live peacefully apart from the world of the “naholies”. Others resettled on unwanted allotments of barren land among the whites in Watona, which was subsequently renamed Talbert. Both communities of Indians, however, were soon thrust into a vortex of greed, corruption and violence when oil discoveries changed the “barren lands” into “Baron lands” of oil moguls. Though there are hints of earlier violence (17 mysterious deaths in as many months), the novel begins with the murder and cover-up of Grace Blanket, “the richest Indian in the world”.
Though a daughter of a river prophet of the Hill Indians, Grace had been sent into town (and into the world of the whites) as a child to learn about the laws and the people that were now encroaching on the Osage traditional way of life. Ironically, Grace fully embraces the world of the whites, buying a large house in town and adorning it with the expensive chandeliers, driving around in cars rather than traveling by horseback or foot, and preferring European dress over the tear dresses of her people. The true “godchild of the river” is Grace's 13 year old daughter, Nola Blanket. Because Nola had secretly witnessed her mother's murder and inherited the unfortunate title of “richest Indian in the World”, she moves in with her cousins, the Greyclouds, for protection.
Though receiving additional protection from four mysterious guardians, “runners” “whose peculiar running discipline and austere habits earned them a special place in both the human world and the world of the spirits”, Nola is in constant danger. Due to the oil money, marriage to an Osage woman had come to be viewed as a business investment by whites, so even Nola's well-intentioned suitor turned husband is constantly treated with suspicion. As other Osage continue dying under increasingly suspicious circumstances, the evidence becomes clear that rancher turned oilman Nate Hale is at the center of it all. Despite this, however, neither the local law enforcement nor federal agents act.
Finally, Stace Red Hawk, a Lakota Sioux working for the U.S. Bureau of Investigation, decides to cut through the red tape by investigating the murders himself. Like Grace, he had been sent into white society by his people, and his time spent among the Osage awakens in him a deeps sense of longing and displacement. As the battle between the white Americans and Native Americans grows more and more hostile, Nola, the Osage, Stace and even some whites-gone-native begin to pull away from the world of oil and greed and rediscover their relationship to the land and their heritage.
In essence, this is the story of a violent collision between the world of the Osage Indians and the world of the whites. But, Hogan reminds us, “it's more than a race war. . .it is a war with the Earth.” The oilfields create “disturbances of earth [that] made for disturbances of life.” Just as “the dark number of skeletal derricks” constantly turn the sky “red from fire”-“hellfire”-the Earth creaks, moans, and erupts in the hearts of men, pervading their dreams and pushing them into insanity.
Review © 2005 by Justin Symington and RSiSS
Palmer Trinity School