The Uwharrie people no longer exist as an identifiable group in North Carolina but David Fuller Cook has used their name in this novel set on a Indian reservation in an unnamed state, possibly North Carolina. The novel is narrated by Warren Eubanks, a member of the tribe who has grown up in the care of his grandparents. Warren, whose Indian name is The Seed, moves back in forth in time, talking about people and events in his childhood, and stories of earlier times, trying to understand Native American culture, the intentions of white people and institutions, and the choices that his relatives and neighbors have made. Shifting federal government policies, tribal government, mineral rights, Christian mission schools, and the American Indian Movement all appear in the narrative, but the book never feels like a history lesson. Instead, the reader is taken into the narrator’s world, becoming immersed in the reservation and the lives of its people.
Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.
