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Most of what I've written has been published as e-books and is available at Amazon. Match Play is a golf/suspense novel. Dust of Autumn is a bloody one set in upstate New York. Prairie View is set in South Dakota, with a final scene atop Rattlesnake Butte. Life in the Arbor is a children's book about Rollie Rabbit and his friends (on about a fourth grade level). The Black Widow involves an elaborate extortion scheme. Happy Valley is set in a retirement community. Doggy-Dog World is my memoir. And ES3 is a description of my method for examining English sentence structure.
In case anyone is interested in any of my past posts, an archive list can be found at the bottom of this page. I'd appreciate any feedback you may have by sending me an e-mail note--jertrav33@aol.com. Thanks for your interest.

Friday, September 18

What's in a name? As I was reading the weekly newspaper from my hometown, Mobridge, South Dakota, a very small village located on the east bank of the Missouri River, now a huge body of water known as the Oahe Reservoir, I was struck by the number of last names of many native American residents of Mobridge, struck by the unusual qualities of those names, often the beauty of them. I read about Jake Takes the Gun, Samuel Takes the Knife, Labre Afraid of Hawk, Cheryl Long Feather, Fabian Comes Flying, Mark Iron Wing, Orivile Marrow Bone, Athea Little Bear, Franklin Red Bear, Keith Looking Back, Joy Circles Eagle, Justin Flying Horse, Luke End of Horn, Thomas Iron Moccasin, Cory Yellow Ear Rings. And the name of a young man who is the Standing Rock Tribal Chairman, Ron His Horse Is Thunder. His is a name I not only admire but also envy for its beauty and poetic imagery. How does one live up to a name like that?

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3 comments:

Erica R. said...

Despite having very beautiful last names, many of these individuals are despicable. Especially His Horse is Thunder, I hate to be judgemental but when a man thinks he is indeed a medicine man and wears his hair in an untraditional manner, I can't help but feel an utter disdain and little to no respect for him.
I am a young native american woman from the Hunkpapa band, and while you reveled at their last names I could only think of how the good people of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation are often forgotten and the bad ones thrive. My grandparents were great people, my grandfather spoke in fluent lakota, as did my grandmother. They took care of a little church on the plains and raised a family there.
Despite their best efforts, alcoholism and drugs took over their family when they weren't even dead and in the ground yet. I feel bad for my uncles and aunts as well as their children but the foundation was there and I feel they were all too weak.
These individuals whose last names you envy...thank goodness they are only names you admire. Many of these individuals beat their children and are gone on long drunken trips...I won't even go into the details of how some of these people really are. It's sad that they only have a pretty last name to be proud of...but they didn't earn it, the people before them earned those beautiful names.
To answer your question, a name does not make the person, its the person who make their own name. And although they are great last names...that is all they are, and I can tell you for a fact, they these are the greatest individuals of my area. The greatest people I know are my parents, they work hard, never drank, and kept their children on a good path. And I know many others who have achieved the same, but sadly it is only a small percentage of our population.
Perhaps you should visit this area to see it for what it really is...it can be so beautiful...or so depressing, depending on who you chose to keep around you.

July 7, 2010 at 8:29 AM
Jerry Travis said...

Dear Erica,
Thank you for your comments. I know the plight of too many native Americans living on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, having grown up on the eastern edge near Wakpala, S.D. I meant no offense when I spoke of the names, only their unusualness. The lives of reservation dwellers may be somewhat better than they were fifty years ago, but are still distressingly marked by alcoholism, drug addiction, fatal auto accidents, suicides. I can recommend two books you might read: William Chapman's "Remember the Wind" (1963) and my novel which deals with the issues involving native Amercans, "Prairie View."

July 12, 2010 at 1:28 PM
Anonymous said...

I know you meant no offense sir, I just feel the owners of those names don't honor them at all. I will definately look up your book, it's always nice to compare and contrast peoples' diffrent ideas about life on the reservation. In many ways, I can see why you'd admire the names :) I'm a decendent of a Charging Bear in the Rosebud area, a strong name can generally give you an advantage in life. But, again, it is up to the individual to make the most of their life so that their name is remembered in a good way.

January 27, 2011 at 9:07 PM

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