Community Read Challenge 2

1. Read pages 12-97, and engage with other readers by sharing your comments and reflections. Some questions to think about as you read
   • How does the novel address the impact of government policies, including the Indian Relocation Act of 1956?
   • Reflect on the ways the characters are affected by societal assumptions about appearance; for example, people stare at Tony and make assumptions because of how he looks, and Dene carries the weight of people trying to place him as “not recognizably Native” but “ambiguously nonwhite” (p. 28).
   • Dene has a conversation with a “white hipster” about the Gertrude Stein quote that gives the novel its title (p. 38–9). What is the significance of choosing There There as the title of the novel?
   • How do names and naming function in the chapters “Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield” and “Edwin Black”?
   • How does Opal’s mom explain the reason for the Occupation of Alcatraz (p. 48)?
   • “Bill Davis” and “Calvin Johnson” are the first chapters in “Part II: Reclaim.” What are each of these characters working to reclaim?
   • What understanding do readers have of Oakland (including the importance of the Oakland Coliseum) in the first 97 pages of the novel?

This week’s Community Read Challenge features professor Browning Neddeau
Dr. Neddeau is enrolled in the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. He joined CSU, Chico in 2019, jointly appointed in the School of Education and Department of Multicultural and Gender Studies. He serves as the Chair of the National Art Education Association's Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Commission and on the National Advisory Council for the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education (NCORE). Locally, he is a Board Member of the Chico Arts and Culture Foundation and a School Board Member for Ipakanni Early College Charter School.

Your work centers around the power of storytelling. Can you share what this part of your work means to you and why stories are so important?

Stories are how we understand the world. Our lived experiences are stories, too. I am an enrolled Tribal citizen of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. In my Tribe, our stories help us understand the world through the voices of our ancestors and elders. Stories are sacred gifts. In my Tribe, we have stories that are told only during certain seasons, like winter stories. These stories go to sleep for the other seasons; thus, we must listen and learn from them in the time they are awake. Stories are one important aspect of cultural survivance. You can also look at stories through the lens of thrivance. As I reflect on and respond to life circumstances, I remember that I am part of my ancestors’ dreams. I am what they dreamed. How I engage with ancestral gifts is part of my story for the next seven generations to learn from and grow.

In a 2018 interview, Tommy Orange said, “Native people look like a lot of different things, and we are in cities now—I mean, 70 percent of Native people live in cities now. And we just need a new story to build from, and I always wanted to try to do that.” Can you help us situate what Orange means by “new” stories? For instance, in There There, one of the characters (Dene Oxendene) seeks out “new stories” in his oral history of Native peoples in Oakland. How do you think about “new” stories relating to “old” stories?

This question reminds me of my scholarship concerning culturally sustaining/revitalizing pedagogies. “Old” stories are still very much alive. Perhaps we can think of “new” stories as how each person is a builder of culture and not simply a consumer of it. The question also speaks to how we engage with our understanding of the world, including the importance of place. As places change over time, our stories may develop, too. This is not to say that stories change, but life stories collect additional chapters. Thus, “new” stories relate to “old” stories based on your situation. In Orange’s interview and book, he intentionally situates place in understanding story.

Tommy Orange is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, but like many of the characters in his novel, There There he was born in Oakland. You, too, are an enrolled member of Citizen Potawatomi Nation of Oklahoma, but were born and raised in Hollister, California. Would you be willing to share part of your family's story?

My family has a lot of different fibers woven together to create our collective family story. My father was born in Fort Defiance, Arizona, but lived his early years in Shawnee, Oklahoma on our Tribe’s reservation. My mother, on the other hand, spent her earliest years in Minnesota before relocating to Oakland, California. My maternal grandmother was a Holocaust survivor. Interestingly, my maternal and paternal grandfathers both served in the U.S. military during World War II and were stationed in the same area. Yet, both sides of my family did not meet until many decades later, in California. My father moved out to California after finishing his graduate degree at Arizona State University. He secured a teaching position in California, eventually moving up to the San Francisco Bay Area where he met my mother. My parents eventually moved to Hollister, California where they both enjoyed lengthy careers as public school teachers. During some summers, we would have extended stays in Shawnee, Oklahoma. These extended stays ended when my paternal grandmother walked on. My partner and I continue to travel back to Shawnee, Oklahoma to participate in my Tribe’s Family Reunion Festival every summer (except during COVID-19 which led to canceling the Family Reunion Festival). The Family Reunion Festival includes different parts such as: powwow, hand games, language classes, regalia making, and many other important practices. Each Tribal citizen may invite one guest to attend. Potawatomi ways of knowing and doing guide my life.