Last week Thursday, author and explorer Robert “Bob” Downes presented his show, “Life in Native America 400 Years Ago” at the Van Pelt Library at Michigan Tech. The show comes as part of his effort to promote his new novel, Windigo Moon, a Native American epic released last month. In his presentation, Downes informed listeners of the history behind his novel, which begins in the year 1588 in the “lost century” of the 1500s, when disease began sweeping the continent with the arrival of the first European explorers. The show, which Downes has been presenting in libraries and bookstores in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois, provides a taste of the beliefs, traditions and history of the Ojibwe, or Anishinaabek, in the Great Turtle Island 400 years ago.
Windigo Moon is set in the Upper Great Lakes and tells a lively, colorful story involving Ashagi (Blue Heron), a beautiful Ojibwe woman who is abducted from her village during a raid conducted by the Sioux, and an Ojibwe youth named Misko (Red Bear) who becomes her rescuer. In a tale filled with drama, danger and warfare, Downes manages to weave a complex and touching narrative that exemplifies many of the deep cultural values of the Ojibwe people, approaching these values on their own terms to create a story of great empathic power. The novel is also imbued with a sense of magical realism and features many of the supernatural beings and monsters of the Ojibwe. It also paints a vivid picture of many of the struggles of life in Native America, including diseases such as measles, viral hepatitis and smallpox which wiped out dozens of civilizations by the time the first colonists arrived.
Downes’s scholarship is remarkable in both his novel and in the presentation he gave as part of his book tour at Michigan Tech, where he shared that he drew from over 50 books in constructing an informed foundation upon which to write Windigo Moon. His authorship of the novel, however, happened almost as a matter of chance. Windigo Moon began as a short story that Downes wrote more than 25 years before the book was published, and was something written for his own enjoyment. Later on, Downes wrote another story, “The Raid,” which his daughter encouraged him to submit to Grand Rapids ArtPrize, an international writing contest. When the story won first prize, Downes was encouraged to continue developing it.
Downes’ interest in Native America has been lifelong, beginning when he was a young child. “My father was a farmer and while plowing the fields back in the 1940s he turned up scores of arrowheads and tools left by the Odawa at our family farm,” he revealed. “It led me to believe at an early age that there were once far more Native peoples living in North America than we can begin to imagine. That fact has been borne out by research in recent years.”
“I hope that readers will appreciate that there were once far more Indians living in the Great Turtle Island than we can imagine today. I hope readers will think about them from time to time and their sacrifice; recognize that we walk in their footsteps,” Downes says.“I also hope to open a door for Native writers, who have all the elements of tradition and myth to write their own versions of books like ‘Lord of the Rings’ or ‘Game of Thrones.’”
Downes has also begun preparing a prequel to Windigo Moon, entitled “He Who Outruns the Wolves.” The prequel is set in the early 1500s and is based on the clash between Native Americans and the Spanish conquistadores. He said, “I’ve got the outline of HWOTW done…First, however, I will be publishing a thriller, ‘Bicycle Hobo,’ about a crazed cyclist who rides the country looking for the RV driver who killed his wife. It’s a modern take on Moby-Dick. Look for it next year.”
To learn more about Robert Downes and any of the books he has written, visit http://www.robertdownes.com.
