She Has Words Like Thunder

By Valerie Chandler

Living in quiet Maple City, Michigan is multiple award-winning Native American author Lois Beardslee. A Lacondon/Ojibwe teacher, artist, illustrator and former cherry farmer, Beardslee will speak about socioeconomic perspectives as an Anishinaabe author at 7 p.m., April 13, in Milliken Auditorium at Dennos Museum Center on the Northwestern Michigan College campus in Traverse City.

“I plan to show images of my artwork, to show how I’ve been able to use traditional art forms, like the (birch) bark cut-outs, in contemporary venues,” Beardslee said. “Because the Grand Traverse region grew so quickly in the first decades of the 21st century, local Indigenous artwork was buried in the art forms and culture of a changing cultural norm.”

She will read from a variety of her works, including her most recent book, “Words Like Thunder: New and Used Anishinaabe Prayers” (Wayne State University Press, 2020), which won a 2021 Michigan Notable Book Award and a silver medal in the 2021 Midwest Independent Book Awards. With added distinction, she’s the first Native American to be awarded the Michigan Notable Book Award.

“In presentations, I often read pieces that haven’t been published yet,” she explained. “What I read and talk about depends upon my interaction with the audience. Audience interaction and participation (are) very important to me.

“I think that I surprise my audiences sometimes, because people show up expecting something that represents their stereotypes about Native American people, but I usually turn those stereotypes upside-down, showing how our traditional stories are fluid, pragmatic, and adaptable. We have many versions of any one story, to meet the needs of the audience or the storyteller at any given time …

“We have stories about everything from domestic violence and gender issues to basic coping mechanisms for daily issues, like getting kids to share their toys or eat their vegetables. While our characters and stories are mnemonic devices for compressing knowledge into formats that capture people’s attention and entertain, they are not frozen in time and place, as they often appear when our stories are told by cultural outsiders. I take a very strong stance on the issue of cultural appropriation and “faux Native American literature” told by cultural outsiders.”

Beardslee grew up in the Traverse City area and traveled to remote family bush camps in northern Ontario. Her childhood experiences included hunting and fishing the shores of Lake Superior and logging and farming in northern Michigan. She and her family of nine siblings lost their parents at a young age, but they were provided for, and cultural traditions were still passed on to them. During our conversation, she recalled that her grandmother taught her and her mother how to make sweetgrass baskets, but the thread they used is becoming harder to find.

She received an associate’s degree in Fine Arts from Northwestern Michigan College and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the History of Native American Art from Oberlin College and the University of New Mexico, respectively. She also earned educational certification from the University of New Mexico and has completed educational coursework from Ferris State University.

While relevant to Native Americans of the Great Lakes region, Beardslee’s topics and literary works are modernized and observe no boundaries. She entices readers with traditions and cultural stories while emphasizing important and
critical current topics such as climate change, institutionalized racism, stereotypes in literature and education, as well as inequalities and the impacts upon Native American communities. Her work also praises and acknowledges her strong ethnic identity and the Indigenous people’s traditions, culture, strength and endurance.

Her writing is considered pioneering and a bit edgy; her published work tends to be well-known among Native American scholars. One of the “Words Like Thunder” poems, “Fiction Versus Nonfiction”, was featured in the New York Times Sunday Magazine for National Poetry Month in 2020.

She has written both fiction and non-fiction; her best-known work is “The Women’s Warrior Society”, (University of Arizona Press, 2008). This work and an excerpt from one of her other books called “F-ed by the V-Monologues” were published in News From Indian Country that sparked debates and perceptions about women of color in the feminist movement. As a result, Beardslee was branded as a feminist Indian writer, which she admits can make her nervous at times. We live in an age when it’s scary for minorities: some fear retaliation, some fear being kidnapped or murdered. For a number of families and communities, this is their everyday reality. Beardslee told me several of her written works have been on pause, just waiting for the right time to be released because the world may not always be ready for what she has to say.

Her other books include “Not Far Away, The Real Life Adventures of Ima Pipiig”, (AltaMira, 2007); “Rachel’s Children, Stories from a Contemporary Native American Woman”, (AltaMira, 2005); and “Lies to Live By”, (Michigan State University Press, 2003). She has a considerable number of other poems, short stories, and contributing works in literary journals and media.

Through the years, she has received a multitude of awards from news media, museums and literary publications and organizations.

“The award that means the most to me is the 2007 Wordcraft Native Writers’ Circle Writer of the Year, (for “Not Far Away, the Real Life Adventures of Ima Pipiig” which is about the impact of post-Brown Decision white-flight on Native Americans north of the Rust Belts of Detroit and Chicago). It’s the only award given by Native American authors to one of their own. Receiving it meant to me that I was successful in meeting the needs of an Indigenous audience. I was able to circumvent what African American author, Toni Morrison, referred to as ‘the white gaze.’ As a Native author, I’m writing for multiple audiences. The market requires me to write for the expectations of cultural outsiders, yet I feel an obligation to write for a Native American audience because we are the only ones who can tell our stories accurately, without bowing to stereotypes.”

Beardslee has also been awarded multiple scholarships and fellowships.

“I also really, REALLY enjoyed the work I did at the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1989, when I was recruited by NASA and received fellowships from both NASA and the U.S. Space Foundation,” she commented in an email. “I was allowed to absolutely revel in my capacity as a math nerd, to enjoy myself learning about and creating math curriculum for distribution in the nation’s public schools. It was the only time my career wasn’t dominated by my ethnicity.”

She and her husband are blessed with one daughter and one son. Besides her reputation as an author, poet and essayist, she is known for having been a prolific artist, creating many baskets, pieces of jewelry, and intricate birch bark cut-outs and bitings. Her work is in museums and private collections around the world.

“Flowering Moon” painting by L. Beardslee will appear in her 2024 book, “We Live Here: Poems for an Ojibwe Calendar Year”.

“Maple Sugar Moon” painting by Lois Beardslee will appear in her 2024 book, “We Live Here: Poems for an Ojibwe Calendar Year”. Skunks hidden in the forest are a humorous cultural reference. Courtesy image.

Beardslee has another book planned for publication in 2024 by Wayne State University Press. “We Live Here: Poems for an Ojibwe Calendar Year” will feature poetry for young adults based on a traditional Ojibwe 13-month calendar and will include her traditional paintings. The objective is to produce an Anishinaabe-based work that inspires Indigenous youth and helps guide them through the public-school experience because, as she explained, there is nothing like this in publication right now.

Lois Beardslee speaks with passion about her writings and the topics she covers. As a fellow Anishinaabe woman, I found our connection to be strong; we could relate without all of the spoken words. I told her I admire that she is blazing a path for the rest of us. She truly speaks “words like thunder.”

Her presentation is free, but advanced registration (Click Here)  is required due to limited seating. A reception will take place immediately following her talk. Milliken Auditorium is located near the college campus entrance at 1410 Campus Dr., Traverse City. Call the box office at 231-995-1055 or go to dennosmuseum.org.

Valerie Chandler lives in Wellston with her husband Matthew and their border collie/Australian shepherd. She is a citizen and employee of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. She is also a cancer survivor, loves to spend time with her family and has many interests.

More Stories By/With Valerie Chandler Can Be Found HERE.