University of Montana History Professor Ken Lockridge's Comments about Blackfeet Sorrow

Dear Mr. Juneau, Thanks for the help. It was an honor to read your manuscript, something long overdue and done with such skill. Thanks for tolerating my ignorance. I've tried to learn as much as I could about Indian cultures and politics since I came here twenty years ago, helped by listening to Rich Clow, but there is so much I'll never know, or understand. If I could have started with your book, my learning would have been so much easier and a lot more profound. It's a scandal this narrative was not available before, but who had the skill and knowledge combined? Speaking only as a reader, I thought the work got even deeper toward the end, with the thoughtful interweaving of issues and the emphasis on the cumulative psychological impacts. Like any editor, I thought that this extraordinary and convincing complexity called for just a little more help for the reader, as you mind raced through a dazzling series of issues, events, and consequences; seeing the connectedness in all things. But overall, there is nothing remotely in its league for accessibliity, doumentary authenticity, and sheer power and skill . Your remarks in your message help me see the "blood" issue in a modern and constructive context. Thank you. And I certainly understood throughout that your mission was to free the Blackfeet readers from the burdens of history while buttressing their justifiable pride with the crucial facts well narrated. That success was powerful. The book's potential to tear the blinds of racism from white eyes, likewise.made the work exciting for me from the very first pages to the last. We have to keep on trying, and in your narrative I see for the first time the possibility that it can be done. Thank you again. You have a fine son, though it seems a decade since I saw him. Ken Lockridge Ps: Your son can quote me from these emails as he wishes, though I'll bet Rich Clow would carry a lot more weight!