Sovereign Worlds
Let’s Talk About It, Oklahoma (LTAIO)
Let’s Talk About It, Oklahoma is a great way to connect with neighbors over books and ideas. It is a reading and discussion series which consists of 4-5 sessions, each featuring a book from the chosen discussion theme. A humanities scholar opens each session telling about the author’s life, giving historical context to the book, sharing its contemporary relevance, and explaining how the book ties into the overarching theme. Participants then discuss their own thoughts about the book.
Starting in August, we are offering the series “Sovereign Worlds.” The search for sovereignty is a persistent theme in each of the books in this series. Readers will have a greater understanding of the difficulties faced by those of minority cultures trying to adapt to life in the midst of a larger and often intolerant society. Sign up at the front desk and get a copy of the first book. Each monthly discussion will take place at 6:30 p.m. in the upstairs meeting room. Come by the library to register and pick up a copy of the book.
If you are not able to participate in the discussions but are interested in reading the books, we will be happy to order them for you through interlibrary loan. Ask at the front desk for more information.
Custer Died for Your Sins by Vine Deloria, Jr.
Thursday, Aug. 2
The author, using an ironic voice and a great deal of humor, speaks for his people in this witty confutation of almost everything the white man “knows” about Native Americans including such topics as U.S. race relations, federal bureaucracies and social scientists.
After Columbus: The Smithsonian Chronicle of the North American Indians
by Herman J. Viola
Thursday, Sept. 6
Perhaps the most important point to glean from After Columbus is that no single history of the American Indian is possible for the simple fact that the peoples of the Americas were – and are – as culturally diverse as the peoples of Europe.
Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World
by Jack Weatherford
Thursday, Oct. 4
The expression “Indian Giver” has come to mean a person who takes back a gift, but as readers of Jack Weatherford’s insightful book will discover, if Indians were able to rescind the gifts they have given Europeans, the world would be filled with sick, hungry, and miserable folks deprived of chocolate, pizzas, and a variety of drugs that cure us of everything from constipation to malaria.
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
Thursday, Nov. 1
Love Medicine is the first novel of the Chippewa writer Louise Erdrich and is part of a series of novels that document the continuing encroachment of white civilization on the Native American community.
The Indian Lawyer by James Welch
Thursday, Dec. 6
Sylvester Yellow Calf is a successful lawyer, respected both by his peers on the reservation and by the white establishment, but while he may be claiming a measure of independence in the world at large, he risks sacrificing his sense of himself as an Indian.
Books, theme materials, and services for this series are provided by “Let’s Talk About It, Oklahoma,” a project of the Oklahoma Humanities Council, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Funding for this series is provided by grants from the Inasmuch Foundation and the Kirkpatrick Family Fund.
