First published 2013 by Left Coast Press, Inc.
Published 2016 by Routledge
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711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright 2013 by Waylon Gary White Deer
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
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Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Published outside of the United States and Canada under ISBN 978-1-85607-855-9 by Currach Press, 55A Spruce Avenue, Stillorgan Industrial Park, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file
White Deer, Waylon Gary.
Touched by thunder / Waylon Gary White Deer.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-61132-349-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. White Deer, Waylon Gary. 2. Choctaw Indians--Biography. 3.
Choctaw Indians--History. 4. Choctaw Indians--Social life and customs.
I. Title.
E99.C8W64 2013
976.00497387--dc23
2013000597
Cover illustration by Waylon Gary White Deer
Cover design by Bill Bolger
ISBN: 978-1-61132-349-8 paperback
Authors Note
Because each chapter has a different life theme, some of the dates and events youll read about in one chapter will repeat in others. This is OK. It only means that the same periods of time are being revisited through other perspectives.
List of Illustrations: Titles, Credits, and Descriptions
Front cover title: Choctaw Dancers
Credit: Gooddog Films
Frontispiece title for foreword: An Arrow Through Time
Description: This painting depicts the story of the 1847 Choctaw donation to the Famine in
Ireland, travelling as an arrow through time.
Credit: Courtesy of Action from Ireland (Afri)
Frontispiece title: Spirit of the Earth
Description: This painting was commissioned for Feast or Famine by Emmett McCourt and published by Guildhall Press.
Credit: Courtesy of Emmett McCourt
Interior image #1: Choctaw Drink Water Songs
Description: Once the people were on a long journey, and began perishing from thirst.
Flocks of birds led them to water, and then gave the people songs.
Interior image #2: The Wine Singers
Description: A 49 is a Plains Indian after-hours social dance where things can get hazy.
Cartoon: Otto Von Wieghorst
Description: Dr Von Wieghorst has some interesting ideas about time.
Frontispiece title: Holy Family
Description: This painting was completed at Kimmage Manor, Dublin.
Interior image #1: Red, White and Blue
Description: Indian boarding school.
Interior image #2: Stickball Spirits
Description: Old-time stickball players with medicine man and drummer.
Cartoon: Otto and Oo-tah, Xmas 1988 (again)
Description: Since Otto thinks that time may flow backwards, Xmas 1988 may well be a repeat for the Von Wieghorsts.
Frontispiece title: Rez Boys
Description: Reservation guys down at the casino.
Interior Image #1: Choctaw stickball
Description: This painting is typical of my early work, and is in the old two-dimensional style of traditional Indian painting once referred to as Bambi Art.
Interior image #2: Gallup Inter-Tribal Ceremonial
Description: Depiction of an annual event which features fourteen tribal groups.
Credit: Courtesy of Irial Mac MurcM
Cartoon: Visually Incorrect
Description: This kind of cartoon sometimes got me in trouble with school instructors.
Frontispiece title: Big Time Contest Pow Wow
Description: When theres money to win, contest dancers can sometimes get crafty.
Interior image #1: At the Edge
Description: At the edge of the neon are the faces of Yeis that were in the first paintings I can remember.
Credit: Courtesy of Michael Powell
Interior image #2: Little Brother of War
Description: Stickball has always been more than a game.
Cartoon: Bunny on the Cross
Description: Commercialism and religion often merge.
Frontispiece: Intertwined
Description: Depicts the Choctaw donation to Ireland, with a Choctaw mother holding an
Irish child.
Credit: Courtesy of Irial Mac MurcM
Interior image #1: Choctaw Trail of Tears
Description: At the time of the 1847 Choctaw donation to Famine Ireland the Choctaw people were still being driven out of Mississippi.
Interior image #2: Solidarity in Green and Red
Description: Choctaws at the beginning of the 20th Century. The painting depicts solidarity with the Irish North and freedom for all indigenous peoples.
Credit: Courtesy of Irial Mac MurcM
Cartoon: The Prophet Bubba
Description: In Oklahoma, Christianity and Cowboy culture often merge.
Foreword
Foreword
Waylon Gary White Deer has, since 1995, been a frequently invited and popular visitor to Ireland and my hometown of Derry in particular. Like many Irish people who know him, I have a deep affection for Gary, not just because he is a likeable and engaging friend, but also because he is Choctaw the American First Nation who helped Ireland during the Great Hunger An Gorta M0r. I am, therefore, especially honoured to have been asked to write this foreword to his memoir.
Over the past two decades I have travelled on many occasions to the United States of America for meetings on Capitol Hill, The White House and in cities throughout its vast land. The United States is a great country and I have many friends there. Indeed, the Peace Process in Ireland would not have been the success it has been without the support of the United States. For that I will be eternally grateful. Throughout my travels, however, I have been conscious of the plight of Americas diverse and myriad First Nations who suffered horrendously as a result of European colonisation.
Some years ago I was honoured by my sadly departed good friend Floyd Red Crow Westerman, a wonderful actor and musician who notably played the role of Chief Ten Bears in the movie Dances with Wolves. Floyd travelled to Derry City to meet me and he blessed me in his own private spiritual ceremony.
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