Writing for Connection: Cross-Cultural Understanding in James Welch’s Historical Fiction

Abstract

Writing for ConnectionCross-Cultural Understanding in James Welch’s Historical Fiction Joseph L. Coulombe (bio) In Fools Crow and The Heartsong of Charging Elk, James Welch examines the social and cultural links between Natives and non-Natives, demonstrating how different peoples and cultures intersect in both positive and negative ways. While current scholarship tends to privilege autonomous tribal knowledge systems, this essay explores an equally important trend that Welch helped to inaugurate.1 In his historical fiction, Welch emphasizes connections between cultures—lessening differences between cultural groups and fostering mutual respect in the process—without losing sight of the historical outrages committed upon Native peoples. His earlier novel, Fools Crow (1986), recreates the period of first contact between Blackfeet tribes and Euro-Americans to illuminate the alliances and conflicts, the treaties and wars, and the cultural exchanges and political inequities that nearly destroyed a way of life over 130 years ago. The latter novel, The Heartsong of Charging Elk (2000), begins where Fools Crow left off, focusing on the shift to reservation life among the Oglala Sioux after white America stole their lands. In both novels Welch compels readers to reevaluate common versions of U.S. history. He initially places most readers in the role of outsider, but he ultimately invites them into distinct tribal cultures to deepen their understanding and expand their awareness of similarities between ostensibly different peoples. Although Welch’s fiction appeals to all types of readers—Native, non-Native, academic, and general—this essay considers the ways in which Welch targets a popular audience interested in [End Page 1] but not fluent in Native studies or specific tribal cultures. In a 1995 interview Welch said: I feel the need to present Indians in a way that would be educational to readers, and I hope it would be entertaining, and really to bring some sort of understanding to the outside community of what life is like for Indians on reservations and Indians in historical times. (Bellinelli) A sizable portion of his intended audience seems to be readers in the “outside community,” and he addresses this audience in a manner that highlights the links between people of different cultural backgrounds. His presentation of Native words and near-translations, his descriptions of cultural practices, his recounting of tribal stories, his use of humor, and his emphasis upon the importance of community all offer insight into the shared qualities of a common humanity. By demonstrating similarities as well as showcasing differences, Welch’s historical novels serve to empower and liberate Native people and communities, a stated goal of indigenous scholar-activists Devon Abbott Mihesuah and Angela Cavender Wilson, among others.2 Fools Crow and Heartsong treat racial issues and relationships in a manner that defines the present as much as the past, effectively dismantling many misconceptions and stereotypes that support discrimination today. Although clearly intent upon correcting the historical record, Welch also offers hope for the future, and he targets a general readership to influence popular attitudes. He uses fiction to break down barriers, showing readers that intersections of belief and practice between people makes assaults on one group essentially an attack on the self. James Clifford argues, “‘Cultural’ difference is no longer a stable, exotic otherness; self-other relations are matters of power and rhetoric rather than of essence” (14). Harnessing the power of literature, Welch challenges rigid racial and cultural categories—while still honoring differences—and he reveals shared motivations, doubts, and ideas in order to break down constructed divisions in our past, present, and future. [End Page 2] His focus on connections between people does not prevent Fools Crow and Heartsong from acting also as resistance literature.3 Both novels explicitly subvert prevailing stereotypes about Natives. While writing Fools Crow, Welch himself said: “I’m trying to write from the inside-out, because most historical novels are written from the outside looking in. [. . . From the perspective of Fools Crow] the white people are the real strangers. They’re the threatening presence out there all the time” (McFarland 4–5). Welch’s Native-centered approach in Fools Crow decenters many readers, compelling them to rethink conventional attitudes regarding the expansion of the United States and the social...