SciFi and More from Duane Simolke

November is Native American History Month. Visit that site for information about identity, art, history, culture, and much more. Since today is also Veterans Day, the Library of Congress’s information about Native American Veterans on the Willing to Serve home page is also timely, bringing attention to individuals from the Navajo Code Talkers to Native people currently serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The Acorn Gathering, a fundraiser for cancer research, includes Native American themes. “Finding Acorns in Winter,” one of the stories I wrote for the collection, involves a young woman who wants to honor her Comanche ancestors while helping an elderly woman. Bill Wetzel, a Blackfeet Indian, wrote the story “Nachos Are Green And Ducks Appear To Be Blue At Town Pump In Cut Bank, Montana.” Despite a strange title, a nonlinear structure, and a sometimes comical tone, that story hits upon some hard facts about reservation life. Wetzel also contributed a sweet, romantic story called “A Morning by the River.”

Though it takes place on a fictionalized version of Earth and on a colonized planet, my novel Degranon: A Science Fiction Adventure involves a family that we might see as American Indian, First Nation, or Native American. There is no mention of particular tribes, however.

Of course, I’m only part Choctaw and Cherokee. You can find First Nation writers and stories with Native American Authors and Native American Traditional Storytelling.

Please also visit the blog Native American News.