Walking Two Worlds

by Joseph Bruchac, David Fadden (Illustrator)

“Eee-leee! Master Parker,” Reverend Stone, headmaster at the Baptist school, called. “The answer, please.”

“Four,” Ely thought.

But he also thought something else. Why is English so strange? In Seneca every word always meant the same thing. But in English the same sound could mean different things. It could be four. Or for. Or fore.

So begins this inspiring story of the early education of a famous Native American who gained greatness in the white man's world while staying true to his Seneca people.

Hasanoanda was his Indian name. But in mission school he became Ely. He encountered racism and deceit but, against all odds, did not give up on his quest to walk between two worlds.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Native American, Cultural

120 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2015

About the author

Joseph Bruchac lives with his wife, Carol, in the Adirondack mountain foothills town of Greenfield Center, New York, in the same house where his maternal grandparents raised him. Much of his writing draws on that land and his Abenaki ancestry. Although his American Indian heritage is only one part of an ethnic background that includes Slovak and English blood, those Native roots are the ones by which he has been most nourished. He, his younger sister Margaret, and his two grown sons, James and Jesse, continue to work extensively in projects involving the preservation of Abenaki culture, language and traditional Native skills, including performing traditional and contemporary Abenaki music with the Dawnland Singers.

He holds a B.A. from Cornell University, an M.A. in Literature and Creative Writing from Syracuse and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the Union Institute of Ohio. His work as a educator includes eight years of directing a college program for Skidmore College inside a maximum security prison. With his wife, Carol, he is the founder and Co-Director of the Greenfield Review Literary Center and The Greenfield Review Press. He has edited a number of highly praised anthologies of contemporary poetry and fiction, including Songs from this Earth on Turtle's Back, Breaking Silence (winner of an American Book Award) and Returning the Gift. His poems, articles and stories have appeared in over 500 publications, from American Poetry Review, Cricket and Aboriginal Voices to National Geographic, Parabola and Smithsonian Magazine. He has authored more than 70 books for adults and children, including The First Strawberries, Keepers of the Earth (co-authored with Michael Caduto), Tell Me a Tale, When the Chenoo Howls (co-authored with his son, James), his autobiography Bowman's Store and such novels as Dawn Land, The Waters Between, Arrow Over the Door and The Heart of a Chief. Forthcoming titles include Squanto's Journey (Harcourt), a picture book, Sacajawea (Harcourt), an historical novel, Crazy Horse's Vision (Lee & Low), a picture book, and Pushing Up The Sky (Dial), a collection of plays for children. His honors include a Rockefeller Humanities fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship for Poetry, the Cherokee Nation Prose Award, the Knickerbocker Award, the Hope S. Dean Award for Notable Achievement in Children's Literature and both the 1998 Writer of the Year Award and the 1998 Storyteller of the Year Award from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. In 1999, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas.

As a professional teller of the traditional tales of the Adirondacks and the Native peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Joe Bruchac has performed widely in Europe and throughout the United States from Florida to Hawaii and has been featured at such events as the British Storytelling Festival and the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, Tennessee. He has been a storyteller-in-residence for Native American organizations and schools throughout the continent, including the Institute of Alaska Native Arts and the Onondaga Nation School. He discusses Native culture and his books and does storytelling programs at dozens of elementary and secondary schools each year as a visiting author.

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walking Two Worlds is a juvenile historical fiction novel about Ely Parker, his Seneca name being Hasanoanda, who became one of the famed indigenous figures for Indigenous rights & equalities. As a child, he lives on the reservations, but prior to his birth, his mother a dream that foretold that he would be speaker between his people and the white men that have taken over the lands. Believing this, his parents sent him off to a Baptist school where he could learn English. While it wasn't easy for him, Ely does learn faster than his peers, but he still doubts himself. To help, his father sent him off to his Uncle's to help Ely train in the way of his people. Once he gains confidence in his training, does he decide to go back to school to learn English better. In the process, his fast learning leads him to attend Yates Academy, where he developed his speech skills much better and attracts potential allies to help in his cause against an oil company trying to take over the reservation.

Though a short book and fictionalized re-telling of Parker's early life, it presents its story well of the time period for Native Americans. Stuck into reservations, Ely and many other indigenous people were separated from the modernizing society away from them. It details how Ely wanted to learn English in order to help his people keep their land from being stolen, but also the racism that persisted against them as they were looked as savages of a wildland. In continuing his pursuit of knowledge, Parker's story represents the themes of social change and, at times, the power of words over actions. As the afterword tells of how he continued to write letters and made meetings with many political leaders that eventually kept reservation free from being taken. Times may be different now, but this book presents the idea of how cultural clashes and social divisions were like back in the early American era.

[SAC Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bruchac is a writer who mixes humor and drama to show what it is like to be native. Having lived on American Indian Reservations myself, there really are two different worlds between different tribal cultures and mainstream American culture. However, in modern times, all my friends on the reservation know both worlds so well. This book shows the hardships of learning to walk in both worlds. If you are interested in different cultures or understand what it is like to navigate two different societies read this book.

[Nicole]

I didn't read this book but it was on my shelf and a 3rd grader picked it up and read it - in one day! She said it was really interesting and seemed to like it. And she has always refused to read historical biographies before!

[Judy E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seneca student Ely Parker deals with the racism of the white world and maintains his Native values in the USA before the Civil War. Joseph Bruchac always writes a compelling and well-written story.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insight into a different culture!!

[Salsabrarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fictionalized account of the life of Hasanoanda, an Iroquois boy who grew up educated in white schools and represented the interests of his tribe to the white American government. This is part of a new series that I was not aware of until now, PathFinders, which features books by Native authors about Native characters and stories. The hi-lo approach brings diversity and unheard stories to a wide audience. I hope this series grows its exposure. For myself, I will look into other titles in the series.

[☯Emily Ginder · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fictionalized story of Ely Parker, a Native-American who eventually worked for U. S. Grant during the Civil War and later during Grant's administration. The book shows the difficulties of being a part of two different cultures and the steps that Parker took to bridge that gap.

The book is easy to read and is written for reluctant readers.

[Cedric · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a great book that told the reader about how the native Americans were struggling and it also showed how the native Americans used to live. It was a fun read and i do suggest that other people at least try it out.