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Cheyenne Madonna
A young Native American struggling with the two constants in his life—alcohol and art—in this prize-winning short story collection.Eddie Chuculate’s collection of linked short stories follows Jordan Coolwater from bored child to thoughtful teenager, struggling artist, escaped convict, and finally, father. Gritty, funny, and deeply perceptive, Cheyenne Madonna offers an unsentimental portrait of America, of its dispossessed, its outlaws, and its visionaries.The first story in this debut collection, “Galveston Bay, 1826,” won an O. Henry Prize, and the second, “Yo Yo,” received a Pushcart Prize Special Mention. Admirers of the short stories of Jim Harrison and Annie Proulx will appreciate Chuculate’s steady, confident prose rooted in American realism.“Every sentence is unexpected, yet infallible.” —Ursula K. LeGuin“Eddie Chuculate emerges as an important new talent in his generation of storytellers. He’s a kind of journalist of the soul as he investigates the broken-hearted nation of Indian men.” —Joy Harjo, United States Poet Laureate
167 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2010
6 people are currently reading
562 people want to read
About the author
Eddie Chuculate
5 books46 followersOklahoma native Eddie Chuculate is an American fiction writer and memoirist and is Muscogee (Creek) and Cherokee Indian. He's an enrolled member of the Creek Nation.
His memoir, "This Indian Kid," was published by Scholastic (Focus) in September 2023.
His first book, Cheyenne Madonna, was published in July 2010 by Black Sparrow Books, an imprint of David R. Godine, Publisher, in Boston. A second edition was published in July 2021. Chuculate won a PEN/O. Henry Award for the first story in the collection, "Galveston Bay, 1826." Prize juror Ursula K. Le Guin selected it as her favorite and her essay on the story appears in "O. Henry Prize Stories 2007," published by Anchor/Doubleday.
Chuculate's stories have also appeared in Manoa, Ploughshares, the Iowa Review, Blue Mesa Review, Many Mountains Moving and the Kenyon Review.
He held a Wallace Stegner creative writing fellowship at Stanford University and graduated from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa in 2013 with a master of fine arts degree. He also earned an associate degree at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M.
Chuculate began a journalism career at age 16 while in high school in Muskogee, Okla., and went on to write and edit for several metro daily newspapers. He has also picked pecans, moved furniture, worked as a day laborer, received food stamps and sold his plasma in five states. He has lived in Hanna, Okla.; Jemez Pueblo, N.M.; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Portland, Maine; San Francisco; Oakland; Albuquerque; Denver; and resides in downtown Minneapolis.
His memoir, "This Indian Kid," was published by Scholastic (Focus) in September 2023.
His first book, Cheyenne Madonna, was published in July 2010 by Black Sparrow Books, an imprint of David R. Godine, Publisher, in Boston. A second edition was published in July 2021. Chuculate won a PEN/O. Henry Award for the first story in the collection, "Galveston Bay, 1826." Prize juror Ursula K. Le Guin selected it as her favorite and her essay on the story appears in "O. Henry Prize Stories 2007," published by Anchor/Doubleday.
Chuculate's stories have also appeared in Manoa, Ploughshares, the Iowa Review, Blue Mesa Review, Many Mountains Moving and the Kenyon Review.
He held a Wallace Stegner creative writing fellowship at Stanford University and graduated from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa in 2013 with a master of fine arts degree. He also earned an associate degree at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M.
Chuculate began a journalism career at age 16 while in high school in Muskogee, Okla., and went on to write and edit for several metro daily newspapers. He has also picked pecans, moved furniture, worked as a day laborer, received food stamps and sold his plasma in five states. He has lived in Hanna, Okla.; Jemez Pueblo, N.M.; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Portland, Maine; San Francisco; Oakland; Albuquerque; Denver; and resides in downtown Minneapolis.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 18, 2011
the first story of this plains dude visiting Galveston Island is worth the price alone. Muskogee, Oklahoma resident Chuculate has made a fine book of short stories here, most dealing with the great interior.
March 12, 2025
True, not all the stories soar lyrically, but they all dive deep, and like a songwriter's favorite album, are best appreciated in regard to each other, sometimes read out of order, or read in light of introspection about where one was at age 14, at 26, in thinking about the family ancestors. Natives (Indigenous ppls of Turtle Island for a general geographic index) famously don't proselytize religiously, but the spiritual convictions, tropes, and beliefs are strong. Chuculate plots how the spiritual lessons occur for the protagonist, the young artist Jordan Coolwater--whose life path is a reflection of the adventures, losses, landscapes, and interiority of his ancestors--without getting religious about it, but here are the themes of a Native life after the apocalypse: arbitrary displacement, devastation and loss, contending with intimate violence and facing the violence in oneself, the abyss, the escapism, the realization of the maze of one's life, learning the power of story and memory, and the determination to return to the sacred spiritual homeland of which the ancestors dreamed. In Cheyenne Madonna, though, these actualizations occur through Oklahoma tornadoes and hurricanes, fishing, partying, cruising around in someone's ride, the degradations and celebrations of the Indian art market, fleeing from cities or running back to them, in humid nights, parking lots, over pitchers of beer, and on frozen lakes. As a writer, Chuculate has the gift of the well-placed final sentence and scene that unpacks the reader's heart like a little kid's birthday present: hope you like what you get, and what was it you were expecting? Pretty NDNs telling stories of redemption? I think not: instead, another carving on the soul of Indian Country, for some of us so close to the bone we can know how our great-grandkids might pray.
May 8, 2021
The writing in this book is distinctive, simple, and interesting. I always love to read and study the way a writer composes their figurative language and imagery. I felt like I was right there with the writer throughout all of his stories, like a fly on the wall, witnessing him grow up, and even understanding his battle with alcohol later in his life (given the examples he had, like his father, uncle, and grandparents--he was surrounded by it).
One thing I would've appreciated is more context. I understand that generational trauma perpetuates behaviors such as raging alcoholism and domestic violence, but, for example, I didn't understand the context behind the anti-blackness in the Native community that I read about. I don't understand how two groups who have been so persistently and overtly oppressed by the white man could despise each other. I thought there would be more solidarity, and not that that doesn't exist between some people, but in this story, the racism was prevalent.
With that said, I think historical context and back stories for some of the characters (especially the ones struggling with substance abuse) would have strengthened the book for me. Other than that, it was a "good read."
One thing I would've appreciated is more context. I understand that generational trauma perpetuates behaviors such as raging alcoholism and domestic violence, but, for example, I didn't understand the context behind the anti-blackness in the Native community that I read about. I don't understand how two groups who have been so persistently and overtly oppressed by the white man could despise each other. I thought there would be more solidarity, and not that that doesn't exist between some people, but in this story, the racism was prevalent.
With that said, I think historical context and back stories for some of the characters (especially the ones struggling with substance abuse) would have strengthened the book for me. Other than that, it was a "good read."
February 4, 2025
4 stars for the quality of the writing, the absolutely incredible opening story, and Lisa's chapter. But overall a bit uneven: I wasn't clear for a while that all the stories were about the same protagonist, as he never really gelled for me; and while maybe historical, it felt anti-Black in unpleasant ways (one friend is rightfully distanced by his uncle's racism, but the portrayal of Yo-Yo was very off-putting, and Lisa's ex). Still, a very worthwhile and interesting read, from a Native author with a voice to watch out for.
January 24, 2011
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Famous Indian Artists Charm in Eddie Chuculate’s “Cheyenne Madonna”
A debut collection that was a semi-finalist for this year's Story Prize follows the life of a Creek/Cherokee artist.
By Jenny Shank, 1-24-11
Cheyenne Madonna
by Eddie Chuculate
Black Sparrow Books, 160 pages, $17.95
In one story in Cheyenne Madonna, Eddie Chuculate’s wry and winning debut collection, Jordan Coolwater, the Creek/Cherokee protagonist of the book, sits with his girlfriend in Santa Fe’s plaza, selling handmade jewelry. “Tourists from New Zealand, Australia, or the U.K. would make the most braindead comments,” he explains, “wondering aloud where they ‘might find all the buffalo and teepees,’ or ‘Where does the Trail of Tears start?” Such is the life of an Indian artist, which Chuculate depicts with wit, candor, and warmth. Jordan comes from a family that includes several artists, and one day this will also be his career, in between alcoholic benders and a stint in jail.
The book begins with the O. Henry Prize winning story “Galveston Bay, 1826,” which functions as a sort of prologue to the six Jordan Coolwater stories that follow. A band of four Cheyenne men make their way south on horseback to Galveston Bay to visit the ocean for the first time. “This wasn’t a war party or a scouting trip,” Chuculate writes, “This was plain-and-simple joyriding.” As they approach the ocean, they befriend the local Indians by offering their chief a horse. They enjoy seafood and taste the ocean’s salty water, but soon decide to ditch the remainder of their new friends’ all-night dance party and return home.
A hurricane strikes, and of the four only one, Old Bull, survives to tell the tale. “He embellished when telling the children, who were awestruck to hear of white men from different worlds who rode on big ships with billowing sails.” This story is appealing because it shows pre-contact Indians not as graceful, mythic, nature-loving, romanticized figures, but as regular dudes, who mess up and annoy each other.
Why did the hurricane strike these men down? As Chuculate writes in another story, “Whoever said things happen for a reason is a damned fool or an evolution theorist.” One hundred and fifty years later, we meet Jordan, who lives with his grandparents in Oklahoma on Creek land in the house of his great-great-grandfather, who survived the Trail of Tears. The elders are still embellishing the tales they tell the youngsters and going on joyrides through the country. Despite the facts that Jordan’s father is an absent alcoholic and his family lives in relative poverty ("For us, telephones were exotic, shining objects in other peoples houses—exotic like aquariums, color TVs, or doorbells"), his childhood is a contented one.
Jordan spends summer days “watching the clouds stream overhead like silent ships,” fishing for turtles, playing for “the youthful lifetime of so-so baseball teams,” and welcoming whatever company happens to visit his grandparents’ house. In each story a different charismatic character enters Jordan’s life and takes the spotlight. First comes YoYo, a trash-talking black high school track star who moves into a big house nearby with her parents. Chuculate writes of his black characters’ thoughts about Indians, and his Creek characters thoughts about black people with refreshing honesty: “[Jordan] wondered what black folks did in their houses all day.” The story takes several startling turns as Jordan and YoYo’s friendship develops suddenly into a romance.
The characters who have the biggest influence on the way Jordan turns out, however, are his uncle, Johnson L. Freebird, the star of “A Famous Indian Artist,” “the best Indian artist in the state of Oklahoma,” and his dad, who figures in “Dear Shorty.” As a kid, Jordan eagerly awaits the next time Johnson blows into town: “Johnson L. would magically appear on the front porch—seemingly without benefit of car, truck, or even bike. He was just there. Johnson meant action, meant pizza, pop, baseball cards. He meant trips to town, rides in the country, talk of Old Mexico. He always wore a black cowboy hat, smoked sweet-smelling cigars and talked of old ‘Whar-Ez.’” Johnson L. is larger-than-life, and he and Jordan enjoy some epic adventures.
In the funny, melancholy, “Dear Shorty,” Jordan reflects on his relationship with his dad, who has been a homeless alcoholic for most of Jordan’s life. “My dad is the only person I know who could get drunk three, four times a day. Watching him get drunk was like watching one of those time-lapse films where snow melts, grass sprouts, flowers bloom and then wither away all in a few seconds with clouds rushing overhead and shadows underneath.” But Jordan doesn’t write him off, because Shorty is also charming and funny. “By chance, he ran into my sister at the clinic in town just after she had her first baby. ‘He’s got your eyes,’ she said. ‘Red?’ he inquired.”
Cheyenne Madonna leaves you wanting more stories of this family’s oddball adventures, their best laid plans that always go awry, and their unexpected ways of expressing love for one another. Eddie Chuculate writes with authenticity and he displays a storyteller’s gift for spinning wild, compelling yarns.
Famous Indian Artists Charm in Eddie Chuculate’s “Cheyenne Madonna”
A debut collection that was a semi-finalist for this year's Story Prize follows the life of a Creek/Cherokee artist.
By Jenny Shank, 1-24-11
Cheyenne Madonna
by Eddie Chuculate
Black Sparrow Books, 160 pages, $17.95
In one story in Cheyenne Madonna, Eddie Chuculate’s wry and winning debut collection, Jordan Coolwater, the Creek/Cherokee protagonist of the book, sits with his girlfriend in Santa Fe’s plaza, selling handmade jewelry. “Tourists from New Zealand, Australia, or the U.K. would make the most braindead comments,” he explains, “wondering aloud where they ‘might find all the buffalo and teepees,’ or ‘Where does the Trail of Tears start?” Such is the life of an Indian artist, which Chuculate depicts with wit, candor, and warmth. Jordan comes from a family that includes several artists, and one day this will also be his career, in between alcoholic benders and a stint in jail.
The book begins with the O. Henry Prize winning story “Galveston Bay, 1826,” which functions as a sort of prologue to the six Jordan Coolwater stories that follow. A band of four Cheyenne men make their way south on horseback to Galveston Bay to visit the ocean for the first time. “This wasn’t a war party or a scouting trip,” Chuculate writes, “This was plain-and-simple joyriding.” As they approach the ocean, they befriend the local Indians by offering their chief a horse. They enjoy seafood and taste the ocean’s salty water, but soon decide to ditch the remainder of their new friends’ all-night dance party and return home.
A hurricane strikes, and of the four only one, Old Bull, survives to tell the tale. “He embellished when telling the children, who were awestruck to hear of white men from different worlds who rode on big ships with billowing sails.” This story is appealing because it shows pre-contact Indians not as graceful, mythic, nature-loving, romanticized figures, but as regular dudes, who mess up and annoy each other.
Why did the hurricane strike these men down? As Chuculate writes in another story, “Whoever said things happen for a reason is a damned fool or an evolution theorist.” One hundred and fifty years later, we meet Jordan, who lives with his grandparents in Oklahoma on Creek land in the house of his great-great-grandfather, who survived the Trail of Tears. The elders are still embellishing the tales they tell the youngsters and going on joyrides through the country. Despite the facts that Jordan’s father is an absent alcoholic and his family lives in relative poverty ("For us, telephones were exotic, shining objects in other peoples houses—exotic like aquariums, color TVs, or doorbells"), his childhood is a contented one.
Jordan spends summer days “watching the clouds stream overhead like silent ships,” fishing for turtles, playing for “the youthful lifetime of so-so baseball teams,” and welcoming whatever company happens to visit his grandparents’ house. In each story a different charismatic character enters Jordan’s life and takes the spotlight. First comes YoYo, a trash-talking black high school track star who moves into a big house nearby with her parents. Chuculate writes of his black characters’ thoughts about Indians, and his Creek characters thoughts about black people with refreshing honesty: “[Jordan] wondered what black folks did in their houses all day.” The story takes several startling turns as Jordan and YoYo’s friendship develops suddenly into a romance.
The characters who have the biggest influence on the way Jordan turns out, however, are his uncle, Johnson L. Freebird, the star of “A Famous Indian Artist,” “the best Indian artist in the state of Oklahoma,” and his dad, who figures in “Dear Shorty.” As a kid, Jordan eagerly awaits the next time Johnson blows into town: “Johnson L. would magically appear on the front porch—seemingly without benefit of car, truck, or even bike. He was just there. Johnson meant action, meant pizza, pop, baseball cards. He meant trips to town, rides in the country, talk of Old Mexico. He always wore a black cowboy hat, smoked sweet-smelling cigars and talked of old ‘Whar-Ez.’” Johnson L. is larger-than-life, and he and Jordan enjoy some epic adventures.
In the funny, melancholy, “Dear Shorty,” Jordan reflects on his relationship with his dad, who has been a homeless alcoholic for most of Jordan’s life. “My dad is the only person I know who could get drunk three, four times a day. Watching him get drunk was like watching one of those time-lapse films where snow melts, grass sprouts, flowers bloom and then wither away all in a few seconds with clouds rushing overhead and shadows underneath.” But Jordan doesn’t write him off, because Shorty is also charming and funny. “By chance, he ran into my sister at the clinic in town just after she had her first baby. ‘He’s got your eyes,’ she said. ‘Red?’ he inquired.”
Cheyenne Madonna leaves you wanting more stories of this family’s oddball adventures, their best laid plans that always go awry, and their unexpected ways of expressing love for one another. Eddie Chuculate writes with authenticity and he displays a storyteller’s gift for spinning wild, compelling yarns.
June 3, 2017
A visit back home
I really enjoyed Eddie's book. Being from Muskogee, Oklahoma and with my father, Joe Rector a well-known Indian Artist himself, I felt I knew these characters from the circles of people that I grew up around. Thank you Eddie for an enjoyable, heart-felt read. JR2
I really enjoyed Eddie's book. Being from Muskogee, Oklahoma and with my father, Joe Rector a well-known Indian Artist himself, I felt I knew these characters from the circles of people that I grew up around. Thank you Eddie for an enjoyable, heart-felt read. JR2
October 30, 2018
If I could give this book a higher rating I would. It was so moving that when I finished it I was not able to speak. I loved the people in this book and the rawness of their passion for art. Eddie Chuculate is a marvelous writter. My 33rd book I have read this year.
January 13, 2022
“I considered myself a good enough-Joe, followed the do-unto-others rule, had a college education, didn’t talk in movies, and was nice to cats, but here I was facing 5 years like any random crackhead.”
June 2, 2021
I couldn’t put it down, so well written and moving.
December 2, 2021
A book about inevitability. It's an interesting journey that lands hard. It's worthy of a read, but it hurts.
November 9, 2012
"Chuculate presents a profound disconnect between the mythology of Indian art and the present-day reality of Indian artists, who rarely get to be artists without the cultural qualifier. He also lays bare the effects of wide-spread multi-generational addiction without making excuses for the way his characters treat each other. There are no saints in here, and no demons, either. Cheyenne Madonna is a fantastic debut."
—Jennifer Levin at The Santa Fe New Mexican
"Chuculate writes forthright prose in a somber key, examining without judgment the lives of Native American characters like Old Bull, a Cheyenne who, in 'Galveston Bay, 1826,' the collection's one stand-alone story, ventures out to see the ocean for the first time, only to get savaged by a hurricane. Memory and will converge here to powerful effect."
— Publishers Weekly
"Every sentence is unexpected, yet infallible…. The calm, beautiful, unexplaining accuracy of description carries us right through the madness of the final adventure."
— Ursala K. Le Guin, author of The Left Hand of Darkness
"This is a book you'll rave about."
— Julie Shigekuni, author of A Bridge Between Us
—Jennifer Levin at The Santa Fe New Mexican
"Chuculate writes forthright prose in a somber key, examining without judgment the lives of Native American characters like Old Bull, a Cheyenne who, in 'Galveston Bay, 1826,' the collection's one stand-alone story, ventures out to see the ocean for the first time, only to get savaged by a hurricane. Memory and will converge here to powerful effect."
— Publishers Weekly
"Every sentence is unexpected, yet infallible…. The calm, beautiful, unexplaining accuracy of description carries us right through the madness of the final adventure."
— Ursala K. Le Guin, author of The Left Hand of Darkness
"This is a book you'll rave about."
— Julie Shigekuni, author of A Bridge Between Us
May 12, 2014
Awesome collection of linked short stories. It's hard not to love Jordan Coolwater even though he is far from a morally perfect character. Loved the themes of art and family bringing the stories together. Chuculate is most well known for the collection's first story, "Galveston Bay, 1826", but it was the final three stories that were the highlight of the group for me. Heartfelt and real without ever crossing the line into sappiness or cliche. As good as short fiction gets.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews