Cold Running Creek

by Zelda Lockhart

During one of the most tumultuous times for the North American continent (pre and post Civil War) three generations of women both Native American and African American, struggle to be free. Raven, the main character of the first two chapters of the novel, is the daughter of Choctaw Native Americans who have escaped the relocation from Mississippi to Oklahoma Territory in hopes of negotiating their rights in the political maze of their changing landscape. In the event of faltered plans, her mother and father, ishki and inki, have charged Raven with the responsibility of her two younger siblings. The three children are the sole survivors of the resulting tragedy.Though eventually Raven marries a half French, half Choctaw man of prominence, and becomes the proud Misses of LeFlore plantation, she bares the initial, seemingly indelible wounds of the novel, and extends those to her daughter, Lilly, a half black half Choctaw infant who Raven raises as the full-blood heir to LeFlore.As the upshot of a second political miscalculation of American conquest, Lilly is captured and sold into the last three years of slavery. Though her actual bondage is short, her escape from her own enslavement spans to mid-life. She is always waiting for something to change. One day she abandons her two daughters and commits a dreadful act against her husband. Though horrifying, her lashing out is the very catalyst for her freedom. In an ending that peaks to a crescendo of redemption, Lilly’s salvation brings with it freedom for two generations of male and female ancestors of both Choctaw and African heritage. Cold Running Creek is enlightening in its untold historical truths, and relevant to all time with its soul-stirring revelations. With a chorus of swamps, voodoo, floods, creeks and rivers, Cold Running Creek is rich, passionate, and leaves the reader breathless.

Genres: Fiction

289 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2006

Reviews

[Jacqueline Matthews · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book because it is a selection for my book club. The book describes the painful circumstances of blacks in the American South in the 1800s, the disparity between living conditions for blacks and whites at that time, and the pain inflicted upon native Americans during the same period. Perhaps this is the purpose of the book. If not, I cannot figure out the author's intent.

The book is quite poorly written. Parts of the plot are illogical, or lack explanation, or both. Attempts to portray the grandeur of plantation wealth are shallow and overdone. Based on the number of spelling and grammatical errors (it's in place of it is and waste in place of waist, for example), an editor was not involved with the book's publication.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written and interesting book; but it did leave me with many questions. I didn't expect a storybook ending, but I would have like to have known something of the origins of Willie and the fate of Tessa.

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting look at Native American and African American characters during start of the Civil War.

[Melanee · Rating 1 out of 5]

A difficult read, hard to finish. If it wasn't for a bookclub don't know if I would have wanted to finish it. Never developed an interest in any of the characters.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

rich storytelling

[Jack]

It's a shame that so few people have read this book, especially since there is lots of scholarly interest right now in relations between Black and Native people. As I understand it, Lockhart essentially self-published this after running into trouble with Simon & Schuster; but it deserves to be reissued to a wider audience (and with persistent orthographic errors removed), with a foreword by, say, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers or Tiya Miles. Riveting.

[MB Shakespeare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story of a Choctaw woman during the Civil War. Fave quote: I stayed because being a woman was kin to being a slave; free only if a man says, just like being a slave and free only if a white person says.