Writer Interview: Michael A. McLellan Author of Joe Little and the Indian School

“I was an Indian, but no more. Now I’m something different altogether.”  

Joe Little, along with hundreds of other Native American children, was taken from his family and placed in a “school” with the intent of transforming him into a young man capable of navigating the white world. These “educators” did not strive to make these children equals but merely people who were politely subservient. They were made into hybrid blends of their birth culture and the white culture they were taught to emulate. These Native children did not give up their heritage easily, and brutal means were used to force them to conform. They emerged from these schools as people who could never be completely comfortable in either world.

A Native woman occasionally came by Publishers Book Outlet in the Thomas Mall where I worked in the late 1980s. One evening she told me a story about her mother attending a school in Northern Phoenix…on…yes of course… Indian School Road. She told me her mother would walk into the city from her home in the desert. On the way, there were white people’s clothes hanging on a line where the Native American students would change from their native clothing into clothes suitable for attending school. Still to this day, I’m haunted by the image of those clothes flapping in the wind, surrounded by cacti and sand, waiting for the children to assume their costumes as they journey from one world into another. 

With this book, McLellan is giving us a peek into that world, and he frames his story against the greater backdrop of the American West. As he has accomplished with all the books in this series, he tries to tell the true story of the American West. For every nasty piece of shit that existed in the West (and there were plenty), I’d like to believe there existed a person with integrity and compassion. McLellan’s cast of characters reflect the complete spectrum of those human beings, from the despicable ones who took advantage of every weakness, the broken ones who tried their best, and the kind ones who held out a helping hand when all hope was lost. 

I came across McLellan chopping wood on his homestead in the mountains of Northern California. The air was redolent with the scent of pine trees, chainsaw oil, and sawdust. I cleared off the snow from a stump and drank some coffee from his thermos while I badgered him with some questions as he continued to split wood. 

Jeffrey D. Keeten: Your westerns have focused around the fate of Native Americans. Through your plots, you have revealed the real history of the numerous and systematic ways that genocide was perpetrated against Native Americans. I noticed with this latest book, Joe Little and the Indian School, that you have grouped them under the series title The Americans. You could almost call it The True Americans. Do you intend to keep adding books to this series or are you intending for it to be a trilogy? And can you tell us a little about what you are working on now?

Michael A. McLellan: There will certainly be five, and possibly a sixth book in The Americans series. All three will be centered around characters who were introduced in previous works. I do my best to avoid spoilers, but I think I’m safe saying that the next installment, titled, The Diary of Molly Good (set for release in late March or early April) will reveal much of what transpired during the ten missing years in Everett Ward’s memoir, and characters from The Scout of Wounded Knee, and Joe Little and the Indian School will be returning. 

It might bear noting here that all three of the previously published titles can be read in any order. 

JDK: You created this loathsome character Reverend Samuel Alton Reeves. I think it is appropriate that you used all three of his names, just like we do with all modern serial killers. He’s one of those odious people who, if I had a Time Machine, I might just set a course for SW Kansas in the late 19th century to deliver Reeves some frontier justice. Was he based on a specific person or was he a composite of several different people? There seemed to be no shortage of models in real life. 

MAM: I suppose I see Reverend Reeves as a type. It seems that sadistic people, pedophiles, etc… are oft times very good at positioning themselves in places where they have power over those they wish to prey upon. Sadly, the world is full of them.

JDK: I wanted to share a quote from your book that sums up the more “compassionate” view of how to deal with the red savages, a view that leads to Indian Schools. This is a scene where Reverend Reeves is recruiting an enforcer to his cause. “You kill Indians, Mister Phillips. To avenge your family. God understands vengeance. He can be vengeful Himself. But is killing a handful–or even a hundred–Indians going to slake your need for it? What if I told you that by helping me, we will in essence be eliminating the savages entirely. Every last one of them. Elimination by assimilation, Mister Phillips. If we accomplish that, there will be no more Indians, only another race of lesser men, much like the negros.” We see this happening on a wide scale today in the way people are being demonized and diminished by people who may disagree with them politically. It makes it easier to initiate acts of violence against a group of people if you make your enemies into some form of subhumans. Once white men landed on the shores of North America the fate of Native Americans was sealed, but were there any sensible, more truly compassionate solutions that were not implemented?

MAM: Colonialism is always ugly. I think I’m going to fall back on Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (Sitting Bull) for this one, because ultimately his words sum it up in one sentence. “If America had been twice the size it is, there still would not have been enough.”

Once it was too late, I think there were plenty of well-meaning whites—some very powerful—who made attempts to mitigate the damage, but the great greed machine was already in motion and there was no stopping it.

JDK: I was pleasantly surprised that you set this book in Kansas, more precisely SW Kansas where the law was slow to take hold. There were Indian Schools all over the US, was there is something particularly compelling about setting the bulk of your action in that region, otherwise known as the home of Jeffrey D. Keeten? 🙂

MAM: Kansas was central to the Indian territories, so was a logical choice. And I think you of all people would agree, if any place personified the wild west, it was Kansas.

JDK: As a funny side note to this question, Kansans believe they live in the Midwest because Kansas is in the middle of the US, but as I often explain, Kansas is actually part of The West. The Midwest ends with Iowa. I frankly prefer to be part of the West, though I would sometimes appreciate the added rainfall of the Midwest for my gardening endeavors. 

JDK: You had a guest star who shows up late in the book. The legendary Bass Reeves, who I’ve been so pleased to see is getting more recognition these days with books, movies, and a TV series on Paramount. I read that he had over three thousand arrests which boggles the mind. He certainly should be as famous as Wyatt Earp or Wild Bill Hickock. I had the distinct impression from the ending that we will be seeing more of Reeves in future McLellan books. Any truth to my idle speculation?

MAM: There were so many intriguing people in the nineteenth century who weren’t white and are finally being recognized, written about, and portrayed in film. Jim Beckwourth, who makes a brief appearance in The Scout of Wounded Knee was a fascinating man, and Bass Reeves is indeed returning in the forthcoming book.