James Welch (poet)
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
. He received national literary awards for Fools Crow. In addition, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas
Native Writers' Circle of the Americas
The Native Writers' Circle of the Americas is an organization of Native American writers, most notable for its literary awards, presented annually to Native American writers in three categories: First Book of Poetry, First Book of Prose, and Lifetime Achievement...
in 1997.
Biography
James Welch was born in BrowningBrowning, Montana
Browning is a town in Glacier County, Montana, United States. The population was 1,016 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Browning is located at ....
, Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
in 1940. His father was a member of the Blackfeet
Blackfeet
The Piegan Blackfeet are a tribe of Native Americans of the Algonquian language family based in Montana, having lived in this area since around 6,500 BC. Many members of the tribe live as part of the Blackfeet Nation in northwestern Montana, with population centered in Browning...
tribe and his mother a member of the Gros Ventre tribe; both also had Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
ancestry. As a child, Welch attended schools on the Blackfoot and Fort Belknap
Fort Belknap Agency, Montana
Fort Belknap Agency is a census-designated place in Blaine County, Montana, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the CDP population was 1,262.-Geography:Fort Belknap Agency is located at ....
reservations
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
.
Welch went to the University of Montana, where he studied under the author Richard Hugo
Richard Hugo
Richard Hugo , born Richard Hogan, was an American poet. Primarily a regionalist, Hugo's work reflects the economic depression of the Northwest, particularly Montana. Born in White Center, Washington, he was raised by his mother's parents after his father left the family...
and began his writing career. Welch taught at the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
and at Cornell
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, as well as serving on the Parole Board of the Montana Prisons Systems and on the Board of Directors of the Newberry Library
Newberry Library
The Newberry Library is a privately endowed, independent research library for the humanities and social sciences in Chicago, Illinois. Although it is private, non-circulating library, the Newberry Library is free and open to the public...
D'Arcy McNickle Center.
Welch was at the University of Montana when his writing career began in earnest, leading to the creation of works that would establish his place in the Native American Renaissance
Native American Renaissance
The Native American Renaissance was a term originally coined by critic Kenneth Lincoln in his 1983 book of the same title. Lincoln’s goal was to explore the explosion in production of literary works by Native Americans in the decade and a half after N. Scott Momaday had won the Pulitzer Prize in...
literary movement.
Welch and Paul Stekler co-wrote the Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
-winning American Experience documentary, Last Stand at Little Bighorn, shown on PBS. Together they also wrote the history Killing Custer: The Battle of Little Bighorn and the Fate of the Plains Indians (1994).
When Winter in the Blood was reprinted in 2007, it included an introduction by Louise Erdrich
Louise Erdrich
Karen Louise Erdrich, known as Louise Erdrich, is an author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American heritage. She is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant writers of the second wave of what critic Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance...
, who wrote: It "is a central and inspiring text to a generation of western regional and Native American writers, including me."
Welch died at age 62 in his home in Missoula
Missoula, Montana
Missoula is a city located in western Montana and is the county seat of Missoula County. The 2010 Census put the population of Missoula at 66,788 and the population of Missoula County at 109,299. Missoula is the principal city of the Missoula Metropolitan Area...
, Montana in 2003.
Legacy and honors
- Fools CrowFools CrowFools Crow is a novel written by author James Welch. Set in Montana shortly after the Civil War, this novel tells of Fools Crow, a young Blackfoot Indian on the verge of manhood, and his tribe, known as the Lone Eaters. The invasion of white society threatens to change their traditional way of...
(1986), his third novel, received an American Book AwardAmerican Book AwardThe American Book Award was established in 1978 by the Before Columbus Foundation. It seeks to recognize outstanding literary achievement by contemporary American authors, without restriction to race, sex, ethnic background, or genre...
, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Pacific Northwest Book Award. - Documentary Last Stand at Little Bighorn, Emmy Award
- 1997, Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the AmericasNative Writers' Circle of the AmericasThe Native Writers' Circle of the Americas is an organization of Native American writers, most notable for its literary awards, presented annually to Native American writers in three categories: First Book of Poetry, First Book of Prose, and Lifetime Achievement...
. - 2000, Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des LettresOrdre des Arts et des LettresThe Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...
.
Novels
- Winter in the BloodWinter in the BloodWinter in the Blood is the first novel of James Welch. The Native American author won several national literary awards for his later novel Fools Crow, as well as receiving positive reviews for Indian Lawyer and The Death of Jim Loney. Winter in the Blood was published in 1974 by Harper & Row...
(1974) - The Death of Jim Loney (1979)
- Fools CrowFools CrowFools Crow is a novel written by author James Welch. Set in Montana shortly after the Civil War, this novel tells of Fools Crow, a young Blackfoot Indian on the verge of manhood, and his tribe, known as the Lone Eaters. The invasion of white society threatens to change their traditional way of...
(1986) - The Indian Lawyer (1990)
- The Heartsong of Charging Elk (2000)
Nonfiction
- Killing Custer: The Battle of Little Bighorn and the Fate of the Plains Indians
Poetry
- Riding the Earthboy 40 (1971 rpt. 1975)
- Last Stand at Little Bighorn
- Christmas Comes to Moccasin Flat
See also
- List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas
- Native American StudiesNative American StudiesNative American Studies is an interdisciplinary academic field that examines the history, culture, politics, issues and contemporary experience of Native peoples in North America, or, taking a hemispheric approach, the Americas...