Light of the Feather: Pathways Through Contemporary Indian America

In 1979 Mick Fedullo was sent by a state arts agency to a village in the middle of the Arizona Sonoran Desert as a one-year writer-in-residence. Upon arrival he was surprised to discover that the school at which he would be working was located on an Indian reservation, and that all the students were Pima Indian children. This temporary assignment grew into a five-year residence, and Indian education became Fedullo's lifework.
Light of the Feather chronicles Mick Fedullo's unique journey beyond Indian stereotypes and into the heart of contemporary Native America. It is the story of how one white man crossed the cultural divide and found old and new values, the determination of the human spirit, and, ultimately, himself.
Fedullo writes of experiences that few have ever had. In passing from curious outsider to friend and neighbor, he meets and befriends Indian families, attends tribal celebrations, discovers the bounty of the wilds that Indians have always known of, and surmounts an initial culture shock. He learns what "Indian education" was during a hundred years of attempted forced assimilation, what it is today, what it can be in the future, and he becomes deeply involved in it, consulting at schools on many reservations.
Light of the Feather takes us into the homes of a generous and warm people, where we learn how death and tragedies are dealt with and how the spirits of giving and celebration remain vitally important. Fedullo shows us, from the inside, a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school, where Navajo children watch old John Wayne movies and cheer for the cavalry. He takes us into classrooms where delightfully curious children become attached to this "tall white guy with a beard." He writes about trips on which he has flown Apache and Crow students to education conventions at which they read their poetry like professionals.
From the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the heights of the Beartooth Mountains in Montana, from a reggae concert in Hopiland to a playful mock battle with Indian kids at the Little Bighorn Battlefield, from a Plains pow-wow in a brightly lighted gymnasium to a cleansing ritual in an utterly dark sweat lodge, Fedullo gives us wonderful moments and occasions that represent true sharing across very different cultures.
In Light of the Feather we meet Indians who retain their rich heritage while surviving, even prospering, in the white man's world. They have learned to live biculturally. Fedullo writes sensitively about the difficulties of achieving such a balance, and of the necessity for Indians to do so if the old ways are not to be lost.