Thanks to Xochi for
putting questions together Discussion Questions
1. 1. What feelings did this book evoke for you?
· Sadness about Greenwood
· Treatment of Indigenous people is tough to read
2. 2. What did you like best about this book?
· So many threads/ complex
· Setting - cars and speakeasies of the 1920’s
· Bring in relationship with the Cherokee
· Good mystery with hints coming at the right points
· It really showed institutional racism (wealth, resources, power, sheriff’s extortion)
3. 3. What did you like least about this book?
· Vigilante justice
· It was pretty bloody/ violent (true to “wild west” feel)
· A lot of gun detail
· Not many female role-models
4. 4. What do you think about the Lookout family? Hoolie?
· They had wealth (pump inside the house)
· Had a car
· Went to town to buy groceries
· They are Cherokee and show how many nations are living together
· Flivver https://www.gasenginemagazine.com/community/letters/fords-fabulous-flivver/
5. 5. What do you think about the portrayal of Indigenous folks?
· Jailhouse John is quite a warrior… afterall
· grandfather lived in the teepee
· traditional medicine
· Sweat lodge just “happens”
· Cutting hair in grief
· Avoid speaking the name of a deceased
· Osage hospitality
· Pointing with lips
· Importance of dreams
· Importance of stories
· Fear of owls
· Panther is part of dreams
· Snapping turtle in dream
· Tortoise and Hare story (told from Indigenous perspective)
6. 6. How do you think the author being Indigenous (rather than white) changes the narrative if at all?
· More about systemic racism and stereotypes, and not about details of ceremonies
· Contemporary interpretation of ancient traditions
· Justice for both Indigenous and white people
· p 188 Wahkondah
7. 7. Did you learn anything about the Osage oil boom and the racism that accompanied it? How realistically do you think it was portrayed?
· Absolutely
8. 8. Did you learn anything about the Greenwood Massacre that you didn’t know before? How realistically do you think it was portrayed?
· Realistically portrayed the boy accused of assaulting the elevator operator (and the start of the riot)
· KKK went after Indigenous people
· Didn’t make Indigenous people invisible in Tulsa
9. 9. What was it like to have the Greenwood Massacre viewed through the eyes of a white man? Did it make it more or less impactful to you?
· I wonder what happened to the actual white people
· J.D. came with perspective on racial life (empathetic “eyes”)
· Liked that a native write chose both a Native and White person as a main character
10. 10. What do you make of the portrayal of Minnie and her lack of concern regarding the lynch mob? Her sacrifice? How do you think it does or does not reinforce stereotypes about black women?
· Thomas Whitwell was Minnie’s son
· Women, in general, weren’t portrayed well
