New West Book Review

Famous Indian Artists Charm in Eddie Chuculate’s “Cheyenne Madonna”

By Jenny Shank, 1-24-11

Cheyenne Madonna
by Eddie Chuculate
Black Sparrow Books, 160 pages, $17.95

In one story in Cheyenne Madonna, Eddie Chuculate’s wry and winning debut collection, Jordan Coolwater, the Creek/Cherokee protagonist of the book, sits with his girlfriend in Santa Fe’s plaza, selling handmade jewelry. “Tourists from New Zealand, Australia, or the U.K. would make the most braindead comments,” he explains, “wondering aloud where they ‘might find all the buffalo and teepees,’ or ‘Where does the Trail of Tears start?” Such is the life of an Indian artist, which Chuculate depicts with wit, candor, and warmth. Jordan comes from a family that includes several artists, and one day this will also be his career, in between alcoholic benders and a stint in jail.

The book begins with the O. Henry Prize winning story “Galveston Bay, 1826,” which functions as a sort of prologue to the six Jordan Coolwater stories that follow. A band of four Cheyenne men make their way south on horseback to Galveston Bay to visit the ocean for the first time. “This wasn’t a war party or a scouting trip,” Chuculate writes, “This was plain-and-simple joyriding.” As they approach the ocean, they befriend the local Indians by offering their chief a horse. They enjoy seafood and taste the ocean’s salty water, but soon decide to ditch the remainder of their new friends’ all-night dance party and return home.

A hurricane strikes, and of the four only one, Old Bull, survives to tell the tale. “He embellished when telling the children, who were awestruck to hear of white men from different worlds who rode on big ships with billowing sails.” This story is appealing because it shows pre-contact Indians not as graceful, mythic, nature-loving, romanticized figures, but as regular dudes, who mess up and annoy each other.

Why did the hurricane strike these men down? As Chuculate writes in another story, “Whoever said things happen for a reason is a damned fool or an evolution theorist.” One hundred and fifty years later, we meet Jordan, who lives with his grandparents in Oklahoma on Creek land in the house of his great-great-grandfather, who survived the Trail of Tears. The elders are still embellishing the tales they tell the youngsters and going on joyrides through the country. Despite the facts that Jordan’s father is an absent alcoholic and his family lives in relative poverty ("For us, telephones were exotic, shining objects in other peoples houses—exotic like aquariums, color TVs, or doorbells"), his childhood is a contented one.

Jordan spends summer days “watching the clouds stream overhead like silent ships,” fishing for turtles, playing for “the youthful lifetime of so-so baseball teams,” and welcoming whatever company happens to visit his grandparents’ house. In each story a different charismatic character enters Jordan’s life and takes the spotlight. First comes YoYo, a trash-talking black high school track star who moves into a big house nearby with her parents. Chuculate writes of his black characters’ thoughts about Indians, and his Creek characters thoughts about black people with refreshing honesty: “[Jordan] wondered what black folks did in their houses all day.” The story takes several startling turns as Jordan and YoYo’s friendship develops suddenly into a romance.

The characters who have the biggest influence on the way Jordan turns out, however, are his uncle, Johnson L. Freebird, the star of “A Famous Indian Artist,” “the best Indian artist in the state of Oklahoma,” and his dad, who figures in “Dear Shorty.” As a kid, Jordan eagerly awaits the next time Johnson blows into town: “Johnson L. would magically appear on the front porch—seemingly without benefit of car, truck, or even bike. He was just there. Johnson meant action, meant pizza, pop, baseball cards. He meant trips to town, rides in the country, talk of Old Mexico. He always wore a black cowboy hat, smoked sweet-smelling cigars and talked of old ‘Whar-Ez.’” Johnson L. is larger-than-life, and he and Jordan enjoy some epic adventures.

In the funny, melancholy, “Dear Shorty,” Jordan reflects on his relationship with his dad, who has been a homeless alcoholic for most of Jordan’s life. “My dad is the only person I know who could get drunk three, four times a day. Watching him get drunk was like watching one of those time-lapse films where snow melts, grass sprouts, flowers bloom and then wither away all in a few seconds with clouds rushing overhead and shadows underneath.” But Jordan doesn’t write him off, because Shorty is also charming and funny. “By chance, he ran into my sister at the clinic in town just after she had her first baby. ‘He’s got your eyes,’ she said. ‘Red?’ he inquired.”

Cheyenne Madonna leaves you wanting more stories of this family’s oddball adventures, their best laid plans that always go awry, and their unexpected ways of expressing love for one another. Eddie Chuculate writes with authenticity and he displays a storyteller’s gift for spinning wild, compelling yarns.

Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.