Milton Blake boldly climbs into the skin of a cantankerous, eloquent Native American called Yellow Hammer, who stares with unblinking eyes at the staggering history of the American Indian. During this epic, poetic journey, the indigenous people's extraordinary lives, great chiefs, and unwavering spirit are vividly revealed and truly honored.
Blake's second, eclectic work - from a collection of four - also contains Yellow Hammer's brutally honest views on topical themes, ranging from corporate greed to organized religion to environmental disasters. It features prolific poems alongside hidden histories, essays, and commentaries. Yellow Hammer's passion, anger, sensitivity, and earthy humor ring throughout. His unique voice evokes the sardonic wit and social satire of Mark Twain, the touching, bare-bones craft of Willa Cather, and the contemporary grit of Sherman Alexie.
Words of Yellow Hammer an Unacceptable Injunis a radical cry for justice - and a fervent prayer for the current and future generations to pay heed.
Please note that net profits from the sale of this book, and the entire Yellow Hammer collection, will be donated to the Native American Rights Fund. NARF.ORG
Author Biography:
From the time Milton Blake was a young boy, he enjoyed reading and writing stories and poems. Later in life, he would share the work of his favorite authors with his wife and children. His two daughters vividly remember many evenings after dinner, their father reading to them a rainbow of literature. He would share everything from Vachel Lindsay's "The Congo," where he would clearly relish and emphasize the poem's pulsating rhythm, to "The Shooting of Dan McGrew," by Robert Service, which he loved for its wonderful sense of folklore, humor and history. He often shared the beauty of the Bible's "Sermon on the Mount." Other evenings were filled with William Saroyan's "My Name is Aram," Ring Lardner's "The Golden Honeymoon," Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Hiawatha," John Steinbeck's "The Red Pony," and Stephen Vincent Benet's heartbreaking "The Lost Wife." Often he would be so moved by a poem or story, he would hand the book to his wife, Patricia, to finish the reading. In addition to "Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman, and play segments by William Shakespeare, there were stories by humorists galore, including H. Allen Smith, Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, and Damon Runyon. Also shared was Don Marquis' free-form comic poem "The Lives and Times of Archy and Mehitabel." All these works, and many more, clearly inspired and influenced the author who would ultimately adopt the pseudonym of "Yellow Hammer." It seems only natural with his passion for literature, gift for writing, and love of the Native Peoples, that all these elements would come together in his four volumes of poetry and stories entitled, "Words of Yellow Hammer an Unacceptable Injun."
