Overview

"Some tattered papers discovered in the ruins of a cabin in the Adirondack Mountains reveal the life story of an old Native American woman, Sky Flower, written in the form of a diary. And what a story she has to tell! With quill in hand, the Mohawk writer records her life from her early memories as a spoiled child in her tribe. Through unusual circumstances, tragedies, and her own fierce spirit, she experiences life in a Dutch colony (Fort Orange at present-day Albany), in New Amsterdam (present-day Manhattan), and in a great manor house in Littleton, England, where she becomes a governess. There she discovers that one of the children under her care is deaf. Her compassion and familiarity with Native sign language help bring the girl out of her shell. A romantic interlude results in a broken heart and Sky Flower returns to live along the Hudson River, where she starts an informal school, before retiring to the mountains. Sky Flower experiences both the luxuries and hardships of European life in the 17th century, as well as the societal hypocrisies that come with it. She witnesses first-hand the inevitable clash of cultures played out in early America. She writes of the hardships she accepts living as a recluse in the wilderness. The book presents in bold relief a personal statement about the tumultuous events of the ""Contact Period,"" told from a perspective of a long and eventful life. The book concludes with an overview and a timeline that give the story additional historical context by noting key events in Europe and Colonial America during Sky Flower's tumultuous life."

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9798989906260

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Reviews

"Sky Flower roots its readers in the homecoming and introspections of a life lived across, between, and through two worlds: a singular life of an Indigenous Mohawk woman consumed by her cultural indoctrination to serve white colonial efforts and the greater historical contexts of seventeenth-century America and Europe. In this way, Sky Flower is a timely and edifying tale, revelatory of the social reckoning long overdue in our own twenty-first century. Grounded in the aged voice of Sky Flower, who ""found life, to be truthful, dull,"" this stunning fictional memoir turns such sentiment on its head to reveal a rich and complicated existence. The details mesh and pass through each other, connect and rebound, just like the narrator's namesake - a sky flower, or rainbow, whose refraction and dispersion of the sun's light captures the attention of all who encounter it, presenting the wonder, strength and beauty of the ephemeral in the face of atmospheric (environmental, cultural, social) disturbance. Sky Flower braids a bittersweet tale of affinity with ""the gentle earth"" just as it releases its narrator from the bonds of belonging to any one world. It is an important vehicle through which to witness the weaving of historical influence and embrace the differences that bind us together. Janelle Schwartz, PhD, Independent scholar"

Author Information

Ray E. Phillips enjoyed a long career in which he combined both writing and medicine. As a physician he specialized in cardiovascular disease, family medicine, and community health care. He founded a small foundation that enabled him to travel overseas to undertake medical projects, including in Bangladesh and Nepal. Born and raised in Massachusetts, he spent his adult life close to the Hudson River with whose history and natural beauty he fell in love. He explored it extensively as a hiker, paddler, sailor, and reader. In his own writings he was determined to evoke and pay tribute to the unending dramas played out in the lives of its human and natural denizens across the centuries.

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