 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. (May 2018) |
.jpg) Title page, first edition, 1927 | |
| Author | Mourning Dove (author) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Western (genre) |
| Publisher | Four Seas Company |
Publication date | 1927 |
| Publication place | United States and Canada |
Co=ge=we=a, The Half-Blood: A Depiction of the Great Montana Cattle Range is a 1927 Western romance[1] novel by Mourning Dove, also known as Hum-Ishu-Ma, or Christine Quintasket (Okanogan and Arrow Lakes). It is one of the earliest novels written by an indigenous woman from the Plateau region. The novel includes the first example of Native American literary criticism.[2]
Cogewea, the eponymous protagonist, is a woman of mixed-race ancestry, both Indigenous and Euro-American, who feels caught between her two worlds. She works on the ranch of her sister and white brother-in-law in Montana, where she is respected for her talents and skills. A European American from the East, Alfred Densmore, joins the ranch as an inexperienced ranch-hand. Cogewea is torn between the world of her white father and that of her Okanagan (spelled "Okanogan" in the novel) grandmother, Stemteema.
Her work was supported by editor Lucullus Virgil McWhorter, an American anthropologist and activist for Native Americans. He threatened the publishing company, Four Seas Press, in order to get the novel published.[3]
Controversy has developed over McWhorter's influence over and changes in the novel. While some scholars believe his edits were typical for the genre and his time, others consider McWhorter to be a second author of the novel. McWhorter denied having that large a role.[4]
- ^ Lukens, Margaret A. (1997). "Mourning Dove and Mixed Blood: Cultural and Historical Pressures on Aesthetic Choice and Authorial Identity" (PDF). American Indian Quarterly. 21 (3): 409–422. doi:10.2307/1185515. JSTOR 1185515.
- ^ Beidler, Peter (1996). "Literary Criticism in Cogewea: Mourning Dove's Protagonist Reads The Brand". American Indian Culture and Research Journal. 19 (2): 45–65. doi:10.17953/aicr.19.2.dm70337277411171.
- ^ Alanna Brown. "Mourning Dove's Voice in Cogewea." Wíčazo Ša Review. 4.2 (1988): 2-15.
- ^ Godfrey, Laura (2006). "Mourning Dove's Textual Frontier". Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory. 62 (1): 65–83. doi:10.1353/arq.2006.0002. S2CID 161332422.