Along the Journey River

A Mystery

2017
Author:

Carole laFavor
Foreword by Lisa Tatonetti

When tribal traditions run strong, is it possible to love an “other”?

Several sacred artifacts have gone missing from the Minnesota Red Earth Reservation and the suspect list is continuously growing. Investigating these mysterious occurrences because of tribal traditions and the honor of her family, Renee LaRoche works to track down the people responsible—caught between tradition and efforts to help her chimook lover accept their cultural differences in the process.

Ultimately the re-release of Carole laFavor’s novels serves to underscore the significance of her writing to the Indigenous literary canon, to remind us of the power of her activism for HIV-positive Native peoples, and to return her important claims for the centrality of Two-Spirit peoples, bodies, and histories to the public eye.

Lisa Tatonetti, from the Foreword

Several sacred artifacts have gone missing from the Minnesota Red Earth Reservation and the suspect list is continuously growing. While it could be the racists from the bordering town, or a young man struggling with problems at home, or the county coroner and his cronies, the need for answers and apprehending the culprit is amplified when Jed Morriseau, the Tribal Chairman, is murdered. Investigating these mysterious occurrences because of tribal traditions and the honor of her family, Renee LaRoche works to track down the people responsible. But can she maintain her intense investigation as well as her new relationship with Samantha Salisbury, the visiting women’s studies professor at the white college nearby? Renee is caught between the traditions of her tribe and efforts to help her chimook lover accept their cultural differences.

Carole laFavor (1948–2011) was a Two-Spirit Ojibwa novelist and activist who lived and worked in Minnesota. She was a member of the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS in the 1990s and worked with organizations that supported Native American people with HIV/AIDS. She is also author of Evil Dead Center: A Mystery (Minnesota, 2017).

Lisa Tatonetti is associate professor of English at Kansas State University. She is author of The Queerness of Native American Literature (Minnesota, 2014).

Theresa Lafavor is the daughter of Carole laFavor and teaches at Pacific University.

Ultimately the re-release of Carole laFavor’s novels serves to underscore the significance of her writing to the Indigenous literary canon, to remind us of the power of her activism for HIV-positive Native peoples, and to return her important claims for the centrality of Two-Spirit peoples, bodies, and histories to the public eye.

Lisa Tatonetti, from the Foreword