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2003-04 Georgia Children's Book Award for his
novel Skeleton Man.
Flagpole: Have you been to Athens before?
Joseph Bruchac Not since I was a young boy.
I do have some relatives in Georgia.
FP: You live in the house where your grandpar
ents raised you in Greenfield Center, New York. Are
those the same grandparents that passed on your
Abenaki heritage?
JB: Yes My grandfather,
Lewis Bowman, passed the
Abenaki ancestry to me. I
also have English and
Slovak blood.
FP: In your autobiog
raphy, Bowman's Store, you
speak about how your grand
father raised you with a
respect for your heritage
without ever admitting he
was a Native American.
JB: That's right At that
time it was looked down on
as much to be a Native
American as it was to be
African American, and often
it was even dangerous.
Many Abenakis never
admitted their true eth
nicity. Native Americans are
still often discriminated
against even to present day,
particularly in the Northeast and parts of Vermont
Just recently there was a eugenics project in
Vermont to sterilize “undesirable*’ people, and
many Abenakis were included in that group.
FP: How do you feel about the way the history
of the Native Americans is taught tc our young
people today?
JB: Well it's much better than it used to be.
So many stereotypes still exist though. It is still
very common for Native Americans to be referred
to as 'redskins* or 'braves,' and for Native
American women to be called 'squaws.' Many
teams still use Native American names for team
mascots. This doesn't happen with any other
ethnic group. The*e is no team called the 'New
York Jews.'
FP: You keep the Native American culture alive
through your writing and storyteUing. How con
Writer Joseph Bruchac
other people of that descent feel more connected to
their heritage?
JB: Know histoiy. Learn history. Realize that
there are more versions of history than the ones
that are most popular. Realize that it takes many
years to leam and know about people and cultures
and history. The reason elders are so respected in
Native American culture is we recognize that they
have lived the longest and are the wisest
FP: At what point in your publishing career did
you become a father, and how did that influence
your writing?
JB: My son James was
bom when my wife and I
were teaching in. West
Africa, and his brother Jesse
came along several years
later. Before them, I had
written a great deal of
poetry. It wasn't until I
started passing stories onto
them orally that I began to
write them down. My
writing for children hap
pened because of them.
FP: April is National
Poetry Month. How often do
you get to work on your
ooetry now?
JB: I used to write two
poems a day; now it is more
like two a week. I am so
busy with other projects.
Poetry can be about any
thing and about any sub
ject, but most of my poetry
focuses on the natuial world. I have a new poem
about the tsunami published in India.
FP: Your newest book is Code Talker: A Novel
About the Navajo Marines of World War Two.
JB: Yes, in World War II, Navajo code talkers
were a crucial part of the U.S. effort, sending
messages back and forth in an unbreakable code
that used their native language. This book honors
all of those young men and the culture and lan
guage of the Navajo Indians. Their story was clas
sified for reasons of military intelligence until
computers made the need for their code obsolete.
I tell their story through a fictitious character,
Ned Begay. Like Skeleton Men, Code Talker inte
grates storytelling and Native American culture
into the modem English novel
FP: What kind of research did you do to write
Code Talker?
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JB: The language Is very difficult... it would
take me years to leam it. I always consult an
expert when I'm working with a language I'm not
fluent in to make sure I'm accurate.
FP: What will you focus on at the Storyteller's
Luncheon on Saturday?
JB: HI be talking about how we all have a
story and what you can do to find yours.
The 36th Annual Conference on Children's
Literature will be held Friday, Apr. 29-Saturday,
Apr. 30 at the Georgia Center for Continuing
Think about how you pay twice for lighting,'
Creech said. “You pay for the electricity, and then
you pay for the air conditioning to cool the heat
produced by the lightbulbs. Studies also show ihat
people perform better in natural light Even test
scores go up in schools where natural lighting is
used; we've got plenty of data now to prove it'
Today's equivalent of a Good Housekeeping
Seal of Approval for buildings designed to con
serve energy and to use environmentally friendly
materials is the LEED certification program. There's
a misconception that a green building has to be
expensive, but this is not the case, Creech said,
Sealing connections between vent pipes saves energy.
Education. The full conference fee is $145 ($35
for UGA students). The fee for Saturday only is
$80. For more information or to register, go to
coe.uga.edu/gcba.
Elizabeth Deroxhia
Elizabeth Deroshia is a local writer.
Houses V Energy
Help Them Sustain
On Apr. 1, at the 17th Annual Red Clay
Conference at the UGA School of Law, energy
expert Oennis Creech talked about how sustain
able energy features are incorporated into build
ings by progressive architects and builders. He
and other panelists described aspects of 'green'
buildings and the importance of the Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certifica
tion program for commercial buildings.
“When it comes to the production and use of
energy in the U.S., I cannot think of anything
else that does more environmental damage...' he
began. Creech displayed a chart showing that U.S.
buildings consume 30-40 percent of this country's
total energy, 60-70 percent of its electricity, and
25-30 percent of its raw wood. They also account
for 35-40 percent of municipal solid waste.
Creech criticized the low spending for pro
moting energy efficiency in the Southeastern
region including Georgia. 'New England spends
$12.10 million to promote energy efficiency...
and the South spends $670,000.' He added, “Why
can't we at least aspire to be mediocre?*
As founder and director of the private, non
profit Southface Energy Institute, which concen
trates on ene'gy conservation, sustainable tech
nologies and applied building sciences, Creech
described such green building design concepts as
using daylight better and capturing rainwater for
flushing toilets and landscape irrigation, so that
water is bought only for drinking purposes.
Increasing daylight in modem buildings
improves both energy savings and human health.
noting that the Atlanta Food Bank, is a LEEO cer
tified building and was built within budget
Creech concluded by reminding UGA students
that Southface Energy Institute's website
www.southfoce.org lists many volunteer and
internship opportunities. A Green Build confer
ence, sponsored by the U.S. Green Building
Council, is scheduled for Nov. 9-11 2005, in
Atlanta and is open to students and the general
public
Liz Conroy
Liz Conroy writes about environmental matters
for Flagpole.
Spin That Name!
More Media Manipulation
If you read newspapers, listen to the radio or
watch television, you know that the media has
assigned Muqtada al-Sadr a peculiar job title:
'radical cleric'
'Gunmen fired on supporters of the radical
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday,' reports
the Associated Press wire service. National Public
Radio routinely refers to 'radical cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr.' “The protesters were largely supporters
of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr,' says CNN.
Even Agence France-Press refers to him the same
way: 'Followers of a radical Shiite cleric marched
in Baghdad.*
I wonder, does he answer his phone with a
chipper, 'Muqtada al-Sadr, radical cleric!'? Does it
say 'radical deric" on his business card?
It's a safe bet that neither al-Sadr nor his Iraqi
supporters considers him particularly 'radical'
And, if you stop to think about it there's nothing
inherently extreme about wanting foreign troops
to leave your country. 'Radical' is a highly sub
jective word that gets thrown around without
much reflection. What's more radical invading
another nation without a good excuse or trying to
stop someone from doing so? But thafs the
problem: the media has become so accustomed to
8 FLAGPOLE.COM ■ APRIL 27, 2005