Book Review: Using teachings to reflect life’s journey

“Blonde Indian” reviewed by Shirley Honyust/ Yenatli:yo
Ernestine Hayes has told her life story in the form of an easy to read book, that goes beyond the usual autobiographical style with a unique blend of storytelling, using the teachings she received as a child to reflect upon her life’s journey.

“Blonde Indian” is the name of a song made up by her Grandmother to honour the uniqueness of Ernestine’s physical description— she did indeed have blonde hair. She was also told as a child that the animals have teachings to give, as did the water, the forest and the wind. She reflects on these teachings throughout the book, remembering well the teaching that her people belonged to the land, “This is our land, for we still belong to it. We belong to Lingit Aani”, Juneau, Alaska, to the readers unfamiliar with the Indigenous language of her people – the Kaagwaantaan.

She relives the trials and tribulations of her public school days where she was put into one of three groups, the Seagulls, Wrens and Bluebirds. Through her first step in the process of assimilation, she is informed that she is a Seagull. The categorization of these groups are a reflection of their reading proficiency, with Bluebirds being the highest category and Seagulls being the lowest. Still, she can’t help but notice that Bluebirds were freckled and clean, and wore pastel angora sweaters. There were no books that reiterated the stories and the teachings of her grandmother: “Never forget you are an Eagle. Not Raven. Not Seagull. You will always be an Eagle and a Wolf. You will never be a Bluebird”.

Inside her biography she also tells the story of Tom, her best friend in childhood years. As many other young men from that era, much of his childhood was spent at residential school; he returned home just long enough to join the army and fight in World War II. He finds work but having an income opens up a new chapter in his life. His pastimes included frequenting bars, drinking excessively and meeting strange women. Within a short while he began living with a woman named Lucille, and she bore him a baby girl they named Patricia.

While Tom drank from the bottle of spirits, Ernestine sought a new spiritual life from the bible. She was wed to a man who had no love to give and only pretended to be the kind husband one might think should be married, with a good woman to take care of the children. Her solace came when one day she fled this loveless life and began to devour the world through addictions to drugs and alcohol.
Their life stories parallel each other. Both of them become caught up in a world of family violence, leading to an endless treadmill of vices. Eventually they escape their demons, but the results these struggles, just like their humble beginnings, bear little resemblance to one another.

“Blonde Indian” by Ernestine Hayes, (173 pages); University of Arizona Press 2006. ISBN-13:978-0-8165-2537-9