THE LOON FEATHER

I found this the most appealing novel of an Indian that I have read since Laughing Boy. The period is the opening up of the fur trading posts on Mackinac Island, where the Indians, the voyageurs, the fishermen and the handful of officials, sent there by Astor, live in close proximity. Oneta, the central character, is an Ojibway, daughter of Tecumseh, the chief of the loon tribe. Her mother married a French clerk -- and died, still mourning Tecumseh. And the superficial changes that were wrought in Oneta's life were unable to destroy the dominance of her Indian blood. One sees the conflict between the bounds of civilization and the instincts of her race; one senses the conflicts in her emotional life. It is a beautiful picture of the frontier; and a sympathetic study of races at odds. And against this is told a simple and moving love story. The book is the winner of the Hopwood Award.