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References To Other Books

Direct References

The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta

The first novel by a Native person, and the first novel written in California, was written in 1854, by a Cherokee guy named John Rollin Ridge. The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta was based on a supposed real‐life Mexican bandit from California by the same name, who was killed by a group of Texas Rangers in 1853.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

…and the sink‐tossing, crazy Indian who was the narrator in the novel, the voice of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Everybody’s Autobiography

Dene wants to tell him he’d looked up the quote in its original context, in her Everybody’s Autobiography, and found that she was talking about how the place where she’d grown up in Oakland had changed so much, that so much development had happened there, that the there of her childhood, the there there, was gone, there was no there there anymore.

Crazy Horse’s Prophecy

“Here, look at this.” She handed me a laminated card from her purse the size of a playing card. It was that picture you see everywhere, the sad‐Indian‐on‐a‐horse silhouette, and on the other side it said Crazy Horse’s Prophecy. I read it: Upon suffering beyond suffering; the Red Nation shall rise again and it shall be a blessing for a sick world. A world filled with broken promises, selfishness and separations. A world longing for light again. I see a time of seven generations, when all the colors of mankind will gather under the sacred Tree of Life and the whole Earth will become one circle again.

The Picatrix

A bezoar is a mass found trapped in the gastrointestinal system, but when you search bezoar you’re led to The Picatrix. The Picatrix is a book of magic and astrology from the twelfth century originally written in Arabic and titled Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm, meaning “The Goal of the Wise.”

The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo

He read Hunter’s lawyer, Oscar Zeta Acosta. He loved The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo and The Revolt of the Cockroach People.

The Revolt of the Cockroach People

He read Hunter’s lawyer, Oscar Zeta Acosta. He loved The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo and The Revolt of the Cockroach People.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

He read Ken Kesey. He loved One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. He was pissed when they made the movie and the Native guy, who was the narrator of the whole book, just played the crazy silent stoic Indian who threw the sink through the window at the end.

Quran

In the late 1990s, Saddam Hussein commissioned a Quran to be written in his own blood. Now Muslim leaders aren’t sure what to do with it. To have written the Quran in blood was a sin, but to destroy it would also be a sin.

Transformers

Tony plays with his Transformers on the floor of his bedroom. He makes them fight in slow motion. He gets lost in the story he works out for them. It’s always the same. There is a battle, then a betrayal, then a sacrifice. The good guys end up winning, but one of them dies, like Optimus Prime had to in Transformers, which Maxine let him watch on that old VHS machine, even though she said she thought he was too young.

War Dances

War Dances by Sherman Alexie

The Round House

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

Fools Crow

Fools Crow by James Welch

Referenced By

No books reference this book

Places Referenced

United States
"Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York."
Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States
"Metacomet’s head was sold to Plymouth Colony for thirty shillings—the going rate for an Indian head at the time. The head was put on a spike, carried through the streets of Plymouth..."
Plymouth Fort, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States
"…then displayed at Plymouth Fort for the next twenty‐five years."
Massachusetts Bay Colony, Massachusetts, United States
"The next day the Massachusetts Bay Colony had a feast in celebration, and the governor declared it a day of thanksgiving."
Manhattan, New York, United States
"At one such celebration in Manhattan, people were said to have celebrated by kicking the heads of Pequot people through the streets like soccer balls."
California, United States
"The first novel by a Native person, and the first novel written in California, was written in 1854, by a Cherokee guy named John Rollin Ridge. The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta was based on a supposed real‐life Mexican bandit from California..."
Texas, United States
"…by a group of Texas Rangers in 1853."
Sand Creek, Colorado
"At Sand Creek, we heard it said that they mowed us down with their howitzers."
Downtown Denver, Colorado
"Then they took our body parts as trophies and displayed them on a stage in downtown Denver."
Fruitvale, Oakland, California
"populated Indian bars in the Fruitvale in Oakland"
Mission, San Francisco, California
"populated Indian bars in the Mission in San Francisco"
Oakland Hills, Oakland, California
"the redwoods in the Oakland hills better than any other deep wild forest"
Oakland, California
"I would hate it if I got moved outta Oakland, because I know it so well, from West to East to Deep East and back, on bike or bus or BART. It’s my only home. I wouldn’t make it nowhere else."
West Oakland, Oakland, California
"I try to help her in whatever ways I can because she lets me live at her house, over in West Oakland, at the end of Fourteenth, which she bought a long time ago when she worked as a nurse in San Francisco."
Mexico City, Mexico
"…in a world meant to resemble the real Indian world in the 1500s in Mexico. Mexicans before they were Mexicans. Before Spain came."
Richmond, California, United States
"We lived in boxcar villages in Richmond."
Downtown Oakland, Oakland, California
"We came to know the downtown Oakland skyline better than we did any sacred mountain range"
Oakland Hills, Oakland, California
"all these white boys from up in the Oakland hills came up on me in a liquor-store parking lot in West Oakland, straight up like they weren’t afraid of me."
Deep East Oakland, Oakland, California
"Octavio’s house was in Deep East Oakland, off Seventy-Third, across from where the Eastmont Mall used to be until things got so bad there they turned it into a police station."
Seventy-Third, Deep East Oakland, Oakland, California
"Octavio’s house was in Deep East Oakland, off Seventy-Third, across from where the Eastmont Mall used to be until things got so bad there they turned it into a police station."
Eastmont Mall, Oakland, California
"Octavio’s house was in Deep East Oakland, off Seventy-Third, across from where the Eastmont Mall used to be until things got so bad there they turned it into a police station."
Fourteenth, West Oakland, Oakland, California
"I try to help her in whatever ways I can because she lets me live at her house, over in West Oakland, at the end of Fourteenth, which she bought a long time ago when she worked as a nurse in San Francisco."
Coliseum BART Station, Oakland, California
"I rode my bike over from the Coliseum BART Station."
Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, California
"I remembered there were metal detectors at the entrance to the coliseum."
San Francisco, California
"which she bought a long time ago when she worked as a nurse in San Francisco."
New Mexico, United States
"She told me my dad’s over in New Mexico. That he doesn’t even know I exist."
Oklahoma, United States
"the Texas Rangers, which was the team Maxine grew up rooting for in Oklahoma because Oklahoma didn’t have a team."
Lake Merritt Station, Oakland, California
"Before going underground between the Fruitvale and Lake Merritt Stations, Dene looks over and sees the word, that name again, Lens, there on the wall right before he goes under."
Fourteenth and Broadway, Oakland, California
"He passes through a cloud of weed smoke from a gathering of men behind the bus stop on Fourteenth and Broadway."
Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building complex, Oakland, California
"Aside from the plain, average‐height, checkered twin buildings that are the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building complex just before I-980 on the way into West Oakland, the Oakland skyline lacks distinction, and is unevenly scattered..."
I-980, Oakland, California
"…the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building complex just before I-980 on the way into West Oakland..."
West Oakland, Oakland, California
"…just before I-980 on the way into West Oakland."
Tribune Tower, Oakland, California
"When he gets to street level, he slows to a walk. He looks up and sees the Tribune Tower. It’s a faded pink glow that seems like it should be red but lost its steam somewhere along the way."
Dimond Park, Oakland, California
"He kept running, down their hill to Dimond Park. There was a tunnel that went below the park."
Los Angeles, California
"When he got home, Dene’s mom, Norma, told him that his uncle Lucas was coming for a visit, up from Los Angeles."
Oakland, California
"He’d been seeing it for years all over Oakland."
Alcatraz Island, San Francisco, California
"our mom came home with the news that we’d be moving to Alcatraz. “Pack your things. We’re going over there. Today,” our mom said. And we knew what she meant."
Downtown Oakland, Oakland, California
"Just outside downtown Oakland, on Telegraph. We stayed with our mom’s adopted brother Ronald, who we first met the day we got to his house to live with him."
Telegraph, Oakland, California
"Just outside downtown Oakland, on Telegraph. We stayed with our mom’s adopted brother Ronald, who we first met the day we got to his house to live with him."
Golden Gate, San Francisco, California
"I went down to the other side of the lighthouse, where it seemed like you weren’t supposed to go. I found them by the shore closest to the Golden Gate."
Piedmont Avenue, Oakland, California
"We walked, passing all the storefronts on Piedmont Avenue. We listened to the constant lapping sounds of cars passing by, like the sound of waves against the rocks on the shore of our uncertain futures, in an Oakland that would never be the same as it was, before our mom up and left on a jagged wind."
West Oakland, Oakland, California
"“I’m pregnant,” Jacquie said. “Fucking piece of shit Harvey, remember?” … “I know someone, my friend Adriana’s brother knows someone in West Oakland.”"
Pennsylvania, United States
"I’ve read about residential internet rehab facilities in Pennsylvania. They have digital-detox retreats and underground desert compounds in Arizona."
Arizona, United States
"They have digital-detox retreats and underground desert compounds in Arizona."
Phoenix, Arizona
"All my mom remembered about my dad was his first name, Harvey, that he lived in Phoenix, and that he was a Native American Indian."
Oakland, California
"I'm in Oakland, California, now. My mom and Bill met at a bar in downtown Oakland."
Oklahoma, United States
"Cheyenne. Southern. Out of Oklahoma. Enrolled with the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma."
San Quentin, California
"He got hired at the coliseum in 1989, after doing five years at San Quentin for stabbing a guy outside a biker bar on Fruitvale down by the railroad tracks."
Fruitvale, Oakland, California
"…after doing five years at San Quentin for stabbing a guy outside a biker bar on Fruitvale down by the railroad tracks."
San Francisco, California
"Another good year that came out of bad times for Bill was 1989, when the A’s swept the San Francisco Giants."
City Hall, Los Angeles, California
"Dene crosses the street, toward city hall."
Twelfth Street Station, Oakland, California, United States
"At the Twelfth Street Station Dene runs up the stairs but then looks at his phone and sees that he’s not actually gonna be late."
Indian Center, Oakland, California, United States
"I’m gonna set up a room down at the Indian Center. What I want to do is to pay the storytellers for their stories."
East Oakland, Oakland, California, United States
"Back then we lived in East Oakland, in a yellow house. It was the brightest but smallest house on the block. A two‐bedroom with a tiny kitchen that couldn’t even fit a table."
International, Oakland, California, United States
"Then the guy chased Edwin all the way down International in his wheelchair."
Cypress Freeway, Oakland, California
"The Cypress freeway collapsed, and someone drove right off the Bay Bridge, where a section had collapsed in the middle."
Oakland, California
"…it was a really good time to be from Oakland."
Phoenix, Arizona
"Jacquie Red Feather FLEW to Phoenix from Albuquerque the evening before the conference started, landing after the hour-long flight in a smog‐filled gradient between green and pink."
Albuquerque, New Mexico
"Jacquie Red Feather FLEW to Phoenix from Albuquerque the evening before the conference started, landing after the hour-long flight in a smog‐filled gradient between green and pink."
Oakland, California
"“I’m going back to Oakland this summer. In a couple months, actually, for the powwow, but also—”"
Alcatraz Island, San Francisco, California
"“We’d been on Alcatraz, me and my family, back during the occupation, in 1970.”"
Washington, D.C., United States
"“That program ended up being featured at a conference in D.C.—a national highlight.”"
South Dakota, United States
"“I had one community I was working with recently in South Dakota tell me they were grieved out.”"
Oklahoma, United States
"“Their mom told them stories about moving away for good. About getting back home to Oklahoma.”"
Oakland, California
"“Can you tell me your name, your age, and where you’re from?” Dene says. “Okay. Orvil Red Feather. Fourteen. Oakland.”"
West Oakland, Oakland, California
"Orvil and his brothers leave the Indian Center and go straight to Target in West Oakland to get Lony’s bike."
San Leandro Boulevard, Oakland, California
"Orvil and his brothers ride their bikes down San Leandro Boulevard on the sidewalk in a line."
Coliseum BART Station, Oakland, California
"At the Coliseum BART Station, they lift their bikes and carry them on their shoulders, then ride across the pedestrian bridge that gets them to the coliseum."
Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, California
"…ride across the pedestrian bridge that gets them to the coliseum. The coliseum looks massive. Bigger than it looks when you see it from BART or driving by on the freeway."
East Twelfth, Oakland, California
"Fourteenth takes them through downtown to East Twelfth, which gets them to the Fruitvale without a bike lane."
International Boulevard, Oakland, California
"…it’s better than riding the gutter-edge of International Boulevard."
Fruitvale, Oakland, California
"…which gets them to the Fruitvale without a bike lane, but on a street big enough…"
Bayfair Center, San Leandro, California
"They went to Bayfair Center in San Leandro and scraped out what they could from that fountain before being chased off by a security guard."
Joaquin Miller Park, Oakland, California
"Loother had just been there for a field trip to Joaquin Miller Park, and he said people threw coins in for wishes."
Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley, California
"They took the bus up to the Lawrence Hall of Science in the Berkeley Hills, where there was a double fountain, which they knew would be practically untouched because only rich people or monitored kids on field trips went to that place."
Mormon temple, Oakland, California
"To be sure they’d at least be able to afford an Indian taco each, they rode their bikes up to the fountain behind the Mormon temple."
Winnemucca, Nevada
"We come from towns on the sides of highways in northern Nevada with names like Winnemucca."
Oklahoma, United States
"Some of us come all the way out from Oklahoma, South Dakota, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, Minnesota;"
South Dakota, United States
"Some of us come all the way out from Oklahoma, South Dakota, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, Minnesota;"
Arizona, United States
"Some of us come all the way out from Oklahoma, South Dakota, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, Minnesota;"
New Mexico, United States
"Some of us come all the way out from Oklahoma, South Dakota, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, Minnesota;"
Montana, United States
"Some of us come all the way out from Oklahoma, South Dakota, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, Minnesota;"
Minnesota, United States
"Some of us come all the way out from Oklahoma, South Dakota, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, Minnesota;"
Phoenix, Arizona
"we come from Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, New York City, Pine Ridge, Fort Apache, Gila River, Pit River, the Osage Reservation, Rosebud, Flathead, Red Lake, San Carlos, Turtle Mountain, the Navajo Reservation."
Coliseum BART Station, Oakland, California
"“We parked it at the Coliseum BART Station parking lot and walked back to Manny’s house high on having gotten away with it so easily.”"
Vietnam, Southeast Asia
"He’d gotten back from Vietnam after going AWOL in ’71, dishonorably discharged."
Bay Bridge, San Francisco, California
"The Cypress freeway collapsed, and someone drove right off the Bay Bridge, where a section had collapsed in the middle."
Deep East Oakland, Oakland, California
"We drove down San Leandro Boulevard deep into Deep East Oakland."
Fourteenth, West Oakland, Oakland, California
"They ride up Fourteenth toward downtown. Fourteenth takes them through downtown to East Twelfth, which gets them to the Fruitvale without a bike lane."
Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, California
"You remember when I told you about that Laney powwow, you said you wanted to go because there was that big one coming up at the Oakland Coliseum, and you were on the powwow committee for work. You remember that?"
Indian Center, Oakland, California, United States
"Today the Red Feather brothers are going to get Lony a new bike. On the way they stop at the Indian Center. Orvil’s supposed to be getting two hundred dollars to tell a story for a storytelling project he read about on Facebook."
San Leandro Boulevard, Oakland, California
"We drove down San Leandro Boulevard deep into Deep East Oakland."
Albuquerque, New Mexico
"we come from Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, New York City, Pine Ridge, Fort Apache, Gila River, Pit River, the Osage Reservation, Rosebud, Flathead, Red Lake, San Carlos, Turtle Mountain, the Navajo Reservation."
Los Angeles, California
"we come from Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, New York City, Pine Ridge, Fort Apache, Gila River, Pit River, the Osage Reservation, Rosebud, Flathead, Red Lake, San Carlos, Turtle Mountain, the Navajo Reservation."
Pine Ridge, South Dakota
"we come from Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, New York City, Pine Ridge, Fort Apache, Gila River, Pit River, the Osage Reservation, Rosebud, Flathead, Red Lake, San Carlos, Turtle Mountain, the Navajo Reservation."
Fort Apache, Arizona
"we come from Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, New York City, Pine Ridge, Fort Apache, Gila River, Pit River, the Osage Reservation, Rosebud, Flathead, Red Lake, San Carlos, Turtle Mountain, the Navajo Reservation."
Gila River, Arizona
"we come from Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, New York City, Pine Ridge, Fort Apache, Gila River, Pit River, the Osage Reservation, Rosebud, Flathead, Red Lake, San Carlos, Turtle Mountain, the Navajo Reservation."
Pit River, California
"we come from Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, New York City, Pine Ridge, Fort Apache, Gila River, Pit River, the Osage Reservation, Rosebud, Flathead, Red Lake, San Carlos, Turtle Mountain, the Navajo Reservation."
Osage Reservation, Oklahoma
"we come from Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, New York City, Pine Ridge, Fort Apache, Gila River, Pit River, the Osage Reservation, Rosebud, Flathead, Red Lake, San Carlos, Turtle Mountain, the Navajo Reservation."
Rosebud, South Dakota
"we come from Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, New York City, Pine Ridge, Fort Apache, Gila River, Pit River, the Osage Reservation, Rosebud, Flathead, Red Lake, San Carlos, Turtle Mountain, the Navajo Reservation."
Flathead, Montana
"we come from Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, New York City, Pine Ridge, Fort Apache, Gila River, Pit River, the Osage Reservation, Rosebud, Flathead, Red Lake, San Carlos, Turtle Mountain, the Navajo Reservation."
Red Lake, Minnesota
"we come from Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, New York City, Pine Ridge, Fort Apache, Gila River, Pit River, the Osage Reservation, Rosebud, Flathead, Red Lake, San Carlos, Turtle Mountain, the Navajo Reservation."
Navajo Reservation, Arizona
"we come from Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, New York City, Pine Ridge, Fort Apache, Gila River, Pit River, the Osage Reservation, Rosebud, Flathead, Red Lake, San Carlos, Turtle Mountain, the Navajo Reservation."
Oakland Coliseum parking lot, Oakland, California
"In the Oakland Coliseum parking lot, for the Big Oakland Powwow, there is one thing that makes many of our cars the same."
Hayward, California
"stored in a warehouse in Hayward, California, for seven years,"
Oakland, California
"then stocked and shelved and bought in Oakland at a Walmart off of Hegenberger Road by a young man by the name of Tony Loneman."
Hegenberger Road, Oakland
"at a Walmart off of Hegenberger Road"
Oakland, California
"Okay, so I grew up here in Oakland, and I’m, um, I’m Cheyenne, well I’m not enrolled yet, but, like, I will be, with the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, my dad told me we’re Cheyenne and not Arapaho, and, sorry, I’m gonna be interning for the next few months leading up to the powwow, I’m here to help with the powwow,"
Oklahoma, United States
"with the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, my dad told me we’re Cheyenne and not Arapaho,"
Oakland, California
"“You’re gonna say your name and tribe. Talk about the place or places you’ve lived in Oakland, and then if you can think of a story to tell, like something that’s happened to you in Oakland that might, like, give a picture of what it’s been like for you specifically, growing up in Oakland, as a Native person, what it’s been like.”"
Laney College, Oakland, California
"“I got robbed in the parking lot about to go to a powwow at Laney College.”"
Bay Area, California
"“I know there’s a lot of Natives living in Oakland and in the Bay Area with similar stories.”"
Phoenix, Arizona
"… through a moon-purple desert on that stretch between Phoenix and Blythe on I-10."
Blythe, California
"… through a moon-purple desert on that stretch between Phoenix and Blythe on I-10."
San Francisco, California
"… like it’s cold when you’re near the ocean, like it’s cold in San Francisco, that moist cold that gets to the bone."
Arizona, United States
"… I looked up tall white guys in the desert in Arizona, and it’s a thing."
Alameda, California
"They were at a Mervyn’s in Alameda for new clothes."
Los Angeles, California
"Then one day Lucas got on a bus and moved down to Los Angeles."
Las Cruces, New Mexico
"“This was in New Mexico?” “Las Cruces,” she said."
Oakland, California
"“My mom put me on a bus out here to Oakland, where my uncle owned a restaurant.”"
East Fourteenth, Oakland, California
"“We rode down East Fourteenth, which had been International, but shit got so bad all up and down International that they changed the name to something without the history.”"
Black Hills, South Dakota, United States
"THE BULLETS WILL COME from the Black Hills Ammunition plant in Black Hills, South Dakota."
Turtle Mountain, North Dakota, United States
"we come from Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, New York City, Pine Ridge, Fort Apache, Gila River, Pit River, the Osage Reservation, Rosebud, Flathead, Red Lake, San Carlos, Turtle Mountain, the Navajo Reservation."
I-980, Oakland, California
"… on that stretch between Phoenix and Blythe on I-10."
San Carlos, California
"we come from Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, New York City, Pine Ridge, Fort Apache, Gila River, Pit River, the Osage Reservation, Rosebud, Flathead, Red Lake, San Carlos, Turtle Mountain, the Navajo Reservation."
Downtown Oakland, Oakland, California
"“We took BART to downtown Oakland. There were certain pockets of uptown where people had nice cars and people like me and Manny could be seen without someone calling the cops right away.”"
Castro Valley, California
"“I thought we were maybe going to get groceries. When we got past Castro Valley I knew it wasn’t groceries or any kind of errand.”"
Highland, California
"“We dropped their dad off in the front of Highland, where the ambulances come in.”"
Oakland Airport, Oakland, California
"I rode my bike over near the Oakland airport. That spot you took me to one time where you can see the planes come down close."
West Oakland, Oakland, California
"But everything from High Street to West Oakland, that shit seems doomed to me."
Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, California
"The coliseum was only a mile away from our house on Seventy-Second."
Oakland, California
"I mostly see Oakland from online now. That’s where we’re all gonna be mostly eventually."
Moraga, California, United States
"I grew up in Moraga, which is a suburb just on the other side of the Oakland hills—which makes me even more Oakland hills than the Oakland hills kids."
Indian Center, Oakland, California, United States
"I got a job in Oakland at the Indian Center and that helped me to feel more like I belonged somewhere."
Oklahoma, United States
"But I got it and moved out to Oklahoma a few months later."
Greyhound Station, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
"The plan is to get to OKC. To the Greyhound station."
Weatherford, Oklahoma, United States
"Up north a ways, just past Weatherford, there’s a town there called Dead Women Crossing."
Dead Women Crossing, Oklahoma, United States
"…just past Weatherford, there’s a town there called Dead Women Crossing."
Reno Avenue, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
"We’re on Reno Avenue just across the bridge over the Oklahoma River, not far from the Greyhound station."
Oklahoma River, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
"just across the bridge over the Oklahoma River"
Motel 6, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
"…into the Motel 6 parking lot, right into the front of a truck parked there."
Midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
"…in a secret office on the top floor of an office building in midtown Manhattan."
Canada
"I saw something too, someone posted about women up in Canada."
Oklahoma, United States
"Before you were born, you were chased, beaten, broken, trapped on a reservation in Oklahoma."
Northern New Mexico, New Mexico, United States
"Before you were born, your dad’s decision to move away from the reservation, up to northern New Mexico to learn about a Pueblo guy’s fireplace."
Morning Star, Taos, New Mexico, United States
"wound up in Taos, New Mexico, at a peyote commune named Morning Star."
Indian Center, Oakland, California, United States
"You joined a year after you first started working at the Indian Center as a janitor."
Nineteenth Street BART Station, Oakland, California, United States
"You’re near downtown, headed for the Nineteenth Street BART Station."
Twelfth Street Station, Oakland, California, United States
"The robot voice announces the next stop, by saying, or not saying exactly, but whatever it’s called when robots speak, Next stop Twelfth Street Station."
Coliseum Station, Oakland, California, United States
"When you get off at the Coliseum Station, you walk over the pedestrian bridge with butterflies in your stomach."
Fruitvale Station, Oakland, California, United States
"Just before the Fruitvale Station, you see that old brick church."
Fruitvale District, Oakland, California, United States
"The train emerges, rises out of the underground tube in the Fruitvale district, over by that Burger King and the terrible pho place."
Dimond District, Oakland, California, United States
"Your train leaves the Fruitvale Station, which makes you think of the Dimond district, which makes you think of Vista Street."
Vista Street, Oakland, California, United States
"which makes you think of Vista Street. That’s where it all happened, where your family lived and died."
East Twelfth Street, Oakland, California, United States
"where East Twelfth and International almost merge, where the graffitied apartment walls and abandoned houses, warehouses, and auto body shops appear."
International, Oakland, California, United States
"where East Twelfth and International almost merge, where the graffitied apartment walls and abandoned houses, warehouses, and auto body shops appear."
Washington, D.C., United States
"When you were sixteen you went on a trip to Washington, D.C., to visit your uncle—your mom’s brother."
American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., United States
"He took you to the American Art Museum, where you discovered James Hampton."
Berkeley High-School Gym, Berkeley, California, United States
"Your dad took you and your sisters—after the divorce—to a Berkeley high-school gym where your old family friend Paul danced over the basketball lines with that crazy-light step, that grace, even though Paul was pretty big, and you’d never thought of him as graceful before."
Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, California
"INSIDE THE COLISEUM, the field is already packed with people, with dancers, tables, and canopies."
Oakland, California
"“We get off at the same exit,” Tony says. “Coliseum. There’s a powwow. You should come.”"
Oakland, California
"It feels good to be back in Oakland. All the way back. She’s been back a year."
Oklahoma, United States
"She’d gone all that way to Oklahoma to find out where she came from and all she’d gotten for it was a color for a name."
Grand Lake Theatre, Oakland, California
"Blue throws her cigarette out the window as she passes the Grand Lake Theatre."
West Oakland, Oakland, California
"The drive to West Oakland took about fifteen minutes without traffic."
Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, California
"She looks up at the sky, then at the empty third deck. That’s where they’d watched the game from with the boys. She sees something fly over the edge of the rim of the coliseum."
Oakland, California
"Before you were born, your halves inside them moved to Oakland."
High Street, Port Royal, Jamaica
"But everything from High Street to West Oakland, that shit seems doomed to me."
Seventy-Third, Deep East Oakland, Oakland, California
"The coliseum was only a mile away from our house on Seventy-Second."
Oakland Hills, Oakland, California
"…just on the other side of the Oakland hills—which makes me even more Oakland hills than the Oakland hills kids."
Oakland, California
"People didn’t really want to sign on for a new powwow. Especially one in Oakland. If it doesn’t go well, the powwow won’t happen again next year. And they’ll be out of a job."
Downtown Oakland, Oakland, California
"Okay, so Phil lives in a nice apartment in downtown Oakland he got grandfathered into, it’s a big place with fixed rent."
West Oakland, Oakland, California
"I feel like something like that actually happened to a friend of mine. I mean, not exactly like that, but like a warehouse in West Oakland she inherited from her uncle got taken over by squatters."
Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, California
"The drive to the coliseum feels slow and tense. Every time he thinks to say something he takes a sip of coffee instead."
Denny's
"They’re at the Denny’s next to the coliseum."
Coliseum
"They’re at the Denny’s next to the coliseum."
Los Angeles Coliseum, Los Angeles
"I can fly the drone over to the coliseum from here."
Oakland, California
"JACQUIE AND HARVEY GET into Oakland the night before the powwow."
Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, California
"The day is bright, and as he comes over the top of the coliseum, he hears his mom coming down the stairs."
Oakland, California
"He was holding three or four Big Oakland Powwow T-shirts against his stomach."
Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, California
"They hobbled out of the coliseum like that, all the way out to Blue’s car."
Highland, California
"When Blue pulls into Highland, Edwin is passed out. She’d been telling him, yelling at him, screaming at him to stay awake."
Oakland, California
"Denise Pate at the Oakland Cultural Arts Fund, for funding a storytelling project that never came to fruition except for in fiction—i.e., in a chapter of this novel."
Oakland, California
"The Native community in Oakland."
Oakland, California
"There There A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHORTOMMY ORANGE was born and raised in Oakland, California."
Oklahoma, United States
"He is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma."
Angels Camp, California
"Tommy currently lives in Angels Camp, California, with his wife and son."
Oakland, California
"How is the city of Oakland characterized in the novel? How does the city’s gentrification affect the novel’s characters? Their attitudes toward home and stability?"
Alcatraz Island, San Francisco, California
"Describe the resettlement efforts at Alcatraz. What are the goals for inhabiting this land? What vision does Opal and Jacquie’s mother have for her family in moving to Alcatraz?"
New York, New York
"Description: First edition. | New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2018."
New York, New York
"we come from Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, New York City, Pine Ridge, Fort Apache, Gila River, Pit River, the Osage Reservation, Rosebud, Flathead, Red Lake, San Carlos, Turtle Mountain, the Navajo Reservation."
Oklahoma, United States
"The plan is to get to OKC. To the Greyhound station."
Thirty-ninth Street, Los Angeles, California
"I got out Mom’s makeup mirror and put it under her nose… We were living off of Thirty-Eighth then, in a little blue house with this tiny gated patch of grass that we were still small and young enough to like playing on."
Oakland, California
"I brought home outdated racist insults from school like it was the 1950s… those Oakland hills separate us from Oakland."
Alcatraz, San Francisco, California, United States
"She remembers what her mom told her and Opal about Alcatraz, how a small group of Indians first took over Alcatraz, just five or six of them, took it over as a piece of performance art five years before it really happened."
Fruitvale Station, Oakland, California, United States
"Dene Oxendene TAKES the dead escalator two steps at a time at the Fruitvale Station. When he makes it up to the platform, the train he thought he was missing comes to a stop on the opposite side."
Dimond Park, Oakland, California
"You remember the time we went over to Dimond Park, and we went through that long sewer tube? We ran through it, and at some point there was no light, just the sound of the rushing water and we didn’t know where the fuck it came from or where it was going. We had to jump over it. You remember we heard a voice, and then you thought someone grabbed your leg, and you squealed like a little fucking baby pig, and you almost fell in but I pulled you back and we jumped and ran out of there together?"