November is the month of Thanksgiving in the U.S., when Americans remember Native Americans with gratitude for their assistance to new immigrants, which helped them survive difficult times in a new land in the early 1600s.
Over the next few centuries, the roles of these two groups were reversed— immigrants’ lives stabilized or even prospered while Native Americans struggled to survive, often in new places not of their own choosing. Each group presented a challenge to the other, but courageous individuals in each group helped the other in time of need (as shown in the novel discussed below).
From this background comes a new historical novel, The Healing of Natalie Curtis. I’m privileged to feature a short interview with the author, Jane Kirkpatrick, who weaves the historical details of this late 19th-century woman’s life with fictional elements into a fascinating true-to-life novel.
Natalie, the protagonist, an actual historical character, grows up on the East Coast devoting her life to musical performance, with little knowledge of life (particularly for Native Americans) in the American West. Her sudden loss of confidence and her future as a professional musician leave her devastated for years. Then she discovers with her own eyes the realities of life for Native Americans (around the time of Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency).
The two themes of this novel—Natalie’s healing and her crusade for improvement of conditions for the first (Native) Americans—animate a story of courageous adventure that’s also a tapestry rich in period details. I strongly recommend The Healing of Natalie Curtis to readers who enjoy not just entertainment, but inspiration and heroism. (I would rate this novel as mild, in terms of heat, violence, and profanity.)
Readers, may we find much to be grateful for in this season, and someone to help in their time of need!
Author interview with Jane Kirkpatrick:
Q: Natalie Curtis isn’t well-known to most Americans. How did you find out about her, and what inspired you to write The Healing of Natalie Curtis?
Jane Kirkpatrick: I had the privilege of hearing Lesley Polling-Kemps speak about her book Ladies of the Canyon at a Women Writing the West conference in New Mexico ten years ago. Natalie was one of those ladies and I was intrigued so sought more information about her. We shared a life having spent years living within a Native culture and that interested me.
Q: As you read and learned more about Natalie, what particularly captivated you about her?
JK: There is always an “unanswered question” for me that drives me in a story. This one was “How did this white woman manage to record Indian songs, get President Roosevelt to hear her concerns and challenge a terrible law.”
Q: Your novels frequently feature main characters from outside the cultural mainstream. What kinds of sources do you consult to gain understanding about their lives and perspectives?
JK: I scour ancestry records, try to meet descendants I can interview to hear family stories. I look at other things they might have written (or made speeches about), visit libraries which might hold obscure materials, speak with historical society people, read books about the time periods and read books my characters might have read. I look at maps of the time, have spent time in the basements of courthouses evaluating property records, read essays about a landscape that’s relevant. I research “work” a character might have done. If I can find articles written by hunters and fishermen living at that historical time, I feel like I’ve found gold because those folks are very detail oriented. In a story about a Florida woman (Mystic Sweet Communion) I found a book titled “My 50 Years of Hunting the Everglades.” Oh my, such great information for someone who never lived in Florida! I also look at You Tube videos of a place, visit if I can, check out the history of little towns my character might have visited. I’m weaving threads of landscapes, relationships, spiritual and work.
Q: What was your biggest surprise in researching this story?
JK: It may sound obscure, but I loved hearing that her brother George wanted to write a book—and that he did, under a pen name. I was able to buy a copy. It’s lovely. Titled “The Wooing of a Recluse.” Otherwise, it was discovering that the Indian Rights movement was so active during that time. And of course the horror of the Code of Indian Offenses and reading actual Indian Agent reports.
Q: When you’re writing about real people from the past, how much do you need to alter their life details to make their stories work as novels?
JK: A biography tells us what a person did and when they did it. A novel looks at why they might have done what they did and how they might have felt. I stay close to the facts of what and when and take literary license for the why and feelings a character might have expressed. The motivation and the feelings still have to be presented in ways that the reader will believe that “yes, it could have happened that way.” So it’s a challenge but I don’t alter the facts very much. I also have to decide what facts to leave out so a reader won’t fall asleep.
Q: What were the most challenging aspects of writing this novel?
JK: The travel/place issues. Natalie and George traveled to so many reservations and to New York and to the ranch in Arizona George had worked on and to Pasadena to Indian Activist folk and then to Washington D.C. and by train to the World Fair in St. Louis, etc. It made my head spin! So I had to try to identify what was critical about which place she visited and how that experience moved the story forward without readers feeling like they were part of the Travel Channel!
Q: As a native of the western U.S., I’m fascinated that many of your novels are set in places I’ve lived or traveled through. How did you find this focus in your writing?
JK: I always love Oregon Trail stories and was drawn to the West after my sister moved to Oregon in 1960. My parents drove from Wisconsin to Oregon every Christmas to visit her. That’s how I spent Christmas vacation for four years! Eventually I came west during the summer and knew I wanted to come back, which I did in 1974. I’m a product of all the Oregon Trail stories and pioneering challenges I read about (and later experienced with my husband). I took strength from reading about historical women in particular and didn’t want their stories to be forgotten. Hence (I love that word!) my life in historical women’s stories.
Q: What would you like readers to take away after reading The Healing of Natalie Curtis?
JK: That they might pay attention to the power of following your heart and the importance of listening to the stories of others and our own stories.
Thank you, Jane, for sharing about your story and writing process!