3073 0000000000	Navajo Stories Sharon French         081004.asx
Description Sharon French has a unique way of sharing the stories of her Navajo elders. She's written a one-woman play around two real-life ancestors, her grandmother, raised by white settlers, who returned to her tribe to live with her Navajo grandmother. She talks with us about writing the play from family lore and letters, and enacts highlights. As part of our on the road series, we met with Sharon in Mancos, Colorado.
About the Author Sharon French was born in Shiprock, NM, to an Anglo mother and a Navajo/Paiute/Anglo father. She has lived the life of the traditional American Indian, as well as the Anglo and is well-qualified to speak for both sides. Unlike many traditional Navajos who are not willing to talk about their past and the dead, Sharon is keen to share the special background she grew up with. "I sat down at my typewriter and started writing an outdoor drama about my Great-Grandmother, Sarah Mara-Boots. It was a story that I had heard so often as a child. I always knew I would write it and one day late in the summer of 1986, the time felt right." "Black Shawl" is an oral reminiscence about the long walk (1864) where 8,000 Navajo were gathered up, taken to Fort Sumner, confined and eventually set free. It is a pocket of American history, whose legacy is open up by Sharon Hatch French, for the eternal child in all of us to remember. More specifically, it is a narrative about a young woman known as Sarah Mara-Boot, who, abandoned by her birth mother, expelled by her adoptive parents, but nurtured and guided by her Grandmother, emerges as the voice of the Other, in a world dominated by the white colonial mind. Finally, we are (perhaps) moved by how the prayers of the playwright's ancestors have been heard and, as a result, they continue to rest in the four holy mountains of the southwest. List all Wisdom Traditions List all Audio on Demand List all Audio on Demand within Wisdom Traditions category