Raw Choctaw
Memoirs of an Indian Medicine Woman
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About the Book
Imagine never learning how to read or write, let alone receiving any formal educational training. One would find it difficult to survive in today's society, yet Nellie M. Thompson has thrived even before she learned to read at the age of 88. This inspiring account of a Choctaw Indian woman, whose courage and faith in God move her through many difficult trials, weaves memorable anecdotes into a fresh, first-hand perspective of her history and culture.
Significant to readers for what is revealed about Native American experiences in today's society, Thompson offers vivid recollections of hardship, sacrifice, and camaraderie of a forgotten people. A descendant of Chief Pushmataha (who the Civil War general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson called the "greatest Indian" he had ever known), Thompson was born a princess by the signs of the moon. Her powerful memoir tells of growing up as a Choctaw Indian in the small-town Midwest of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and eventually California in the late 1940s. Her faith in God was shaped after she was healed from Polio by an Indian medicine man at the age of eight --this experience dictated her personal commitment to a lifetime of service. She herself became an Indian Medicine woman treating human ailment with herbs and Indian techniques.
Now a 2nd grade reader, Thompson poignantly relates the humble details of her youth and early adulthood, adroitly interspersing these often-sordid memories with detailed accounts of child-rearing, reservation living, food preparation, and much more of interest to ethnologists and students of Native American history. Universal appeal is offered through Thompson's
outlook of humor and wisdom that applies to all ages and cultures. Living alternately with her father and foster home after enduring her mother's untimely death, Thompson learned to fend for herself by cleaning homes, skinning rabbits, and nursing pigs. Her proudest accomplishment is that all of her children graduated from high school.
About the Author
Nellie M. Thompson lives in Modesto California and has 109 grandchildren through the fourth generation, and now is expectin' another little baby boy. She loves to take long walks through her garden and praise the beautiful roses of every kind and color that God created. When the weather is pretty, she loves to sit in her rocking chair on the front porch and watch the red tail hawks fly through the air and circle overhead bringing in good tides. Wendy A. Cope was born in Paradise, California, a beautiful town nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. She grew up in California, Missouri, and Utah. After graduate studies at University in Elementary Education/Literacy Instruction, she worked variously as a Director of a literacy program, kindergarten teacher, and private reading and writing coach. Then she began to write. Included in her "been there, done that" list are: bunging jumping in the Swiss Alps, picking bananas on a Kibbutz in Jordan, snorkeling with sea turtles in Kauai, and break dancing on a dirt floor for a small village in Uganda. When she's not traveling the world, she lives in Orem, Utah.