There’s been a recent surge in authentic depictions of Native American people and stories in pop culture. And it’s not isolated to acclaimed series like Reservation Dogs or movies like Killers of the Flower Moon or Rez Ball, to name a few. The literary world is changing too. Take Shutter, about a Navajo woman who solves paranormal crimes as a forensic photographer, which was longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award for fiction. In honor of Native American Heritage Month, KUNM discussed this shift with its author Ramona Emerson, and the struggle she faced as a Diné writer to get her debut novel published.
RAMONA EMERSON: It took a good eight years to get the book published. And we just kept getting rejection letters. They didn't like my story structure going in a circle, which it kind of did. It went from the beginning all the way back around and then back home. But I don’t think they also understood that that's how a lot of Natives tell stories. And so, they didn't overtly say, ‘I don't like this book because it's Native or because we don't think that we can sell Navajo stories.’ But they don't understand Navajo story structure. So, I think we're still kind of limited by what people think they want to see from Native people.
KUNM: Who do you write for?
EMERSON: I write for my community. I'm writing about things that only they will understand. And sometimes they recognize the way people speak to each other on the rez or the different places I visit — different locations, and different places that aren't around anymore, you know, things like that. People outside of my community don't get those nuances. But I have to say that, when I was getting my MFA, I had a mentor in workshop one semester — and I won’t call him out — but he said to us that we're not writing for our communities. He said, “We're writing for white readers, mostly.”And he says, “Well, our communities don't read.” And I kind of just was kind of floored by what he said. And, in my heart, I was like, “Yeah, we do. I know my community reads. They just don't have anything to read that's about them. They just have outsider literature. That's all. And they're waiting. They're waiting for us.”
KUNM: There's been a recent spike with Indigenous stories, especially in pop culture. Do you think this is a trend, or do you think it's something that's more long lasting?
EMERSON: Well, we always seem to go into these 20-year trends, right? So, it was like Dances with Wolves and now here we are, kind of having another flood of Native content. Whereas that last one kind of lasted maybe one or two years of people being kind of vaguely interested in Native culture — as portrayed by Kevin Costner — what's different about this is that I think Natives are having their voice heard on several different fronts, not just in film, but also in literature and in television, music.
I mean, I think supporting Native voices — like we know, when you write a book, if you can get it optioned and you get that kind of stuff, then you should be using young Native people to fill those roles. You should be talking to Native musicians who don't have record deals yet, or who are doing grassroots kind of music, and put their music into your projects. Like, elevate those voices, then we won't lose this momentum that we have.
KUNM: So, I want to ask this, but I think I already know the answer. Despite all the TV [shows] and movies and books that we have right now, do you think there are more Indigenous stories to be told?
EMERSON: Oh my gosh, yes. I'm really hoping that we can push past where we are right now. I mean, like, let's get off the reservation, guys. You know? We don't have to make movies about fry bread and pow wows and basketball. You know? We're all more than that, everybody. Like, where's our stories about Indigenous attorneys and lawyers? And where's our rom-coms? You know what I mean? Where's that? Then, I think we're starting to touch a bit on horror. I can't wait for there to be some real Indigenous horror films. You know? Like, come on, Jordan Peele. You better start a Native wing. We've got stories waiting in the wing, directors to direct. That's what I'm talking about.
Like contemporary stories about us in the cities, like how we really live our lives. You know? We don't play basketball, we don't eat fry bread every day, we don't go to the powwow. Some of us can't speak our language. Some of us have these issues. We don't talk about them in our stories. Like, those are the things that we need to talk about because that's the thing that most of us can relate to and understand.
KUNM: What kind of advice would you give up-and-coming Indigenous creatives?
EMERSON: Well, I will tell you this: It's not gonna be easy. People are going to tell you you're crazy. Ninety percent of the time, you're going to get rejection letters. In my 50-some years, I've only had a handful of yeses. Really. So, always learn and better yourself and get it back out there and don't give up, because that's how it is. And you'll look back on all of the hardship you had, and you'll realize that you wouldn't be where you are unless you went through all of that. All of that is building your artistic character. It's giving you stories. You just have to let it happen and it'll happen. And I hope for all of your sake it happens faster than it happened for me.
Support from the coverage comes from the Thornburg Foundation.
