“…no reader will escape unchanged…”
—MAUREEN McQUERRY,
author of The Peculiars and the Time Out of Time series
—MAUREEN McQUERRY,
author of The Peculiars and the Time Out of Time series
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Summary:
On the 29th of November, 1847, within the Whitman Mission in the southeastern corner of what is now Washington state, a clash of cultures, misunderstandings, and outright lies all came together to a disastrous end for all concerned. Written as 22 poems, Blood on the Ground: Elegies for Waiilatpu tells the story of those who lost their lives as well as those who instigated and carried out the uprising that fateful day. PRAISE FOR BLOOD ON THE GROUND
“There are many ways to tell a story. The Whitman Story, a complex and tragic 168-year old drama has been told many ways, but never better than by Lenora Good who uses poetic verse to relive that cataclysmic day in November 1847. Her sensitivity and empathy for the characters of the Whitman calamity is apparent; her story is compelling.”
—SAM PAMBRUN, Great-great- or Great-great-great-Grandson of
Pierre C. Pambrun who was the head of Fort Nez Perces when the Whitmans arrived in 1836 “In her richly riveting verse narrative of events leading up to the Whitman massacre and away again after the killings were done, history buff Lenora Rain-Lee Good introduces us to a complex cast of characters, including Joe Lewis, the half-breed agitator who convinced the Cayuse the Whitmans were deliberately poisoning them, and five Cayuse, who surrendered to stand trial—and were hanged. Good gives us the story as those who lived it may have spoken. Poetry has a way of getting straight to the heart of things, making this a story you will not soon forget.”
—MARJORIE ROMMEL, Poet Laureate, Auburn, Washington
“Poet Lenora Good has penned tender verses that evoke images of a tragic event in Oregon’s history. She captures the confusion, the loss, the grief of the Whitmans and others shocked or killed or taken captive that day. And she brings us the winds that wash the rye grasses still today at Waiilatpu, where dreams were shattered on a cold November day in 1847. A good story—or poem—ought to memorialize and help us remember. Lenora’s Blood on the Ground does that with clarity and warmth.”
—JANE KIRKPATRICK, award-winning author of The Memory Weaver
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“Here is history as it was lived by the people who made it—written in their own voices, raw and alive, passionate, angry, frightened, despairing. What happened at the Whitman Mission is a microcosmic experience of the settling of the West; the clash of alien cultures, blind devotions, terrors, hatreds, misunderstandings. In Lenora Rain-Lee Good’s masterful recreation, we live through the horror, experience the aftermath, and bury the dead. And here too, is one of the great lessons of history: all the people here, slayers and slain, villains and innocents—in the end, they were all victims.”
—STARR MORROW, author of From One Side to Another
and A Once and Future Place
and A Once and Future Place
“An unexpected treat! Lenora takes us back to difficult times in the Pacific Northwest and reintroduces us to intense emotions applied to history that can come only from the heart.”
—PHILIP H. RED EAGLE
“I am not a poetry reader but thoroughly enjoyed the narrative and historical facts presented in Blood on the Ground. Ms. Good does
a masterful job of weaving the Native American side of the Whitman tragedy into a compelling storyline.”
a masterful job of weaving the Native American side of the Whitman tragedy into a compelling storyline.”
—NED EDDINS, historian and author, www.TheFurTrapper.com
”Ms. Good’s Blood on the Ground tells the story of the killings at the Whitman Mission in 1847 in southeastern Washington State. You can read the twenty-two poems, enjoy the dance of language and image, get a fuller understanding of the emotions and beliefs of the participants, and broaden your understanding of that moment in history and the tragic consequences. But there is a larger message. Whenever people as individuals or as nations meet without regard for another world view, meet with subjugation as the goal rather than respect and tolerance, there will be ‘blood on the ground.’ Just look around at the world today.”
—JANE ROOP, award-winning poet
“To a poet, the highest compliment is the pang of blood-curdling jealousy as I wish I had written this spectacular book of poems. The dance of cultures and blood captivated me from first page to last.”
—RALPH-MICHAEL CHIAIA, poet, The Sacred Calendar
“Leave it to Lenora Good to craft a prismatic narrative poem from the raw material of a historical massacre. She seamlessly weaves facts and imagination in order to explore, from a variety of conflicting perspectives, the sad story of catastrophe in the Oregon Country.
The dominant pioneer myth has been challenged many times, but seldom with the grace and subtlety of Blood on the Ground.”
The dominant pioneer myth has been challenged many times, but seldom with the grace and subtlety of Blood on the Ground.”
—FAIN RUTHERFORD, Northwest poet
“In Blood on the Ground: Elegies for Waiilatpu, Lenora Good shares the story of the Whitman Massacre and a land where “the grit of sand, rye chaff, wheat dust blows through the valley like history, like memory, rubs the stone to a high sheen, slowly polishes the names away.” Fortunately for readers, Lenora Good has captured the voices of those whose names have faded in this remarkable collection of narrative poems. Told from multiple perspectives, the poems are rich in detail and research. As the poet says of the massacre, ’None escaped to tell it quite the same.’ And no reader will escape unchanged after reading Good’s elegies.”
—MAUREEN McQUERRY, author of The Peculiars
and the Time Out of Time series
and the Time Out of Time series
About the AuthorLenora Rain-Lee Good was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. Her grandfather introduced her to the history of her region and her country at an early age in a manner that made it both real and alive. She hopes you find her poetry both real and alive.
Lenora now lives in Kennewick, Washington, not very far from the Whitman Mission, which she loves to visit. She shares her home with a small dog, a large cat, and a room full of quilting fabrics. She tries to divide her time between the writing of stories and the making of quilts. Her poetry has appeared in numerous hard copy and online magazines, two of her radio dramas have been produced and aired, and she has published four Young Adult/Adult novels: My Adventures as Brother Rat, Jiang Li: Warrior Woman of Yueh, Yadh, the Ugly, and Madame Dorion: Her Journey to the Oregon Country. www.LenoraRainLeeGood.com |
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