Activity: Short Story Read Along: “False Star” by Sterling HolyWhiteMountain

星期四, 11/7/2024
9:00 - 8:00
Magazines & Newspapers Center - 5th Fl
Main Library
Address

100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
美國

Contact Telephone

Read the short story “False Star” by Sterling HolyWhiteMountain about a young Blackfeet man who turns eighteen and comes into money due to him from a claim check. Leave a comment on the Magazines and Newspapers Center Blog in response to the suggested discussion questions below. Visit the Magazines and Newspapers Center on the 5th floor of the Main Library to pick up print-outs of the story and an interview with the author. 

In the beginning of HolyWhiteMountain’s story from the March 20, 2023 issue of the New Yorker, the narrator explains: “As far back as I could remember, I had heard discussion of claim checks. There was something elemental about it: the talk circled round in a seasonal way. People joked about being claim-check rich and then later laughed about being claim-check broke. They bought claim-check cars, got claim-check drunk, and some got claim-check married. That’s how it was for us for a long time, until the money ran out. The Feds are never more careful with limits and end dates on their moral awakenings than they are with us, such is the concern that we might steal the whole country right out from under them. Then we were back to where we were before, a bunch of broke skins way out on the Northern Plains, teasing one another. So this is a story about how I got my part of the money, how I spent it, and the people in my life at that time, such as Big Man, who raised me, and of course June, who I loved before any other, and who has been gone now longer than any of us had the chance to know her when she was alive.”  

Read the story in Flipster, a platform that offers access to hundreds of digital magazines, and click "Post a comment" on the Magazines and Newspapers Center Blog to share your thoughts on these discussion questions.  

  • Have you ever come into a windfall of a large sum of money like the narrator in the story? What did you spend it on?   
  • In “False Star,” the narrator ultimately buys a black Bronco which transforms him into "look[ing] rich or at least like a real fancy guy” (53). Later he describes having a car as the equivalent of an Indian having a good warhorse (53). What was your first car and how did getting it transform the way you saw yourself?  
  • In many ways, this is a story about the Blackfeet and their land—the claim check that is the catalyst for the story stems from the tribe selling the Sweet Grass Hills to the U.S. Federal Government during a period of duress. How does the environment play a role in this story? Feel free to quote sections of text that describe the land. What effect do these descriptions have on the overall narrative?

Resources   


Engage with your favorite writers and discover your next read.

Connect to engaging discussions and performances related to Indigenous Peoples.

Join the Library's celebration honoring the voices of Indigenous and native peoples with programs and workshops, book recommendations and more. 

Programs that highlight how the library's vast periodicals collection can help you dig deeper in your research, expand your horizons and stay informed.


本節目由三藩市公立圖書館之友贊助。


活動參與

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本次活動將以英語進行,除非另行説明。

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公告及免責聲明

本節目使用並連接至第三方網站。當您點擊並連接至第三方網站,代表您將會離開三藩市公立圖書館的網站,並進入非三藩市公立圖書館營運的網站。此服務可能會收集有關您的一些個人識別資料,例如姓名、用戶名稱、電郵地址和密碼。此服務將根據其私隱權政策處理已收集屬於您的資料。我們鼓勵您查看您所瀏覽或使用的每個第三方網站或服務的私隱政策,包括您通過我們圖書館服務與之互動的第三方。欲知更多有關第三方網站連接的資訊,請參閱三藩市公立圖書館隱私權政策中「與其他網站的連接」部分。

本活動由與三藩市公立圖書館無關的團體所提出及表達的觀點及意見,並不代表三藩市公立圖書館 (SFPL) 或三藩市官方政策或立場。

如因文字翻譯理解不同, 導致內容有所出入, 應以英文版本為準 。