, published in 1974, was the first novel written by James Welch, a Blackfeet Indian from northern Montana. He once commented that its title was originally “The Only Good Indian”, a reference to the notorious remark attributed to General Philip Sheridan, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian”. Welch had previously authored an accomplished volume of modernist poems,
Riding the Earthboy 40(1971). An untitled poem from that collection serves as the novel's epigraph. Its final lines — “Earthboy calls me from my dream: / Dirt is where the dreams must end” — are foreboding, as is the novel's opening episode. The narrator/protagonist stops at the abandoned ruin of the Earthboy cabin and comments on the death and dispersal of the Earthboy family. As the name…
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Citation: Barnett, Louise. "Winter in the Blood". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 January 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=24940, accessed 26 April 2024.]
