JUDE STAR SURVIVED THE 1864 Sand Creek Massacre, when the U.S. Army slaughtered Cheyenne and Arapaho people in present-day western Colorado. Then he was remanded to a POW fortress in Florida. His son, Charles, is confined to the brutal Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, where more than 200 children died over four decades. In 2018, Orvil Red Feather is trying to come to grips with his addiction as well as his ancestral trauma. Institute of American Indian Arts graduate Tommy Orange’s latest novel, Wandering Stars (Alfred A. Knopf), unfurls achingly over more than a century of Indigenous history. You’ll think about these characters long after the pages are still.
What We're Reading: Wandering Stars
Tommy Orange's novel "Wandering Stars" tells the story of Jude Star, a Sand Creek Massacre survivor, and his descendants as they face their family's traumatic history over more than a century.
Tommy Orange's novel "Wandering Stars" explores over a century of Indigenous history through characters dealing with the lasting effects of past traumas.