A Celebration of Indigenous Culture and Survival in Never Whistle at Night https://ift.tt/DEzRtg9
Wildly imaginative and wholly original, the dark fiction anthology Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr., offers sinister, bone-chilling stories with the potential to redefine the horror genre. Ghosts, hauntings, curses, monsters and complicated family histories and relationships transport readers into the darkest depths of night and human psychology. Meanwhile, an underlying current carefully threads the stories together, celebrating Indigenous survival and culture.
North Carolina author Conley Lyons offers “Navajos Don’t Wear Elk Teeth,” the story of an LGBTQ Indigenous person named Joe who meets a white man, Cam, with a taste for Indigenous men. In an act that parallels the way Europeans historically encroached on and stole Indigenous lands, Cam slowly bullies his way into Joe’s home and begins taking over, going so far as to mock historical family artifacts which Joe treasures. When one of Joe’s friends texts a warning regarding the strange tooth collection Cam flaunts, Joe finally finds it within themself to bring an (albeit violent) end to their relationship. “Navajos Don’t Wear Elk Teeth” possesses a bold, personal voice. Joe is a memorable, honest and blunt narrator readers will not quickly forget. Symbolically, Joe represents something much larger – the reclamation of rightful lands, culture and language by Indigenous peoples in the face of ever-increasing white supremacy and cultural appropriation.
Baltimore resident D.H. Trujillo, a writer of Mexican and Pueblo descent, brings a twisted tale of magic and mayhem that unfolds in the desert. “Snakes Are Born in the Dark” celebrates Indigenous culture by uplifting the integral role that magic, tradition, ancestry, family and cultural rediscovery play in the modern world. Peter and Maddie, Indigenous cousins who hold a deep respect for the ancestral culture, trek their way through the desert with Adam, Maddie’s white, racist boyfriend. When Adam attempts to deface ancient petroglyphs, a series of surreal, magical events unfold. Maddie breaks out in strange, oozing, pus-filled sores, and, eventually, Adam births a rattlesnake. The gory depictions of blood, pus and body-bursting reptiles might cause some readers to quickly flip through this story. Nonetheless, when one looks past the gore, there is a message about the consequences of disrespecting Indigenous artifacts, which are federally protected. This message resonates with current events like the June 2023 damage of artifacts and burial grounds at Arkabutla Lake and Dam, where treasure hunters illegally took federally protected artifacts.
“Heart-Shaped Clock” by Cherokee Nation citizen Kelli Jo Ford explores the familial complexities created in separated Indigenous families and addresses the drug use and low-income jobs Indigenous peoples have been forced into, due to oppressive systems which restrict and exclude them. The story follows an unnamed narrator who recounts their childhood during which they lived with one parent while their brother lived with another. Through a series of violent events, the narrator’s past and present collide, and when the narrator spontaneously murders their brother, the story reaches its psychological apex. What makes “Heart-Shaped Clock” unique is the philosophical sprinklings one discovers. For example, one of the most notable anecdotes appears near the story’s beginning: “The heart is fucking gristle. The more you try to chew through it, the bigger it gets.” This anecdote helps establish the story’s tone and also shows that the narrator is more insightful, observant and sensitive than those around him might notice.
“Dead Owls,” by Standing Rock Sioux Nation member Mona Susan Power, draws comparisons between the historical treatment of the Dakota peoples and the Japanese, particularly Japanese interned in the United States during World War II. Unlike other stories in the collection, it relies on a rather young narrator who attempts to understand their identity in the context of both the Indigenous culture and a white one. The story also draws on the significance of dreams to Indigenous peoples. Violent dreams plague the narrator and physically manifest. The narrator offers their aunt an origami crane, which they brought from the dreamworld – a reminder that those lost are not so estranged after all.
One of the anthologies most enthralling stories is “Uncle Robert Rides the Lightning” by Kate Hart, a Chickasaw citizen/Choctaw who lives in the Ozarks. The story opens with the simple, yet dramatic, sentence: “Uncle Robert rode the lightning and survived.” It is a story of friendship and devotion, following Robert’s attachment to Gregory. When Robert is killed by jealous bikers, his death “killed Gregory too, though it took another decade to do it.” Despite Robert’s physical death, he lives on in a different form and “crosses the Red River on a Harley every night.” Robert is “so much bigger in the afterlife” and “brings the thunder of Oklahoma across the Texas line.” Robert and Gregory’s connection continues in the afterlife, but Robert is always too fast for Gregory to catch, and so the two continue their afterlife ramblings and wanderings, appearing to the living in various ways. Sky imagery plays an integral role in the story. “The White Dog’s Road is made of stars, and at its end are the ancestors. To join them, you must cross a slippery log, or else languish in the west as a ghost.” Thus, part of this story’s allure lies in its poetic descriptions, which transport readers into an otherworldly realm.
In the anthology’s foreword, Blackfoot Native American author Stephen Graham Jones writes, “So for these next 392 pages, let these twenty-six writers take you by the hand, lead you into the darkness at the heart of—let me put some quotation marks around it—‘America.’” It is the best advice anyone could give this anthology’s readers. Never Whistle at Night not only holds bone-chilling and psychologically terrifying stories that will delight fans of the horror genre, but, more significantly, it presents valuable cultural insights and historical lessons about a nation still grappling with its death-dealing past.
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