Dates: Friday, December 1 & 15, 2023
Time: 1:30-4:00 PM
Place: Pat's Café, 11890 S. US Hwy 41, Terre Haute, IN 47802
Cost: FREE
RSVP: November 17, 2023

Lunch is optional at Pat’s Café at each participant’s expense preceding each class.
Participants will receive a free copy of the novel by Zane Grey’s West Society.

The class will read and discuss in depth the 1925 novel considered to be one of Zane Grey’s best novels, and participants will view the 1925 silent western film by the same name starring Richard Dix and Lois Wilson. The book reveals Grey’s truly deep-felt respect and empathy for the American Indian and the deep concern he had during his lifetime for the survival of that culture. The protagonist of the novel, a young Navajo named Nophanie, is tailored in part af-ter the life of the famed Indian athlete Jim Thorpe. The book follows the life of a young boy picked up by whites at age seven, through his college years at a prestigious Eastern college where he excelled in football and met a white girl who eventually follows him back to the res-ervation of his people. The novel chronicles in historical detail the abuses of missionaries and how one culturally-confused Indian fought to regain and retain the rights and beliefs of his people. Both the novel and the movie were highly controversial as special interest groups were instrumental in ultimately causing a delay between release of the two different pieces.

The class will examine both sides of the issue dealing with the government’s obligation and efforts to make amendments for abuses and the resultant impact on Native Americans from past to present. The novel incorporates both World War One and the Spanish influenza epi-demic into the plot. Participants will read and study the words of Loren Grey, the son of the author, who insisted upon following up on earlier published editions of the novel in order to accurately reflect his father’s original work. The presenter will share pertinent stories of his multi-years experiences with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority.