A Promising Life

A Promising Life

Juvenile historical fiction
"First, Baptiste heard muffled gunfire, then furious drumming.
It meant the boats were finally arriving, bringing the Mandan chief
back home from Washington City, where he had met the Great White
Father. Soon Baptiste and his parents would board one of those boats,
and it would take them away from the Mandan Villages and down the
river. His mother had told him over and over that it would happen.
He had begged her to tell him what it would be like in St. Louis. But
Sakakawea had no stories of the future. All she would say was that
Captain Clark would raise him."
Jean Baptiste Charbonneau was a real person and a fascinating
one. He grew up in an America that was radically changing and was
connected with movers and shapers of his time. Sadly, he left few
records. Fortunately in A Promising Life, Emily Arnold McCully
undertook the research required to bring his story to life.
Baptiste had been a baby when his mother, Sakakawea, had guided
Louis and Clark on their famous expedition. He'd captured the
attention of Clark who had spoken of his bright promise and offered to
raise him as a son. When the story begins he is about to be delivered
by his indiginous mother and his French father.
His new life is nothing like he could have imagined. Instead of
living with Clark, he is enrolled in a boarding school. Although it
is a very new and strange world for him, soon he is at the head of his
class. A new war with England during which each side uses indiginous
tribes brings prejudice out in a lot of people.
"'Let our policy be the slaying of every Indian from here to the
Rocky Mountains!' he shouted. His listeners blared approval.
Baptiste felt sick. He worried about his mother all the time. It
couldn't be safe at the fort. White people like that merchant spoke
of violence. And the British had bribed troops on the Upper Missouri
to go on the warpath."
Change is the one constant in the new country. Cities
flourish. Westward expansion continues with great vigor. Europeons
clamor to come to a nation where fixed statuses have been replaced by
freedom to make one's fortune.
Baptiste, however, sees a dark side to this progress. The
indiginous people are being pushed off their land and deprived of
their ways of sustenance. Bison, a major food source, were being
slaughtered, the meat often cast aside.
"The dignified chief had come to air a grievance. After he and
Lisa had smoked a pipe, the old chief quietly confided through an
interpreter that the fort was bringing calamity to his small village.
Its hunters were depleting game in the vicinity. And the young
braves, seeing the treasure the white men harbored in their fort,
began cultivating wants. They couldn't satisfy the wants and so
became unhappy. It was a pitiable destiny for his people, was it not?"
McCully brings a fresh and thought-provoking perspective to a
period of American history that is all too often white washed. I
think it's an excellent for its target demographic and well beyond.
On a personal note, I had a truly awesome Friday. My friend Kat and I
went thrift shopping. My best finds were a teddy bear in a yellow
dress that sings I Wanna Be Loved By You and a very cool cat shirt.
Cat shirts are me. Then I went to the Black Student Union meeting. I
was able to report that the black privilege opinion piece I'd written
and read to them last semester was in the January 1 Bangor Daily news,
both print and on line editions, forwarded, posted, and commented on.
It had people thinking and talking. Everyone applauded and was so
pleased. It was the kind of moment I live for--knowing I am using my
talents to help my fellow humans and the world we live in.
jules hathaway




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