653. Kathleen DuVal, part 2.

653. Part 2 of our conversation with Kathleen DuVal about her book, Native Nations: A Millennium in North America. “Pulitzer Prize Winner - National Bestseller - A magisterial overview of a thousand years of Native American history” (The New York Review of Books), from the rise of ancient cities more than a thousand years ago to fights for sovereignty that continue today. Winner of the Bancroft Prize, the Cundill History Prize, and the Mark Lynton History Prize. Long before the colonization of North America, Indigenous Americans built diverse civilizations and adapted to a changing world in ways that reverberated globally. And, as award-winning historian Kathleen DuVal vividly recounts, when Europeans did arrive, no civilization came to a halt because of a few wandering explorers, even when the strangers came well armed.

1. Now available: Liberty in Louisiana: A Comedy. The oldest play about Louisiana, author James Workman wrote it as a celebration of the Louisiana Purchase. Now it is back in print for the first time in 221 years. Order your copy today!
   
2. This week in the Louisiana Anthology. Katie Bickham. "Widow's Walk, 1917."
   The word came that seven hundred thousand
   bodies had drawn their last breaths at Verdun,
   an earth-quaking number for those unacquainted
   with the greedy appetites of death.
   She had never been across the sea, but pictured
   the corpses laid in neat rows like chopped cane
   at harvest time.
       “Apologies, ma’am,” came Small John’s voice
   from the rear stairs.  “I’d’a sent Roberta,
   but she scared fiercely of high places.
   You got to come down. The sun will cook
   you through.”
       Five weeks her husband had been gone,
   and she hadn’t even heaved a sigh until
   she’d tried to fasten her silver bracelet on her own,
   a task best suited to a second pair of hands.
   Sweating, she gripped the chain until the metal
   grew hot in her palm.
       “Ma’am?” Small John tried again.  Without
   turning, she could feel him moving closer.
   Had he ever touched her once in these long years?
   “Roberta said you in a fury.”
       She turned from the iron railing and flung
   the bracelet at him hard.  It hit his shoulder,
   tinkled as it fell onto the slate.
   He lifted it by one end like a snake
   and walked toward her.  “I’d’a gone, too,”
   he said.  “Over there to fight. ‘Cept I don’t
   see like I ought to, and my knee ain’t right.”
       He watched her as if she might bolt
   over the edge, body set to lunge. Her
   temper cooled quick, the way Louisiana
   afternoons went from sweltering to raising
   shivers on skin before a hurricane
   blew in from the gulf.  “Small John?” she asked.
   She held her shaking wrist out to him, her jaw
   and throat and chest all gone hot and raw.
       She thought he might throw it back at her,
   but he looked at her straight on, barely glanced
   down as he slipped the tiny teeth
   of the clasp together around her wrist, never
   once touched her skin.
   
3. This week in Louisiana history. November 22, 1886. 30 Negros killed/100 wounded by vigilanties to stop canefield strike in Thibodeaux,
   
4. This week in New Orleans history. The New Orleans Recreation Department Keller Center at 1814 Magnolia Street was dedicated on November 22, 1971. It was named in honor of Rosa Freeman Keller who had dedicated decades of her life in New Orleans to racial and gender equality.
   
5. This week in Louisiana.
   Christmas Wonderland in the Pines
   Locations around Jonesboro
   November 29, 2025
   Grand Marshal Coffee and Ceremony - 10:00 AM in the Community Room in Town Hall.
   The Grand Marshal is presented a Proclamation from the Mayor declaring the day in their honor. Family, friends, and guest of the Grand Marshal are especially invited to attend the ceremony. All visitors and members of the public are also invited to attend. Business casual attire is encouraged.
   Official Turning on of the Christmas Lights - 12:00 PM
   Following the Grand Marshal Coffee, the over 5 million Christmas lights are officially turned on for the remainder of the holiday season.
   Annual Christmas Wonderland in the Pines Parade - 4:30 PM
   The annual parade starts along Cooper Avenue, turns at Third Street, comes down Allen Avenue toward the Courthouse and turns onto Jimmie Davis Boulevard, turns at Hudson Avenue, and finishes on Seventh Street. The judges' table is located on Jimmie Davis Blvd. at the steps of the Courthouse.
   Annual Firework Show - approximately 7:00 PM
   Once dark, the firework show will start. The fireworks are shot from the Public Works Department, under the supervision of the State Fire Marshal. The fireworks can be viewed from nearly anywhere in the city.
   
6. Postcards from Louisiana. Aislinn Kerchaert. Thanksgiving. 

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