A new book by Ardy Sixkiller Clarke has just been published! It's been listed as "Coming Soon" on her publisher's website, anomalistbooks.com, for an ENTIRE YEAR! I know this because I kept checking periodically (obsessively?) to see if there was any news about a release date. Finally, this week, it was published! I ordered it immediately and UPS delivered it to me yesterday.
This is her fourth book of interviews she's done with Native Americans about their encounters with star people. It's called Space Age Indians:
It focuses on people who lived to see 2 indigenous astronauts launched into space: John Herrington in 2002 (a Chickasaw member), and José Hernández in 2009 (from the Purépecha tribe in Mexico).
The title is inspired by the song "Space Age Indian" from the band Tiger Tiger:
Even the book cover seems to be slightly inspired by the song's album cover, which also has a rocket taking off in the background:I like my computer,
I'm an Indian of the future,
Space Age Indian, I won't be left behind,
Space Age Indian, I'm changing with the times
I looked around to see if I could find the song. It's posted on YouTube and is pretty good:
Getting back to the book, I've just started reading it. As is usual with Ardy's books, this is not one I can read straight through. Some of the interviews are so thought provoking I have to put the book down and let the ideas settle before continuing.
The book is off to a good start, though. The first several interviews are with Indians who are Vietnam veterans that live in Hawaii. They reported encountering, and in some cases, having their lives saved by tall, shimmering "Blue Men" during the war. One of the men later earned a degree in astronomy after the Blue Men took him aboard their ship and showed him Earth from space. He says he now searches the universe for life, in hopes of seeing them again.
I'm sure I'll have more to tell later. Right now I have to get back to reading.