While pregnant with him, Ha-sa-no-an-da's mother dreamt that "the sky opened and even though it was winter, a rainbow appeared.... it was broken at its highest point in the sky. On the lower side of that rainbow were suspended signs... in the English alphabet." In the revealing biography One Real American, Nulhegan Abenaki citizen and prolific author Joseph Bruchac explores how this dream foretold the life of the extraordinary Seneca best known by his English name, Ely Samuel Parker.
Parker's rainbow started its ascent when his father sent him to a Baptist boarding school. He learned to read, write and speak English and earned a scholarship to Yates Academy, where he was the first and only person of color in a student body of more than 200. Bruchac takes readers further up Parker's metaphoric rainbow, showing Parker's efforts to save the Seneca Tonawanda lands. Parker practiced law but turned to engineering when he was unable to sit for the bar exam; citizenship was required and "no Indian could be an American citizen." With one foot planted firmly in the white man's world, he was able to join the Masons, engineer the Galena customhouse and spark a friendship with Ulysses S. Grant. Parker's stunning arc of success, like the prescient dream, did break, and while Bruchac faithfully recounts this period as well, the focus of the biography stays on Parker's trailblazing and achievements.
Despite a slow start, One Real American is an illuminating look at one of the first Indigenous men in the United States to force down racial barriers. Accompanied by photographs and fascinating quotes from Parker himself, Bruchac narrates this life story with reverence and respect. --Jen Forbus, freelancer