Author to Discuss Novel of Native American Baseball

LeAnne Howe, a member of the Chocktaw Nation of Oklahoma, will discuss and sign "Miko Kings:An Indian Baseball Story" (Aunt Lute Books, 2007), her novel about Native American baseball in the early 20th century, on Sunday, May 4, 2008, at 1 p.m at the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, 3001 Central Street, Evanston.

Set primarily in the Indian Territory of pre-statehood Oklahoma, Howe’s heavily researched work of fiction centers on the lives of Hope Little Leader, an ace Choctaw pitcher for the Miko Kings, a Native team, and Ezol Day, a mystical, time-traveling Native postal clerk.

Part of the drama involves an epic sports rivalry between the Miko Kings and the Seventh Cavalrymen from Fort Sill.

The book is Howe’s tribute to baseball as it was played on dusty prairie diamonds by the Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw in the sport’s Native heyday, 1895 to 1915 — a virtually undocumented period in American history.

Howe’s first novel, "Shell Shaker," won the Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award in 2002. Her poetry collection, "Evidence of Red," received the 2006 Oklahoma Book Award.

Howe, an associate professor of English at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has also written and directed for theater, radio, and film, focusing primarily on American Indian experiences. Among her many credits is that of screenwriter and on-camera narrator and for “Indian Country Diaries: Spiral of Fire,” a 2006 television documentary on the present-day Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians that aired widely on PBS stations.

Admission to the event is free with an entrance donation to the museum. Suggested donation is $5 for adults; $2.50 for seniors, students, and children. Maximum suggested admission per family is $10. For information, phone (847) 475-1030. On the Net: www.mitchellmuseum.org.