The Ability of Their Ancestors to Survive Against Overwhelming Odds

Boozhoo, indinawemaaganidog! Aaniin! That is to say hello, all of my relatives! Welcome to another edition of An Irritable Métis. We are only a couple weeks out from IndigiPalooza MT and the stretch run is eating my life, which isn’t entirely unexpected and also why I did all I could to keep as much of July free of other commitments as possible. I’m certain it’s all going to be worth it because as things come together everything is awesome. For example, after some graphic design frustrations, I had to call for reinforcements in the mighty form of my heroic buddy Draplin and he delivered. More proof that this community effort has been truly INTER-TRIBAL. I’ll share a couple of his poster designs at the bottom of this newsletter. They’re cool.

Speaking of inter-tribal, I want to share a couple other things. With the exception maybe of my comrades at Milkweed, I haven’t had a bigger supporter in getting my words out into the world than my pal Anne Helen Petersen. She pushed my efforts when I was just another crabby loudmouth on Twitter, encouraged me to start a newsletter and then, a year into it, convinced me to offer a paid version of it. I owe her a lot and I am eternally grateful. I wish I could do something in return; if she still lived in Missoula I’d offer to push a wheelbarrow around for a couple days for her or something, I don’t know. But I bring this up because a couple weeks ago she published an interview with me over at Culture Study called “No Really, How Do We Fund the Art We Care About *Right Now*?”, HERE. I think it’s a good one. And just today, she published an episode of her podcast that I am on HERE, called “Why is Montana so in love with itself?”. This is a fun one, as we are talking about something different than I’m usually bloviating about. I hope you might find time for both! And if you don’t already support her work, please consider doing so. She does a lot of great things for people.

Also, while I’m sharing stuff, I was interviewed by Becky Parker for a YouTube series called Briar House Writes which posted a few days ago. You may dig that HERE. Thanks, Becky!

One last of self-promotional ...