A Woman to Know: Christine Quintasket
Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it, and every person a mission. — Christine
(image credit: Washington State University Library)
Christine's Native American name was Humishuma. But while attending the Sacred Heart School in Kettle Falls, Washington, she was forced to give up her Native American language and take Christine Quintasket as her Christian name.
Christine preserved her grandmother's tribal legends in two books. Coyote Stories recounted stories from her childhood on the Flathead Reservation, and the incredibly-popular Cowegea was one of the first best-selling novels written by a Native American author — and the first of the then-burgeoning Western genre to follow a female protagonist.
But she didn't write as Christine Quintasket. Instead, she adopted a secret pseudonym for her writing: Mourning Dove, a name inspired by her time at the Sacred Heart School.
Add to your reading list:
Coyote Stories (Mourning Dove)
Cowegea, the Half-Blood: A Depiction of the Great Montana Cattle Range (Mourning Dove)
Mourning Dove: A Salishan Autobiography (Mourning Dove)
Read more:
Mourning Dove: Chronicler and Champion of the Okanagan People (John Brent Musgrave)
Author: Mourning Dove (ABC Book World)
Empowering Indigenous People Through Literature and Publishing (Cogewea Blog)
Author found literary success as Mourning Dove (Heather Andrews Miller)
Humishuma (Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest)
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