WHO WOULD UNBRAID HER HAIR book about Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, by Antoinette Nora Claypoole, STILL available.

August 15, 2004 -- WHO WOULD UNBRAID HER HAIR: the legend of annie mae, by Antoinette Nora Claypoole, is a tribute to the life and efforts of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, a First Nations woman from Nova Scotia. Aquash was executed in the 1970's when the U.S. government was actively killing Indians who were part of the American Indian Movement (AIM).

Though the book was originally published in Nov. 1999 by Anam Cara Press/Jordan S. Dill, many of the remaining copies of antoinette claypoole's WHO WOULD UNBRAID HER HAIR were sold by Dill in Fall 2003. These went to a small press in New Mexico, where the book is being distributed through Clear Light Books and is an honoring tribute to Aquash, a brave woman whose controversial murder still deeply moves those living within AND without Indian Country.

Following is an excerpt of a review of claypoole's book,about Anna Mae Aquash, the review written by scholar/professor Elizabeth Rich :http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:UXSEHNTCruIJ:www.imdiversity.com/villages/native/article_detail.asp%3FArticle_ID%3D969+antoinette++claypoole&hl=en

"was she very beautiful?"
from A Review of Antoinette Claypoole's Who Would Unbraid Her Hair?

"..... how does a storyteller tell a story that divides rather than unites a people, a story that raises questions rather than comforts listeners with answers, a story that tears at identity rather than fortifies it?

Antoinette Claypoole's Who Would Unbraid Her Hair? addresses such a story as it weaves together fragments of the stories that surround the life and untimely death of American Indian Movement (AIM) activist Anna Mae (Pictou) Aquash. Using a mixture of correspondence, diary entries, poetry, interviews, FBI records, prose, and journalism, among other genres, this text provides readers with an investigation into the roots of divisiveness that were planted into AIM 's leadership ranks by the discovery of an FBI informant acting as an AIM activist.

Rather than asserting a singular truth of the events surrounding Anna Mae Aquash's death or casting blame, this text uses the colonial records from the courts and the FBI as well as the colonial faith in the veracity of the written word to question the meaning of the murder rather than the fact of the murderer(s). Although interviews mention possible names, the text itself acknowledges only that the tension that precipitated Aquash's death was a result of pressure from the FBI, no matter which individual pulled the trigger, which sent a fatal bullet into Anna Mae Aquash's head:

'perfect set-up make her look like an informer. and when you take her down you've got another round of harassed indians protecting themselves from accusations of murder and the survival schools never get built. (Claypoole 67)'

...{Claypoole} tells the story of a post-colonial struggle and confronts the unresolved, undefined, and irreconcilable nature of that struggle. For as much as Claypoole has carefully investigated and thoroughly explored Aquash's life and death, she, ultimately, is left with no official investigation, no justice, and no answers. Therefore, she uses this indeterminate space of Aquash's story to highlight the internalization of external, Government pressure."

PLEASE NOTE:

After this book was first published in 1999 a U.S. government investigation into the murder of Aquash lead to arrests of two Indian men, one of whom is currently fighting extradition to the U.S. from Canada. John Graham, Tuchone (First Nations member from the Yukon territory)insists on his innocence www.grahamdefense.org.

Ordering information for WHO WOULD UNBRAID HER HAIR; the legend of annie mae
by antoinette nora claypoole:
Clear Light Books
823 Don Diego
Santa Fe, NM 87505
Phone: 1-800-253-2747
Fax: 1-505-989-9519
Email: market@clearlightbooks.com

Profits from the sales of this book were first offered to the Pictou family....their suggestion to send to Native organizations continues to be honored.





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