University of Washington Press Book News 
Lelooska: The Life of a Northwest Coast Artist

By Chris Friday

Publication date: August 2003

Don Smith -- or Lelooska, as he was usually called -- was a prominent
Native American artist and storyteller in the Pacific Northwest. Born
in 1933 of "mixed blood" Cherokee heritage, he was adopted as an adult
by the prestigious Kwakiutl Sewid clan and had relationships with elders
from a wide range of tribal backgrounds. Initially producing curio items
for sale to tourists and regalia for Oregon Indians, Lelooska emerged
in the late 1950s as one of a handful of artists who proved crucial to
the renaissance of Northwest Coast Indian art. He also developed into
a supreme performer and educator, staging shows of dances, songs, and
storytelling. During the peak years, from the 1970s to the early 1990s,
the family shows with Lelooska as the centerpiece attracted as many as
30,000 people annually.

In this book, historian and family friend Chris Friday shares and
annotates interviews that he conducted with Lelooska, between 1993 and
ending shortly before the artist's death, in 1996. This is the story
of a man who reached, quite literally, a million or more people in his
lifetime and whose life was at once exceptional and emblematic.

"This is more than a Northwest narrative. At its most fundamental level,
it is a Native story. In the life and times of Lelooska, we see key issues
confronted by countless American Indians in regard to identity. Lelooska's
story helps us to understand that identity is not simply bestowed but
is forged through life choices and experiences."

	-- Peter Iverson, author of "Riders of the West: 
	Portraits from Indian Rodeo"

"A richly textured and highly readable book. Chris Friday skillfully
blends historiography, life history, and personal experience to explore
the life and artistic career of the well-known Native American carver
Lelooska. This is a book about the artist behind the art, and about the
collaborative enterprise of life history."

	-- Margaret B. Blackman, author of "Sadie Brower Neakok, 
	an Inupiaq Woman"

Chris Friday is professor of history and director of the Center for
Pacific Northwest Studies at Western Washington University.

304 pp., 35 illus., index, notes, bibliog., 6" x 9"; Paper: ISBN
0-295-98324-8, $24.95; World rights

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Available from the Lelooska Foundation (360) 225-9522