45 pages • 1 hour read
Joseph BruchacSkeleton Man
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Joseph Bruchac
Writer and storyteller Joseph Bruchac was born in Greenfield Center, New York, on October 16, 1942. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from Cornell University, a master of arts degree from Syracuse University, and a doctorate from the Union Institute of Ohio. Bruchac has published more than 120 books for children and adults; nearly all concern Indigenous American subjects and themes. He has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Cherokee Nation, and he has also been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers’ Circle of America, an organization that he helped to found. He continues to live in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Some of Bruchac’s best-known books include Tell Me a Tale: A Book About Storytelling (1997), The First Strawberries: A Cherokee Story (1993), and The Heart of a Chief (1998). He recounts growing up in his grandparents’ home in his memoir, Bowman’s Store: A Journey to Myself (1997). Throughout his career, he has championed Indigenous American themes and writers. In Skeleton Man, Bruchac portrays Mohawk culture in a positive light, for the protagonist uses her Mohawk heritage to cope with her predicament and solve the mystery of her parents’ disappearance. Because children’s literature has often overlooked Indigenous culture, Bruchac’s work has been praised by educators and writers alike for its positive and accurate portrayals of Indigenous Americans.
Although Bruchac’s work is well-known and widely celebrated, he is also the subject of significant recent controversy over his claim to be Abenaki by descent. He traces this lineage through his maternal grandfather, who never acknowledged himself as Abenaki and instead identified himself as French. Bruchac has come under fire from First Nation Odanak Abenaki tribal leaders, who have asked him to provide evidence of his ancestry (Churchill, Chris. “Churchill: Is Joseph Bruchac Truly Abenaki?” Times Union, 2023). The Odanak Abenaki assert that this information has not been forthcoming. Additionally, although Bruchac has claimed Abenaki decent for decades and is a member of the Nulhegan Abenaki Nation, a tribe recognized by the State of Vermont, he is not an enrolled member of any federally recognized tribe. The Nulhegan Abenaki, along with several other tribal groups recognized by Vermont, have repeatedly tried and failed to meet the criteria set forth by the United States government for tribal recognition on at least four counts. After conducting exhaustive genealogical research, Professor Darryl Leroux of the University of Ottawa has concluded that the Vermont Abenaki are descended from French Canadians, not from Indigenous North Americans (Leroux, Darryl. “State Recognition and the Dangers of Race Shifting.” UCLA American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 2023). Likewise, New Hampshire Public Radio reported in their investigation into the Nulhegan Abenaki group that the members’ claims of Abenaki ancestry, including Bruchac’s, could not be supported genealogically (Furukawa, Julie. “Review of Genealogies, Other Records Fails to Support Local Leaders’ Claims of Abenaki Ancestry.” NHPR, 2023). Although this controversy has affected how some readers view his work, Bruchac received a $50,000 award from the Academy of American Poets in 2023 to support teaching children about Indigenous people, and his novels are still widely read.
Cultural Context: Akwesasne Mohawks
Bruchac portrays Molly as an Akwesasne Mohawk by descent through her father. In the United States, the Saint Regis Tribe is the only federally recognized Mohawk tribe. Across the border in Canada, Mohawk people constitute the largest Indigenous nation in Quebec, with a population of nearly 20,000. In Canada, three communities—the Kahnawake, Akwesasne and Kanesatake—comprise the Mohawk Nation. The Mohawks have a long and well-documented history on both sides of the border. Indeed, the Iroquoian Confederacy existed in North America long before European colonialization; the incursion of Europeans and Americans on their traditional lands forced the Mohawks to wrangle with state and international boundaries, complicating their history and culture. Echoes of this conflict can be seen in Skeleton Man, for Molly reports that her father grew up on the Akwesasne Reserve in Canada, although the family now resides in upstate New York, either near or in the St. Lawrence River Valley.
Historically, Mohawks belonged to the Iroquois Confederacy, along with the Oneida, Cayuga, Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscarora tribes. These peoples share a common Iroquoian language, culture, and traditional beliefs, and they also pass down the same legends and stories. According to archaeologist Edward V. Curtin, there is a Seneca legend concerning a vampire skeleton (Curtin, Edward V. “The Vampire Skeleton: A Scary Seneca Iroquois Story.” Curtain Archeological Consulting Blog, 2016). The story includes similar details to Bruchac’s depiction of the Skeleton Man. Other tribes in New York State and southeastern Canada include the Algonquin-speaking Anishinaabe (Ojibwe), and Micmac, among many others. The Abenaki, the Indigenous people whom Bruchac self-reports to be his own ancestors, belong to this language and cultural tradition as well. These people all share the myth of the Wendigo (also called the Windigo). Algonquin folktales portray the Wendigo as an evil creature who eats humans; Bruchac’s Skeleton Man bears a resemblance to this figure. The mythologies of other North American tribes also include stories of vampires, skeletons, and cannibal spirits. However, it is important to note that each specific Indigenous nation is an entity in and of itself. While there can be apparent similarities in the stories passed down among such nations and their cultures, these disparate cultures cannot be generalized as a homogenous entity. Another way to think of this is to consider nations such as France, Italy, and Germany. Although these nations are all “European” and although it is possible find similar legends that circulate among them, each nation and language group has its own distinctive culture. Likewise, each Indigenous nation has a distinct culture. Molly’s story, for example, with its forests and wildlife, only makes sense in terms of the woodland landscape and culture of the traditional Mohawk geographical range.
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