The Western Literature Association convened at Fort Hall, Idaho, home of Shoshone-Bannock tribes, October 11-14, 2023 with a theme of “Home on the Rez: Sovereignty & Sustainability.” The conference celebrated Indigenous scholarship, writing, and art, as well as Idaho writers. Highlights included Distinguished Achievement Award winner, Mark Trahant, the highly celebrated editor-at-large of Indian Country Today. Randy’L Teton, the only living model for U.S. currency, the coin illustrating Sacajawea, also discussed her upcoming memoir. The Western Literature Association and its journal were housed for many years at USU, and Sabine Barcatta continues as director of operations. Seven faculty members—current and emeritus—presented at this year’s gathering. They include the following: 

 

• Keri Holt, “Recasting the Past: Nineteenth-Century Accounts of Spanish Colonial Exploration” 
• Travis Franks, “Before John Rollin Ridge Went West: The Arkansas Literary Origins of a Complicated Cherokee Writer” 
• Melody Graulich, “An Education at the Puyallup Reservation” 
   

A panel growing out of USU’s course, The Farm in Literature and Culture, and the textbook used, Farm: A Multimodal Reader, featured four panelists:  

• Lynne S. McNeill, “Turning Water into Wine: The Persistence of Dowsing in Contemporary Grape Farming” 
• Bonnie B. Moore, “The Farm in Literature & Culture: Engaging Students with Excerpts from Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer” 
• Joyce Kinkead, “Decolonizing Thanksgiving: Weaving Indigenous Food and Culture into a Farm Literature & Culture Course” 
• Evelyn Funda, “Transformational Farming on the Snake River Plain: Annie Pike Greenwood, Settler Boosterism, and Indigenous Farming” 

 

Alumni Trenton B. Olsen, who is on the faculty of Brigham Young University-Idaho, presented on “Robert Louis Stevenson’s Western Romance” while Matt Burkhart of Case Western Reserve University’s paper was “Apprehending Slow Violence in the Osage “Oil Encounter.” Another alum, Jillian Moore of the College of Western Idaho, presented two papers, “Taking Stock of the Archive: Native Art, American Ephemera, and Cultural Preservation” and “Narration, Self- writing, and Crafting Self-hood in 1883.”