Representation of Genocidal Violence in Robert J. Conley's Mountain Windsong

Abstract

As an oral tale told by a grandfather to his grandson,Mountain Windsongwhile representing the native American Cherokee history of removal through the perspective of the victim also portrays the act of forceful removal as genocidal violence perpetrated by the U.S. government upon the Cherokee Indians. Set against the tragic events of the Cherokee's removal from their original lands in North Carolina to Indian Territory in Oklahoma between 1835 and 1838,Mountain Windsongis a grotesque and tragic tale of both theGeorgian history and American heritage that pushed the Cherokees West along a route they called the "Trail of Tears". During this historical event the federal government captured, herded, and forced over nineteen thousand Cherokees to travel over eight hundred miles West where over four thousands Cherokees died of hunger, disease, illness, and murder. Robert J. Conley in the novel manages to re-establish a sense of identity and a purpose with the culture and nation devastated by the genocidal violence. Whenpeople get displaced into a new physical and cultural environment, the bewilderment and profound sense of dislocation results into a deep sense of loss. However, the text can not be taken simply as a text about mourning the loss of home, culture, and nation but more than that, an attempt to relocate the 'Self' of a community traumatized by genocidal violence back to its heritage so that the bitterness of the past can be reduced to the level of meaningful present.