The Turtle's Beating Heart: One Family's Story of Lenape Survival

by Denise Low

Overview

“Grandchildren meet their grandparents at the end,” Denise Low writes, “as tragic figures. We remember their decline and deaths. . . . The story we see as grandchildren is like a garden covered by snow, just outlines visible.”

Low brings to light deeply held secrets of Native ancestry as she recovers the life story of her Kansas grandfather Frank Bruner (1889–1963). She remembers her childhood in Kansas, where her grandparents remained at a distance, personally and physically, from their grandchildren, despite living only a few miles away. As an adult, she comes to understand her grandfather’s Delaware (Lenape) legacy of persecution and heroic survival in the early 1900s southern plains, where the Ku Klux Klan attacked Native people along with other ethnic minorities. As a result of such experiences, the Bruner family fled to Kansas City and suppressed their non-European ancestry as completely as possible. As Low unravels this hidden family history of the Lenape diaspora, she discovers the lasting impact of trauma and substance abuse, the deep sense of loss and shame related to suppressed family emotions, and the power of collective memory.

Low traveled extensively around Kansas, tracking family history until she understood her grandfather’s political activism and his healing heritage of connections to the land. In this moving exploration of her grandfather’s life, the former poet laureate of Kansas evokes the beauty of the Flint Hills grasslands, the hardships her grandfather endured, and the continued discovery of his teachings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803294936
Publisher:	UNP - Bison Books
Publication date:	01/01/2017
Series:	American Indian Lives
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 16.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Denise Low, PhD, is a former Kansas poet laureate and former dean and professor at Haskell Indian Nations University. She is a coauthor with Ramon Powers of Northern Cheyenne Ledger Art by Fort Robinson Breakout Survivors (Nebraska, 2020), winner of the Kansas Notable Book Award. Low has also authored numerous literary publications, including Shadow Light: Poems; Natural Theologies: Essays about Literature of the New Middle West (Backwaters, 2011); and A Casino Bestiary: Poems. She is a board member of Indigenous Nations Poets.
 
 

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations    
Preface    
Part 1. A Twentieth-Century Native Man: Frank Bruner (1889–1963)    
Part 2. Cutting Ties: Dorothy Bruner (1915–2002)    
Part 3. A Haunted Life: Denise Dotson (b. 1949)    
Part 4. Today: Living in Delaware Country    
Notes    
Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

“The Turtle’s Beating Heart pierces the veil of anonymity and mystery surrounding [Denise Low’s] Delaware grandfather. As she examines his life and times, she not only discovers much about his identity; she also learns a great deal about herself and the rest of her family and other Delaware-descended people. . . . As she learns, so, too, does the fortunate reader.”—Geary Hobson, professor of English and Native American Literatures at the University of Oklahoma

 
 

Geary Hobson

“A beautifully layered history of Delaware diaspora and continuance. The memoir is an act of honoring to Low’s own family, to be sure, but it also crucially assesses the intricate meanings of Native peoples’ displacement and resistance for any contemporary reader.”—Molly McGlennen, author of Fried Fish and Flour Biscuits

Molly McGlennen

"Candid, compelling, and thoughtful personal stories of resilience are interlaced with poetic prose and occasional wry humor. Low generously shares a deep exploration into her family's ancestry."—Shirley Braunlich, Lawrence Public Library

Lawrence Public Library - Shirley Braunlich

"This book is a deep and important gift from a master wordcrafter."—Kim Shuck, World Literature Today

World Literature Today - Kim Shuck

“In this important book, Low speaks powerfully and poignantly of the plight of mixed-blood families plagued by once-justified fear and its resultant secrecy and the troubling confusion and aching absence this leaves for the grand- and great-grandchildren.”—Linda Rodriguez, author of Every Broken Trust and Heart’s Migration
 
 

Linda Rodriguez

“Denise Low’s memoir weaves together Native American history, meditations on the western landscape, and intimate stories about her family in a most compelling fashion.”—Blake Allmendinger, professor of American literature at the University of California at Los Angeles and author of The Melon Capital of the World: A Memoir

Blake Allmendinger

"Low addresses the generational problems that coincide with this attempted elimination of heritage, and her story powerfully uncovers memories while reclaiming her family's cultural identity."—Katie Wolf, Transmotion

Transmotion - Katie Wolf

"A beautiful memoir, The Turtle's Beating Heart demonstrates the pain and relief of this kind of recovery work and the importance of making Indigenous people and their stories visible in a country that would rather forget its Indigenous history and its consequences."—Lisa King, Western American Literature

Western American Literature - Lisa King

“In this loving tribute [Frank Bruner’s] granddaughter Denise Low pieces together his painful and elusive story out of a tangle of migrations, historic traumas, and family silences. . . . We see this long-established Native American poet replanting her family and tribal history, re-indigenizing these people, their lands, and their stories.”—Siobhan Senier, editor of Dawnland Voices: An Anthology of Indigenous Writing from New England
 

Siobhan Senier

"Low does Americans with Indian ancestry a valuable service by illuminating the unique and often terrible circumstances and choices their forebears faced."—Pamela Miller, Star Tribune

Star Tribune - Pamela Miller

10/15/2016
Spurred by the recognition that she knew little about her grandfather Frank Brunner, despite living in close proximity to him through much of her childhood, Low (former Kansas poet laureate; Worlds of a Prairie Alchemist) endeavored to discover why he was intentionally aloof toward even close relatives. What emerged from her research is this poignant memoir that illuminates not only the experiences that shaped Brunner but also the trauma wrought by the continuation of the Delaware (Lenape) diaspora, which began in the 18th century. Although Brunner tried to hide his native heritage as a young man, he and his family were subjected to constant harassment and discrimination while living in Burns, KS, including threats of violence from the Ku Klux Klan. In response, Brunner relocated with his family to Kansas City. As an adult, he opted to protect his loved ones through isolation and no mention of his Delaware ancestry. While well intentioned, this tactic had long-term implications for his descendants. Through her dogged research, Low rediscovers her native heritage and makes connections to others who share her background. VERDICT Readers interested in the 20th-century American Indian experience will find this to be a valuable account.—John R. Burch, Campbellsville Univ. Lib., KY

Library Journal

2016-09-26
A poet and professor comes to terms with her Native American heritage.Though many tribes have been better able to sustain a collective identity—whether on a reservation or through perpetuation of their legacy—Low (Jackalope, 2015, etc.) never knew much about her Delaware (Lenape) heritage when she was growing up in Kansas. When the Delaware “sold” Manhattan to the Dutch in 1626, many of them dispersed in various directions, sometimes in different clans (“Wolf, Turkey, and Turtle”), but they retained no sustained tribal identity. Low’s mother rarely acknowledged that bloodline and showed disfavor toward the daughter who so resembled her grandfather. “Discrimination against Native people has been so fierce that many people, like my family, suppressed their identity with non-Europeans as completely as possible,” she writes. “Some black Cherokees chose to identify with African Americans because it was easier.” As the former poet laureate of Kansas and a dean at the Haskell Indian Nations University, she found herself traveling around the state, hearing stories from those with similar backgrounds. She became even more curious about the legacy that seemed lost, the history her family never spoke about, the one it had tried to hide, to marry above, to leave dead in the past. “This process has healed me,” she writes, allowing her to deepen the sort of relationship with her mother that they’d never had when the latter was living, to discover just how much in common she had with her grandfather, and to realize how those earlier had suffered at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan and discrimination in general. “The story of my grandfather and my mother has become my own, as my past grows longer than my future,” she writes. An engagingly written mix of research, reportage, and memoir, infused with the passion of discovery.

Kirkus Reviews

"This book is a deep and important gift from a master wordcrafter."—Kim Shuck, World Literature Today


"A beautiful memoir, The Turtle's Beating Heart demonstrates the pain and relief of this kind of recovery work and the importance of making Indigenous people and their stories visible in a country that would rather forget its Indigenous history and its consequences."—Lisa King, Western American Literature


"Candid, compelling, and thoughtful personal stories of resilience are interlaced with poetic prose and occasional wry humor. Low generously shares a deep exploration into her family's ancestry."—Shirley Braunlich, Lawrence Public Library

From the Publisher