In Memoriam: Jim Northrup
In Memoriam - Jim Northrup
Minnesota treasure, a Vietnam Vet, storyteller supreme, author, playwright, grandfather, husband and friend to many
From Ron Peluso, Artistic Director
I first met Jim Northrup and his wife Pat in 1990, when I asked Jim to adapt his award-winning book WALKING THE REZ ROAD for the Minnesota Festival Theatre in Albert Lea, MN. Both Bob Beverage and I worked closely with Jim to create a one-man show based on his book. Later that summer, Bob directed Jim and it would be a highlight during my tenure there and a much talked about play for years with our patrons in Albert Lea. It was Jim's first time on stage and he said it was "more terrifying than a firefight in Nam!" Later, when I became the Artistic Director for History Theatre, I asked Jim to reinvent this work for our stage and he did so - REZ ROAD 2000 - which he updated and performed for History Theatre.
In 2013, Jim and his wife Pat Northrup would collaborate with Laurie Flanigan & Marya Hart to create a children's musical: TALES ALONG THE MINNESOTA TRAIL. This musical played at the Minnesota Zoo and has toured and will tour in the Twin Cities elementary schools this fall. Jim and Pat were about "building bridges between cultures" and this play reflected their heartfelt beliefs with the creation of the character Grandfather Bear - a gentle and funny spirit, much like Jim, who would serve as a guide for a young Native girl and a boy of European descent.
Jim is a Minnesota treasure, a Vietnam Vet, storyteller supreme, author, playwright, grandfather, husband and friend to many.
His funny, gentle and generous spirit will be missed. His image is prominent above our theater doors and I see his mischievous smile every time I walk into the theater to start my day.
THANKS, Jim for being part of my life and sharing your Ojbwee culture, your stories and humor with so many.
WHO IS JIM NORTHRUP?
Mike Hazard with Jim Northrup
Reading this morning that Jim Northrup walked to the next world last night saddens.
Back in the nineties, when I was immersed in making a film with Jim, I made a list of things he had been and was along with a collection of things people said about him.
Q. Who is Jim Northrup?
A. Scribbler, Activist, Storyteller, Ogichidag, Chibenashi, Homeboy, Radio Commentator, Shinnob, Writer, Hustler, Hardliner, Letterwriter, Teacher, Wild Ricer, Basket Maker, Poet, Columnist, Anishinaabeg Family Man, Father, Grandfather, Brother, Uncle, Educator, Vietnam Vet, Runner for the Moccasin Telegraph, Doer of Whatever Comes His Way, Short Story Writer, Private Investigator, Stage Hand, Key Grip, Movie Star, Scrabble and Cribbage Player, Fork Lift Operator, Floor Sweeper, Surfer on the Multiculti Wave, Moose Hunter, Reader, Keeper of Memories, Joker, Trickster, Informed Informant, Nice Guy, Ironworker, Tribal Court Lawyer, A Man of Many Headbands, Fonjalacker, User of Treaty Rights, Fond Du Lac enrollee of the Lake Superior Band of Chippewa, Folk Artist, Newspaper Editor, Logger, Lab Tech, Fiberglas Factory Worker, Marine, Bullshitter, Deputy Sheriff, Jim "Dump this call" Northrup, One Take Northrup, Grunt, International Indian, Tvaholic, Jeopardy Freak, Jerk, Singer, Luke Warmwater, Lay Attorney, Playwright, Honorary Chair of International Indigenous People's Organization, Fullblown Thespian, Member of the Bear Clan, Elder, Gitchi Anishinaabeg, __________ ?
Q. What do people say about Jim Northrup?
Answers:
George Carlin: He is an American American.
Juanita G Corbine Espinosa: He's a homeboy.
Wiggy: He sticks his tongue so far into his cheek, sometimes he bites it off.
Dolly Dow: Some of the columns he writes bite like a junkyard dog.
Maddy Moose: He's had a lot of that, experience, and talks about everything. He's a nice guy.
Lester Jack Briggs: He is a complex individual.
Gerry Vizenor, aka Old Musky Mouth: I used to be as big as Jim.
Patrick Hazard: "Walking the Rez Road" makes me think he's a red Virgil. His poems are like prayers.
Susan Stanich: Other people's follies end up in the Follies. He is fearless. Like Roger Jourdain, he is not afraid to take on anybody. He is a good singer even though he thinks he can't sing. I think he is a wonderful writer and I love his humor. I can't imagine Jim getting a penthouse in New York; he will always live in Sawyer.
Pat Northrup: I pull his headband tighter.
Bob Holman: Is that really a poem, or did you just make it up?
Walt Bresette: He's a Shinnob from Northern Minnesota who married a dogeater.
Jim Northrup on Jim Northrup, Jr.: I am a national treasure in DC, and a circle of hate at home.
Lorna Mangan: He is the conscience of the RBC.
Jim Lenfestey: Question of the month: What's a Jim Northrup? Answer: Some Shinnob who's damn funny, politically unpredictable and wears the best beaded smiley-faced necklace in Indian country. I fantasize that he also had a great beaded hat but he tells me that was somebody else.
Bill Holm: One finishes the stories with a sense of warmth and sanity in Rez life, a world which though poor, has escaped compartmentalizing and suburbanizing. Young people still visit old people, medicine healers and gifts of tobacco work more effective cures than treatment programs, neighbors feed each other food, affection and spare tires. I don't think Mr. Northrup is likely to run out of stories, and in fact, I think he means to goad his readers to think of a few for themselves.
Jeremy Iggers: I like the way he handled the Martha Stewart people.
Meg Aerol: Surrounded by white pine, Jack pine, and the energy of his ancestors, he records the jabs and jabbering of life on the reservation. Northrup salts and spices the stories of the rez and turns a prison into an amusement park... In a continental context, Northrup's stories belong to the tradition of N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, James Welch, Tom King, and other modern Native American writers in Canada and the United States...The sacred hoop will come together as stories like these teach us to walk a mile in one another's moccasins, Reeboks, wingtips, or whatever.
Charley Nauganub: He knows his way around the woods.
Jim Mulligan: He seems to thumb his nose and say, "Come and get me."
Don Soderburg: Jim shoots in both directions at the same time.
Jim on Jim the writer: He hunches over the computer like a monkey fucking a football. He became a writer because he has a bad memory.
I wrote at the time: Jim Northrup is an idea. As he says, “I live my life in the circle of the seasons.” He hasn't always and he doesn't always. But he is trying to set an example as a kind of guerrilla theater. He is walking point for his people. He's on a rescue mission. We could start this story anywhere and end up in the same place. Killing a moose is like making a basket, is like wild ricing, is like telling a story...The end is the beginning.
Of all his writing, his poetry moves me the most. His poems are like prayers and honor songs. I love them and I loved him. Here’s one that sings poignantly today.
END OF THE BEGINNING
Someone said we begin to die
the minute we're born.
Death is a part of life.
Who knows why the Creator
thins the herd.
Another old saying says
we must all be prepared
to give up those we love
or die first.
Take time to mourn.
Take time to remember.
Everything happens in cycles.
The pain you feel was once
balanced by someone's joy
when that baby was born.
The loss you feel today
will be replaced by good
long-lasting memories.
Is there a message here? Yah,
treat others like this
is your last day above ground.
Hear Jim speaking those words. https://youtu.be/jEMbjk7fG4U
Screen the whole movie, WITH RESERVATIONS: JIM NORTHRUP, here. http://www.folkstreams.net/film,239
Rest in peace, Jim. Miigwetch.
