Dana Lone Elk
Rez in the City
By Dana Lone Elk
LCT Columnist I finally broke my silence and good news I have been holding in for a couple of months. I entered an options agreement with a screenwriter from Hollywood to develop my book into a TV series. At this point, I have handed my baby over to the care of another. If this works out, I will be hired as one of the writers on the show, which we are hoping is a half hour series containing heavy issues and not forgetting the comedy. I must admit, while it is a step forward and basically only full of hope, I still was apprehensive to hand my baby over. Who wouldn’t be? I finally broke this silence and the first thing people are telling me is to keep it positive. I will not let my book become a Mary Poppins version of the reservation. I want the truth out there even if we are the ones who have to see it for ourselves. I know I took the risk of being vilified or labeled as vilifying my own reservation, but I stuck to the raw side of the reservation as I experienced and saw it. After all, I wrote this book while awaiting sentencing. I wanted people to see how life can take you here or there. And as much as we can act like victims, every single choice is ours. It is up to us to change and become who we are meant to become. What I also did was include the humor of the reservation, that humor carries us through the struggles and let’s us know, that tomorrow is always there to laugh again. I had big dreams writing this book. I have big dreams for the sequel. It was the kind of book I thought should have already existed, instead of all the very poetic, dreamy, romanticized books out there. Then I read a quote by Toni Morrison: “If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." So that is what I did and while it has not made me rich, it made my dreams come true and hopefully will be on Netflix or something soon. I encourage all young writers out there in Lakota Country to write our stories down, because we can fund a thousand books written about the Lakota people in any library but less than ten percent of those will be written by Lakota people. Keep writing. Find the award-winning Lakota Country Times on the Internet, Facebook and Twitter.
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