REGIONAL- Have you ever wondered what a powwow is like but weren’t sure who to ask? Well, Nicholas Bimibatoo Mishtadim DeShaw has a unique answer – ask a cat.
But not just any cat will do. The cat DeShaw has in mind is the star of his new children’s book “Loaf the Cat Goes to the Powwow.”
DeShaw is the outreach coordinator for the University of Minnesota American Indian Studies Department, specializing in the Ojibwe language, Native American history, and Indigenous games, and is a regular contributing writer to the website A Tribe Called Geek, a site devoted to Indigenous pop culture, STEM, and advancing the visibility of Native and Indigenous contributions to the world.
Although DeShaw grew up away from Nett Lake, his Bois Forte Ojibwe heritage through his father has been of intense interest since he graduated high school in 2008, he said.
“It’s a place we always talked about in the family, and when I graduated high school, I wanted to come here to reconnect with my relatives and reconnect with that side of my family and culture,” DeShaw told the Timberjay at the recent SahGiiBahGah powwow at Nett Lake. “Terry Goodsky and I got to know each other, and he takes me around and we drum a lot, so I got to know the powwow circuit. That led into one of my other passions, writing, and I created this children’s book partially based on my experiences.”
In the book, Loaf gets her name from looking like a loaf of bread when she sits, but DeShaw has another explanation for the curious cat’s name.
“My wife, when we got married, she had a cat named Sophia, and now it’s my cat, too,” he said. “And Sophia got shortened so that it became Loaf, and it became this silly nickname.”
DeShaw described the story of Loaf.
“It’s a story where the point of view is that of a cat who lives with a Native American family, kind of implied to be from around here,” he said. “She loves her little boy Charlie, and he is creating regalia to dance in his first powwow. Then he disappears, and she doesn’t like that, so she goes out to find him and winds up making her way to a powwow. She sees all the sights and hears all the sounds and learns about powwows that way. The idea was that it’s something that a Native kid could see themselves in, but a non-Native kid could also have a nice approach to contemporary Native American culture.”
DeShaw got the opportunity to pitch the book to Nancy Paulsen of Nancy Paulsen Books, a brand of Penguin Publishing specializing in children’s literature.
“She thought it was great,” DeShaw said. “We worked on it for about three years and it’s finally out on the shelves now.”
Goodsky served as a consultant when DeShaw was editing the book, and for the illustrations DeShaw connected with Tara Audibert, a Canadian Indigenous multidisciplinary artist and film maker with over two decades of experience in animation, comics, and fine art. She’s illustrated the award-winning JoJo Makoons series of books by Dawn Quigley and numerous other titles. Audibert’s unique and colorful style works well to draw young and old readers alike into Loaf’s relationship with Charlie and heightens the sense of excitement of Loaf’s tale of discovery.
DeShaw’s own journey into his culture and to the book is intimately wrapped up in his son, Magnus Meminogwaneyaash DeShaw. Four years ago, DeShaw traveled to Nett Lake to learn how to make a cradleboard for his soon-to-be son, and recently the two of them were back to introduce the book at the powwow.
“It means a lot to be here,” DeShaw said. “It means a lot to do this with everybody and to share something that I worked so hard on. I hope it can be something families, especially kids, can enjoy.”
The book, written in English, is available at bookstores and on Amazon.com in both hardback and Kindle versions.