Mattaponi Queen (2010) by Belle Boggs

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Mattaponi Queen (2010)

by Belle Boggs

Mattaponi Reservation, Virginia

Virginia:  6/16

I love the Native American books in the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America list. I thought I had a pretty good grasp on the different types of tribes out there but this was the first representation of the first peoples of Virginia, AKA the "Pocahontas" tribe that interacted with Captain John Smith.  They were and are a tribe of Algonquin speaking people who were members of the Powahatan chiefdom.  They have a rich and complex history but Mattaponi Queen doesn't really get into it, except to the occasional reference to a character who is absent because she left to act in Hollywood because she looked "just like" Pocahontas or another character musing about what a disappointment the real Pocahontas would have been to her family when she left for England in colonial times.

 The stories aren't all about Native American characters- both African American and White residents are represented, and this had the first story I can remember where I wasn't sure what race a character was until I really thought about it.  It's a rural milieu, so the stories in this volume resemble the stories from other run down, economically morose parts of the United States:  Health issues, poverty, a desire to escape coupled with an inability to do so- they all get ample space.  The dwarf river boat of the title doesn't appear till the end as part of a story about the owner and his desire to sell the boat and restore it at the same time.