Fort Totten, ND April 24, 2023 – Cankdeska Cikana Community College (CCCC) and Tate Topa Tribal School recently hosted Laurel Goodluck, Native author of the children’s book, Forever Cousins. The visit was made possible by a grant from the North Dakota Humanities Council.
Laurel Goodluck’s writing is with modern Native themes. Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Laurel comes from an intertribal background of Mandan and Hidatsa from the prairies of North Dakota and Tsimshian from a rainforest village in Alaska. Ms. Goodluck has degrees in psychology, community counseling, and family studies.
“I didn’t have books with characters who looked like me, so I wanted to make that possible for children today,” Laurel stated when visiting with the students at Tate Topa. As a child, Laurel’s parents moved from the reservation to the city for vocational training via the federal Indian Relocation Act of 1956 vocational job training. Based on that experience, Ms. Goodluck wrote this story about how two cousins who were afraid they would forget each other when one cousin moved back to the reservation. “This story represents the many cousins my sister and I grew up with and visited on the reservation,” said Goodluck, “I have really enjoyed coming and sharing my story with the children…it’s a great experience and shows that they can someday tell their own stories.” Copies of the book were given to all the children who participated and they were encouraged to share with their own cousins and other family members.
