Miko Kings: An Indian Baseball Story Book

Miko Kings is set in Indian Territory's queen city, Ada Oklahoma, during baseball fever of 1907, but moves back and forth in time from 1969, during the Vietnam War, to present-day Ada. The story centers on the lives of Hope Little Leader, a Choctaw pitcher for the Miko Kings, and Ezol Day, a postal clerk in Indian Territory who travels forward in time to tell stories to the present-day narrator. With Day's help, the narrator draws the reader into Indian boarding schools, such as the historical Hampton Normal School for Blacks and Indians in Virginia, where the novel's love story between Justina Maurepas--a character modeled after an influential Black educator--and Hope Little Leader, begins. Though a lively and humorous work of fiction, the narrative draws heavily on LeAnne's careful historical research. The author weaves original and fictive documents into the text, such as newspaper clippings, photographs, typewritten letters, drawings, and handwritten journal entries. "LeAnne's Miko Kings is an incredible act of recovery: baseball, a sport jealousy guarded by mainstream Anglo culture, is also rooted in Native American history and territory...[Howe's] compelling stories and narratives...expose the political games of the 20th century that Native Americans learned to play for resistance and survival."--Rigoberto GonzalezRead More