Book Review: Geary Hobson's The Last of the Ofos
A Native American’s Journey to is Identity
Published in 2000, The Last of the Ofos is like a Native American version of Homer’s The Odyssey. Thomas Darko, the last speaker of Ofo, the language of Mosopelea tribe of Sherrillton, Louisiana, must find where he fits in a world where there is no other person like him. His character is based on Rosa Pierrette—the last actual Ofo—of Marksville, Louisiana.
The novel recounts his triumphs and travails and the demise of his entire family, making his the sole member of his tribe. The major themes of this story are loss and loneliness. Through a series of tragedies, all members of his family die. After living in a rural area in Louisiana by himself for a long time, he undertakes a lifelong journey to see if there is anything left of his Native American existence.
Thomas Darko’s travels take him from his small town to prison to Hollywood and finally to the Smithsonian, where he becomes a living "artifact." Along the way, he encounters a number of interesting personalities in American history, including the infamous Bonnie and Clyde. The story also castigates the U. S. government for its treatment of Native Americans through treaties and allotments.
While many tribes in other areas of the country received some benefits from the government, many of the smaller tribes in the South never get any form of recognition. Darko says that none of the tribes in Louisiana had treaty relations with the government and only flimsy relations with the state. He says that as far as the governments were concerned "we was all gone—or that we all vanished."
The glaring oversight becomes apparent to him when he is in Washington, D.C., attends a Native American event, and is told by another Native person that he is not real because he had no identification card or tribal affiliation. Book is eye-opening because many people associate Native Americans with the West and Plains regions in the United States. It shows that there are tribes and people of Indian decent are all over the United States.
The book is an easy, quick read, despite its use of regional linguistics. Unlike a number of Native American books, it is written in a linear manner, not going back and forth while he is recounting events. Although the novel is short, some readers my get frustrated with the regional terms; however, if they have problems pronouncing some of the French words or the regional names, this is an opportunity to learn something new. This could be a reader’s chance to become familiar with a new culture.
Geary Hobson, a Cherokee-Quapaw/Chickasaw, was likely inspired to write this story because of his southern background, growing up in Chicot County, Arkansas. He has served as director of the Native American Studies Program at the University of New Mexico. He later joined the English Department of the University of Oklahoma, were he teaches and coordinates courses in Indian literature. He is compiling a literary and critical history of North and Central American Indian literature and believes that this literature should be treated as a separate Anglophone literature. He serves as a project historian for "Returning the Gifts."
Source:
Hobson, Geary. The Last of the Ofos. 1st ed. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. 2000.
