Hes wine country's reluctant casino mogul. His new novel is rich with Native history
On the Shelf The Last Human Bear By Greg Sarris Heyday Books: 384 pages, $30If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.Before her death in 1993, Mabel McKay — one of the last living dreamers of the Pomo Indian people — shared a prophecy while driving through the Sonoma hills.One day, this paradise would burn.“Everything is going to go dry.
Everything will burn.That’s my latest vision,” she said, gesturing to the idyllic landscape.Startled, writer Greg Sarris asked what could be done to stop it.“You live the best way you know how,” McKay replied.Since her passing, Sonoma County experienced the most destructive wildfires in California history in 2017, only for another, more destructive fire to surpass it a year later.
“She always used to say, ‘Whether you believe it or not, it’s true,’” Sarris recalls.McKay and her visions are the inspiration behind Sarris’ latest work.His first novel in 28 years, “The Last Human Bear,” is loosely based on the spiritual leader McKay, whose wisdom and companionship served as a refuge to Sarris during a tumultuous childhood in Sonoma County.On a Monday morning in California, Sarris sits in his sleek office at the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria in Rohnert Park.
Sarris, 74, has served as chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria for more than 30 years.In his office, diplomas and academic certificates crowd the walls.
A framed poster for the 2023 film “Joan Baez: I Am a Noise” hangs nearby — she’s a close friend.Behind him, an American flag ripples in the distance outside the window, blurred by the summer heat.Just up the road sits a multibillion-dollar tribe-owned casino, Graton Resort & Casino — a project the writer oversees.
“I had never been in a casino.I have a PhD in modern thought and literature from Stanford,” says Sarris.
How does an accomplished author find himself at the...