Imagine a world where the American government signed a conservation act to “restore all indigenous flora and fauna to the Great Plains,” which means suddenly the Great Plains are Indian again. Now fast-forward fourteen years to a bowling alley deep in the Indian Territories. People that bowling alley with characters named LP Deal, Cat Stand, Mary Boy, Courtney Peltdowne, Back Iron, Denim Horse, Naitche, and give them a chance to find a treaty signed under duress by General Sherman, which effectively gives all of the Americas back to the Indians, only hide that treaty in a stolen pipe, put it in a locker, and flush the key down the toilet. Ask LP Deal and the rest what they will trade to get that key back–maybe, everything.
![](https://www.demontheory.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/bird-is-gone-641x1024.jpg)
Stephen Jones writes with a whole new aesthetic and moral sense. He doesn’t sound like any of the rest of us, and I love that – Sherman Alexie
Jones follows his brilliant first novel with another work of pure originality and quirky brilliance. Jones is taking Native American Literature in a new, necessary direction. – Louis Owens
Caustically surreal in the manner of Hunter Thompson, even William Burroughs… – Booklist
The writing is hallucinogenic, varied, fascinating. While reading the novel, big names in writing came to mind: Pynchon, David Foster Wallace, even Faulkner – New Pages
cover options that could have been:
![](https://www.demontheory.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/bird-raven.gif)
![](https://www.demontheory.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/bird-bowling.gif)
reviews still on-line that I know about: New Pages | North Dakota Quarterly | here (buried about halfway down—this dude HATED this book . . .)
if I’m remembering correctly, too, this is exactly where the title comes from:
![pigeon](https://www.demontheory.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/pigeon.png)
and here’s where the whole novel comes from—a pic I noticed tacked onto the bulletin board of the game office in Browning one November:
![](https://www.demontheory.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ledfeather_moose-1024x646.jpg)
Somewhere or another, there’s a cover-possibility ramping out of that photograph, too, but who knows where anymore.
And, here’s a couple of ragged snaps from, in this order: Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman (Swamp Thing and Sandman, I’m thinking—can’t recall. Just found them, cleaning up directories on my phone).
![bird moore](https://www.demontheory.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/bird-moore-300x225.jpg)
![bird gaiman](https://www.demontheory.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/bird-gaiman-225x300.jpg)
That phrase, that title, it always stands out to me.
And, found this in my 1970 Chevy truck. Bought the truck in . . . 2009, maybe? 2010?
![yellow truck](https://www.demontheory.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/yellow-truck-768x1024.jpg)
And this from Katie Burgert, a student in Charlotte Quinn’s class at DU:
![](https://www.demontheory.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Katie-Burgert.jpg)