On Oct. 2, Carter Meland, author and professor at the University of Minnesota, visited Southwest Minnesota State University to talk with students and faculty about his book Stories for a Lost Child.

While Meland wasn’t quite able to top the stereotype of how most people picture teachers or writers, he did give it a fresh take.

Meland teaches American Indian Literature and Film courses for the Department of American Indian Studies. His book reflects this by his usage of the Ojibwa (Anishinnabe) culture and their way of storytelling.

For his stories, he was able to take four seemingly separate short pieces and string them coherently together to create a new story. This story, however, after his visit, confesses multiple similarities to his own life.

Raised without knowing about his heritage, Meland has only recently begun to delve into the almost foreign culture of Native American tradition, and has since unearthed a few surprises—like how large of a family he actually has now that he knows about what he briefly called the “other half.”

Another surprising part of his writing process for his book involved learning some of the Ojibwa language, a task that Meland says equaled about “one word a year”.

Upon reading Stories for a Lost Child, most people understand that Carter Meland is a Native American author. He writes as both a very smart and educated instructor who is still doing research, and a member of the Ojibwa tradition with a quick wit.

Meland is also the descendent of a former Native American chief from the early 1800’s. Like most leaders (if you consider Meland leader-adjacent), he always has an answer to any question.

But, be prepared for a rather longwinded answer that touches on topics you’ve never thought of, before you get a satisfactory response.

If you can follow these spontaneous speeches, however, Meland can be seen as a well of information. It is certainly worth reading his book in order to understand his situation and the situation of many other people in the world that are not sure where they belong.