Constant Reader discussion

Welcome to Loon Feather by Iola Fuller

I happened upon “Loon Feather” when searching for titles about the Upper Peninsula and Mackinac Island. I had planned a June road trip to UP with a friend from Cleveland who was winding down from her son’s wedding. We abandoned the trip because of the black flies we heard were bothersome in June. Instead, we’re looking at a Road Scholar trip fall 2026.

https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-

Iola Fuller was born in 1906 in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, she married Edwin Goodspeed in 1927. They were both employed as teachers in 1930.

In 1940 Iola was earning money as a writer.

Iola earned; A.B. in 1935, M.A. English in 1940 and a Master in Library Science in 1962, all at the Univ of Michigan-Ann Arbor. From 1964 - 1969, she was an assoc. prof. of English at Ferris State College. During her career, she helped set up new school libraries.

Greatly influenced by her creative writing professor at the University of Michigan, Roy W. Cowden, Fuller-Goodspeed-McCoy (2nd marriage) started writing historical novels in the late 1930s. Iola valued accuracy in historical material in her work, and her stories often focused on characters who had to strive against great odds to attain their goals.

A Phi Beta Kappa scholar, McCoy received the Avery Hopwood Award for Creative Writing in 1940 and the Michigan Distinguished Alumni Award in 1967.

Iola's novels include The Loon Feather (1940), about the history of Mackinac Island in Michigan; The Shining Trail (1943), a portrait of the Native American chief Black Hawk; The Gilded Torch (1958), about La Salle's discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi River; and All the Golden Gifts (1966), which details life in the court of King Louis XIV.

Iola died in 1993 in Colorado.

"Loon Feather", weaves historical events among personal events.
The personal is the story of a girl born to an Native American Indian tribe, Ojibwe or Ojibway, an Algonkian-speaking tribe that constitutes the largest Indian group north of Mexico. The Ojibwe stretch from present-day Ontario in eastern Canada all the way into Montana.

Set during the early and mid-1800's, it describes how the Ojibway girl, Oneta, proud daughter of Tecumseh, becomes civilized in her manner and dress through education and adoption by a caring yet rigid Quebecois accountant her widowed mother remarries. In a moment poised on the brink of violence, Oneta finds the need to be herself, to be Tecumseh's daughter, and to do what she can to help her people.

I just finished The Loon Feather last night and am sorry to see that there isn't any discussion by others yet. I really enjoyed Fuller's descriptive writing and the story about life among the native Americans, voyageurs, soldiers and fur company employees on Mackinac Island in the early 1800s. For some reason that I can't quite articulate, the story feels fresher than I expected for something written in 1940.

I was very invested in Oneta's challenges and eventual growth into her father's mantle of power. Her flight into the deep woods on the night of the council fire and eventual understanding of what she needed to do to prevent war on the island felt like the experience she never had as a young woman, when her peers would have found their purpose in life. Her time in the convent school, when she became "civilized", derailed that process but eventually her father's legacy brought her back to her native roots.

I also enjoyed the multidimensional characterization of Pierre and Grand'mere'. Fuller could easily have made them out as a cruel stepfamily, but it was clear that they truly cared for Oneta even when they didn't understand her ways and wanted her to fit into their lifestyle more completely. Grand'mere's liveliness, pragmatism and sense of humor were a delightful foil to Pierre's rigid approach to life.

Martin was also multidimensional in his open-minded desire to learn everything he could about the environment in which he found himself when he reached the island. The fact that he took the time to learn about the native population (including their languages) in addition to the soldiers he was sent to work with at the fort was probably pretty unusual for the time. He was clearly quite intelligent and empathetic - the perfect mate for Oneta. My only criticism was how long it took Fuller to have Oneta figure that out :)

And I should have started by thanking you for nominating this, Ann! I'm sure I would never have been aware of Fuller or this book in particular if you hadn't. I might look for the book about Black Hawk at some point because he played a major role in Iowa history.... but of course I can't recall any of what I learned about him in grade school.

I’m actually reading it too and loving it. My life has been very busy this summer but I’m almost done with this book and will be back to say more.

I finished this tonight. Throughout my reading, I worried about its accuracy, particularly in depicting the Native peoples’ beliefs and habits. But what Lyn said about Fuller’s emphasis on the importance of accuracy reassured me.

Probably my only criticism is that Oneta often seems too good to be true. She never loses her patience or gets angry. But, then I remembered what was said about Native peoples’ training as they grow up to not show their feelings.

One of my favorite things about it was Fuller’s ability to paint verbal pictures of the natural world that they were all living in. That world was disappearing even then but it was glorious.