Antoinette Nora Claypoole (b. Rochester, New York, 1951) is a contemporary American author, activist and poet. Her maternal grandparents arrived from Southern Italy after World War I and her father's family came from Ireland and England. Her ancestors in America reach back to the 1600's, when the Claypoole brothers first arrived here from England. She traveled the world as a child, and spent time in Taiwan soon after that country separated from Red China in the 1950s.

Claypoole is a freelance writer/journalist who most recently covered a contentious extradition battle in Vancouver, B.C. It involved members of the American Indian Movement and the death of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. Claypoole's radio broadcast freelance work was done for Pacific Radio, KPFK Los Angeles, The coverage/reports were an extension her first published book, Who Would Unbraid Her Hair: The Legend of Annie Mae (Anam Cara Press, Nov. 1999, ISBN 096738530X). The book documents the life and death of the Canadian activist Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. Aquash was a member of the American Indian Movement during the turbulent 1970s and was found murdered on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota.

An activist within Indian Country since the early 1980s (beginning with her support of the Diné Grandmothers facing relocation at Big Mountain, Arizona), Claypoole worked for six years researching and documenting the circumstances surrounding Aquash's murder, did radio work surrounding subsuequent arrests/trials re: that history. Claypoole is also an editor for a small literary press, Wild Embers.

Other works by Claypoole include: Rivers in Her Eyes, a historical novel about the Diné (Navajo) at Big Mountain, Arizona (published in February, 2006), la Puerta, Taos the art of fetching sky (editor), and an upcoming tribute to writer/socialist Louise Bryant, The Watersong Project. She has been published in various anthologies and magazines throughout the Northern and Southwestern United States, including the West Wind Review, Journal of Experimental Fiction, and The Sentient Times.

Publications

A review of Who Would Unbraid Her Hair by Elizabeth Rich, Ph.D.:
:"Antoinette Claypoole's Who Would Unbraid Her Hair.....weaves together fragments of the stories that surround the life and untimely death of American Indian Movement (AIM) activist Anna Mae (Pictou) Aquash. Using a mixture of correspondence, diary entries, poetry, interviews, FBI records, prose, and journalism, among other genres, this text provides readers with an investigation into the cointelpro tactics of the FBI.

The murder of Anna Mae Aquash is explored from various perspectives within Who Would Unbraid Her Hair. Included are excerpts from the work of Sharon Doubiago, Paul DeMain, a perspective of former Chairman of the American Indian Movement and friend to Anna Mae Aquash, John Trudell, and the timeless efforts of Anna Mae's cousin, Robert Pictou-Branscombe (including his letters and communiqués regarding his cousin's murder).

The book is a tribute to Anna Mae Aquash, a biography, and at times, "investigative poetry" which documents the varied theories regarding the death of Anna Mae Aquash. Most importantly, the book puts to rest the accusations which had been placed on Ms. Aquash regarding her being "an informant" for the U.S. government.

References

Book Review by Elizabeth Rich, PhD. "On Who Would Unbraid Her Hair: The Legend of Annie Mae by Antoinette Nora Claypoole" (AnamPress West, 1999) in Writers NW, spring 2000 14:1.

"Remember Wounded Knee": AIM's Use of Metonymy in 21st Century Protest
College Literature, Summer 2004 by Rich, Elizabeth


Native Voice Newspaper, Rapid City, S.D.
March 2004
An interview with Antoinette Nora Claypoole

The Wounds from Wounded Knee
By JACK RANDOM
http://www.counterpunch.org/random02262005.html
February 26 / 27, 2005
The Extradition of John Graham


"Unsettling Realms of a Friendly Nation"
by antoinette nora claypoole

Day one of the John Graham Hearings
Dec. 6, 2004
written as part of coverage for
KPFK Pacifica Radio, Los Angeles
http://archives.quillandparchment.com/Jan2005/un.html

External links

http://www.butterflywriting.blogspot.com

Her websites:

www.riversblip.blogspot.com

www.wildembers.blogspot.com

Rivers In Her Eyes

a list of some of Ms. Claypoole's writings may be found at
http://www.antoinettewritings.blogspot.com

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