James Phillip Welch Jr (1940 - 2003)

Born 18 Nov 1940 in Browning, Glacier, Montana, United States

Ancestors

Died 4 Aug 2003 at age 62 in Missoula, Missoula, Montana, United States

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Biography

James Welch Jr is Notable.

James Phillip Welch was born 18 Nov 1940 in Browning, Glacier, Montana to Rosella Marie O'Bryan and James Phillip Welch Sr. He was one of three children born to this union. His father was a rancher, welder and hospital administrator. He was part of the Blackfeet Nation. His mother was a stenographer and part of the Gros Ventre Nation. As a result, he attended school on the Blackfeet and Fort Belknap reservations.

James attended Washburn High School in Minneapolis, graduating in 1958. Following high school, he worked in various jobs...U.S. Forest Service Firefighter, laborer and an Upward Bound counselor. Eventually, James attended the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana, studying for his masters in Fine Arts. Poet Richard Hugo, his instructor, fostered his poetic writings by encouraging him to write about what he knew most about...his Native American ancestry.

In June of 1968, he married his wife, Dr. Lois Monk, who was a professor of English and Comparative Literature at UM. They spent their life together teaching and traveling the world.

"Kind of growing up around the reservations, I just kept my eyes open and my ears open, listened to a lot of stories. You might say my senses were really brought alive by that culture. I learned more about it than I knew I did. It was only after I began writing about it that I realize that I had learned. I knew quite a bit, in certain ways, about the Blackfeet and Gros Ventre ways of life." (James Welch)

PUBLICATIONS

NOVELS

• Winter in the Blood (1974)
• The Death of Jim Loney (1979)
• Fools Crow (1986)
• The Indian Lawyer (1990)
• The Heartsong of Charging Elk (2000)

NONFICTION

• Killing Custer: The Battle of Little Bighorn and the Fate of the Plains Indians (1994)

POETRY

• Riding the Earthboy 40 (1971 rpt. 1975)
• Last Stand at Little Bighorn
• Christmas Comes to Moccasin Flat
• Surviving
• Snow Country Weavers
• Thanksgiving at Snake Butte
• Dreaming Winter
• Harlem, Montana: Just off the Reservation

James died on 4 Aug 2003 in Missoula, Missoula, Montana. His cause of death was a Heart Attack after a 10 month struggle with Lung Cancer.

Sources

• Find A Grave: Memorial #22324908
• Ancestry.com. Biography & Genealogy Master Index (BGMI) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Gale Research Company; Detroit, Michigan; Accession Number: 1322913.
• Ancestry.com. Montana, U.S., Birth Index, 1870-1986 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2017.
• Montana State Genealogical Society and Ancestry.com. Montana Death Index, 1907-2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009.
• Ancestry.com. Montana, U.S., State Deaths, 1907-2018 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2001. State of Montana, Montana State Deaths, 1868-2018, State of Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, Office of Vital Statistics, Helena, Montana.
• Ancestry.com. U.S., Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 2 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
• Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.
• Ancestry.com. Web: Obituary Daily Times Index, 1995-2016 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. The Missoulian; Publication Date: 13 Aug 2003; Publication Place: Missoula, Montana, USA; https://www.newspapers.com/clip/90372496/.

See also:

• Wikipedia: James Welch (writer)
• Wikidata: Item Q504698
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piegan_Blackfeet
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gros_Ventre