DeAnna Quietwater Noriega

Dogwood Blossom

Growing Up Native American

Click on the image to see a larger version.

In her novella Dogwood Blossom, author and social justice advocate DeAnna Quietwater Noriega weaves a tapestry of rich details about growing up Native American. From migrant farm to reservation and beyond, this story centers on love, family, and resilience in a world of racial and economic injustice, where a 10-year-old Chippewa girl wants a cherry-red sweater.

Diane Landy
Author of Adventures with Zap
www.dianelandy.com

This book is a crystalline window that offers us a candid view of a hardworking and loving family. Poverty and oppression are no match for the strong bonds among the characters. The author's authentic words transcend generations and transport the reader into another place and time &emdash; yet the themes are still relevant today. The uplifting story left a warm glow in my heart, as I'm sure it will in the hearts of many.

Feather Chelle, author of numerous books for children
https://www.dldbooks.com/featherchelle/

In Dogwood Blossom, the author beautifully invokes a simpler time and her Native American heritage. The life lessons here will resonate with readers young and old. Immerse yourself in the captivating worlds she creates, and you'll be left yearning for more.

Cheryl McNeil Fisher
Author of numerous books for children and co-host of the award–winning podcast Writing Works Wonders

Purchasing Information

Fifty Years of Walking with Friends

Click on the image to see a larger version.

More than half of this eloquent, informative book is devoted to the author's first guide dog, Tammy, and it soon becomes plain why. As the dog matured from beginning guide to seasoned veteran, the author went from starting college to embarking on her long marriage and her impressive working life.

Each of the author's nine guide dogs thus far is described in loving detail: what it looked like, what unique personality traits it had, and why it had to retire from guiding. Age, illness, a tragic accident, and more—each required a return for the author to The Seeing Eye®, the country's oldest guide dog school. The beautiful German Shepherd pictured on the cover of the book with the author is her ninth dog, Enzo.

In prose and poetry, Noriega describes not just her loyal canine companions, but also the family she was born into, her children and grandchildren, details about her years in college as a blind student, and her subsequent work experience. While she accentuates the positive, she does not shy away from letting us know that there have been more than a few negatives in her life, too, including episodes of abuse and discrimination.

Experienced guide dog handlers will find much here that is movingly familiar to them. Those who have never walked beside such a marvelous companion will benefit greatly from learning what the dogs are trained to do, how they need to be cared for, and how observers should and should not interact with them. Touches of humor lighten almost every chapter, and the book ends with three imaginative, amusing skits in which the players are all guide dogs.

DeAnna Noriega and her husband, Curtis, currently live in Columbia, Missouri.

Purchasing Information

Review

Fifty Years of Walking with Friends was reviewed on the VisionAware site. To read the review, click on the following link.
https://visionaware.org/blog/visually-impaired-now-what/book-review-of-fifty-years-of-walking-with-friends/

Excerpt from the letter from Dr. Kathryn D. Botsford to DeAnna Noriega

January 30, 2021

DeAnna, I just wanted to thank you for your book. Your story is bringing tears to my eyes: sometimes sentimental, sometimes happy. I love that you shared your story and your journey. I want to include your book in the course I teach to new teachers of children with blindness. I teach Introduction to O&M [Orientation and Mobility] to student teachers at Dominican College in New York. I currently have them read The Blind Doctor, but I deeply appreciate your sharing the voice of a woman and of a First Nations person. I want my students to understand that our world has many stories and to appreciate those stories.

Thank you!

Kathryn D. Botsford, Ph.D.
Digital Content Strategist, APH ConnectCenter

Interviews

In Perspective Interview

DeAnna was interviewed on the "In Perspective" program. To listen to the interview, click here.

Podcast Interview

DeAnna was interviewed on the "The Power Of Energy Doing Its Work" podcast. To listen to the interview, click here.

Getting a Dog Guide at Over the Age of 70

DeAnna wrote an article on this subject for the VisionAware blog. To read the article, click on the following link:
https://visionaware.org/blog/visually-impaired-now-what/getting-a-dog-guide-at-over-the-age-of-70/

About DeAnna Quietwater Noriega

DeAnna Quietwater Noriega is half Apache and a quarter Chippewa (Ojibwa). She is the mother of three, two daughters and an adopted blind son. She was the eldest of five children in a close-knit American Indian family. As a result of congenital glaucoma, she became totally blind at the age of eight.

DeAnna was mainstreamed in public schools in Texas, Michigan, and California. She earned a bachelor's degree in social science and did a year toward a master's in social work at California State University Stanislaus. While attending college, she taught independent living skills to the blind for the California Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. She worked as a caseworker in Santa Clara County, California, before joining the United States Peace Corps. DeAnna and her sighted husband met while attending college, and Curtis joined her in the Peace Corps. They worked together to establish a school for blind children in the independent nation of Western Samoa.

Upon her return to the U.S., DeAnna spent the next seven years at home, raising children. During this time, she became active in the American Council of the Blind and in Guide Dog Users, Inc. She taught braille, instructed breastfeeding mothers as a La Leche leader, was a friendly visitor at nursing homes, and worked as a volunteer intake clerk at the welfare office.

DeAnna and her husband opened two Papa Murphy's pizza franchise stores. She served as operations manager, doing inventory, ordering, supervising staff, and handling the cash register and phone during late afternoons and evenings.

After 14 successful years, they sold the restaurants to move to Colorado, where their two daughters were enrolled in college. DeAnna kept busy working as an instructor of braille and independent living skills with an adult education program in Colorado Springs. She remained active in many organizations of the visually impaired, serving as an officer at local state and national levels. She served as a founding board member of a nonprofit organization that opened a blind center in Colorado Springs. She established The Braille Books to Keep project for blind children in both Oregon and Colorado.

DeAnna has been a guide dog user for over 50 years and has taken an active part in passing legislation protecting service animals.

Publications

Magazines

Dialogue
Angels on Earth
The Braille Forum
Native Literatures: Generations
The Vision Aware Blog: Visually Impaired? Now What?

Anthologies

Behind Our Eyes: Stories, Poems, and Essays by Writers with Disabilities (2007)
Behind Our Eyes: A Second Look (2013)
Awethology Light
Two Plus Four Equals One: Celebrating the Partnership of People with Disabilities and Their Assistance Dogs (2010)
Blindness Isn't Black: An Anthology by Missouri Writers and Artists Who Have Disabilities (2009)
Where We Can Read the Wind: An Anthology by Missouri Writers and Artists Who Have Disabilities (2011)
Turning the Clocks Forward Again: An Anthology by Missouri Writers and Artists Who Have Disabilities (2013)
Storm Country: The Anthology (2011)

Memoir

Fifty Years of Walking with Friends (2021)

Contact Information

Email: dqnoriega@gmail.com
Phone: 573–544–3511