The next day, I was in a train heading north, exhausted by the exhibition and bereft at leaving Langston. The sole person for whom I would make this effort was Samuel, who had done so much for me. 

           I slept for most of the full day and night it took to cross the flat golden fields of Wisconsin. The second day, we traversed Minnesota, crossing the Chippewa River more than once. This was Ojibwe country, where my people came from. I had hoped to sense the presence of my mother, but I felt only the emptiness of endless, windblown fields. 

            By the following morning, we had reached the end of the...

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