James Welch

Welch was born to James Phillip Welch, Sr. of the Blackfeet tribe and Rosella Marie O’Bryan of the Gros Ventre People. Both his parents were also of Irish ancestry but grew up in tribal life. Welch lived his early childhood years on reservations and attended elementary school on the Blackfeet and Fort Belknap reservations. He later moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and graduated from Washburn High School in 1958. Welch attended the University of Montana, where he began to write poetry, and earned a B.A. in liberal arts in 1965. After college, he worked a series of odd jobs, including a short stint as a firefighter for the United States Forest Service, before turning to writing fulltime. In 1968, Welch married Lois Monk, a professor of comparative literature and head of the English department at the University of Montana, and they remained together until his death in 2003. Welch wrote mainly poetry in his early career, publishing his first and only collection of poems, Riding the Earthboy 40, in 1971. Winter in the Blood, Welch’s first novel, was published to critical acclaim in 1974, and this success was continued with the 1986 publication of Fools Crow. Winning the American Book Award, Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the Pacific Northwest Book Award, Fools Crow is widely accepted as Welch’s greatest work. He was later awarded Honorary Doctorates from Rocky Mountain College in 1993 and the University of Montana in 1997. That same year Welch was presented with a lifetime achievement award by the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas. He died in Missoula, Montana, at the age of 62 from a heart attack, leaving behind a rich legacy of Native American literature.