Reviews

The Chief and I by Karen Tootelian
Reviewed by Lenea England, Courthouse Market, King and Queen, Virginia

August 20, 2002, Karen Tootelian joined paths with the 89-year old Chief Webster Little Eagle Custalow, chief of the Mattaponi Tribe and lifelong protector of the Mattaponi River .

Karen was friends with Chief Little Eagle's son, Carl Lone Eagle Custalow, the primary caregiver for his father. Carl had been having some difficulty finding people to help care for his father. As he grew weaker, Chief Custalow had become fearful of hospitals and doctors, uneasy when nurses came to see him fearing they would send him back to the hospital.

Begrudging the loss of his independence and uncomfortable with strangers telling him what to do the Chief resisted anyone outside of his family coming into his home to help him. Knowing of the situation, Karen offered to help and thus become the Chief's caretaker on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the final seven months of his life at the Mattaponi Reservation.

This exceptional crossing of paths was also the joining of two souls in the mutual respect and love of Mother Earth, Father Sky and their beloved Mattaponi River. Karen generously and openly shares this experience with us through her poetic journaling. Up through October 27, 2006, through her journaling and poetry, the reader unveils their time together: Tuesdays and Thursdays sitting together with the Chief's two dogs, Gomer and Queenie. Laughing. Grooming. Going for a drive. Talking about the Chief's best friend, Jesus. Getting to know each other, and letting us in on their past. Laying the foundation for their bond to continue strengthening after the Chief's passing in March of 2003.

Once I began to read her book, I found myself unwilling to put it down. Reading into the night (knowing the mornings came very early). Weeping, laughing and wanting desperately to go take a dip in the Mattaponi River or a long walk in the woods.

There are four years and two months of journaling during which the author skillfully reaches back into the past to let us catch glimpses of childhoods, spouses, family, friends, moments of raising children and other significant experiences. We are able to feel the warm relationship of the Chief with his wife. We see what it was like growing up as a Native American in the early 1900s.

Along with insights into her own life and the life of the beloved Chief Little Eagle, Karen brings the reader back to their Soul. Back to what really matters. The home baked bread and chicken soup that gives us the courage to go on when the days are cloudy and life seems so unfair. The beauty and peaceful ways of the Mattaponi River.

Review by Worth Haile
A medley of reflections, poems and stories, The Chief and I is a stirring account of a body of water and a precious exchange between two people and two generations tied together by their extraordinary love for humankind.

Interspersed with personal reflections on faith and the artistry of simple things like baking bread, it is a spellbinding narrative with all of the best elements. Beauty. Uncertainty. Loss. Renewal. Vulnerability. But it is about wonder too, Karen likes to remind me. And joy. Read more...

As reviewed in Style Weekly
“Through journal entries that span the beginning of 2002 through the end of 2006, Tootelian chronicles her transformative experience caring for the aging chief of the Mattaponi tribe, Webster Little Eagle Custalow. Born the day the Titanic sank, Custalow, a deeply spiritual leader, was as comfortable on a horse as he was on a motorcycle. Tootelian’s entries—raw, graceful and often poetic—don’t end with Custalow’s death, but continue with her fight to preserve the Mattaponi River, which she came to love as much as she loved the chief himself.” — Valley Haggard

Karen Tootelian’s intimate journal The Chief and I begs closer attention to the beauty found in nature and humanity. Beginning in early 2002, she becomes a companion of the eighty-nine year old Chief of the Mattaponi Indian tribe, Webster Little Eagle Custalow. The chief’s gentle ways and wisdom are recorded as a shining light to those who knew him, and Karen details their friendship, her love for the land, and the fight to preserve the Mattaponi River. Read more...

Mattaponi River is the tie that binds them
By ROBIN LAWSON, Editor, Tidewater Review, July 11, 2007

KING WILLIAM - After reading "The Chief and I" by Karen Tootelian Westermann I wanted to take a long swim in the Mattaponi River and find the same peace it has given the author and her dear, late friend.

For centuries the river has nourished the lives of the Mattaponi Indians. Today, it also nourishes Westermann's soul.

In the summer of 2002, life presented the writer and environmentalist a rare gift: she began caring for the 89-year-old Chief of the Mattaponi Tribe, Webster Little Eagle Custalow. What began as her personal journals evolved into a book about their deep friendship, compassion for one another, and their love and spiritual bond with the river. Read more...