John Christian Hopkins (born 1960) is a Narragansett journalist, author, poet and public speaker who resides in

Tuba City Tuba City ( nv, ) is an unincorporated town in Coconino County, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation, United States. It is the second-largest community in Coconino County. The population of the census-designated place (CDP) was 8,611 at the 2010 cen ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, United States. After having grown up in Hope Valley,

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

, Hopkins graduated from the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Island ...

with degrees in journalism and history in 1987. Hopkins is a career journalist who has worked at newspapers across New England, in New York, Florida, most recently in Arizona. He was a former nationally syndicated newspaper columnist for Gannett News Service. As a child Hopkins slept clutching books to his chest and dreamed of becoming an author. “I’ve never wanted to do anything else but write,” Hopkins said. He and his wife Sararesa live on her Navajo reservation in Fort Defiance, Arizona.

Journalism

Hopkins spent time as a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist for the

Gannett News Service Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'', ''

The News-Press ''The News-Press'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper located in Fort Myers, Florida, serving primarily Lee County, as well as parts of Hendry, Collier, and Charlotte Counties. The paper publishes several editions of its "Local & State" (metro) s ...

'', ''The Pequot Times'', ''

The Westerly Sun ''The Westerly Sun'' is a seven-day daily newspaper published in Westerly, Rhode Island, United States, covering portions of Washington County, Rhode Island, and New London County, Connecticut. ''The Sun'' is issued mornings 7 days a week. Unti ...

'', ''

Indian Country Today Media Network ''ICT News'' (formerly known as ''Indian Country Today'') is a daily digital news platform that covers the Indigenous world, including American Indians, Alaska Natives and First Nations. It was founded in 1981 as a weekly print newspaper, ''The ...

'', ''

News from Indian Country ''News From Indian Country'' is a privately owned newspaper, published once a month in the United States, founded by the journalist Paul DeMain (Ojibwe/Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, Oneida) in 1986, who is the managing editor and an owner. It is th ...

'' and ''Native Peoples magazine''. His work has received recognition from the Gannett Awards and the

Native American Journalists Association The Native American Journalists Association, based in Norman, Oklahoma, on the campus of the University of Oklahoma, is an organization dedicated to supporting Native Americans in journalism. The organization hosts the annual National Native Media ...

(NAJA) Awards. In 2003, he became the first member of the NAJA to receive awards in four different writing categories during the same year (news, features, sports and columns). Hopkins is one of very few Narragansett writers, and one of very few opinion columnists from any tribe at the time his career began, as noted in Sage's Encyclopedia of Journalism (p. 320). Since 2015 he has been covering Navajo culture and politics for the ''Lake Powell Life News''.

Publications

Hopkins has published five books: ''Carlomagno'' in 2003, ''Nacogdoches'' in 2004, ''The Pirate Prince Carlomagno'' in 2011, ''Twilight of the Gods'' in 2011, ''Rhyme or Reason: Narragansett Poetry'' in 2012, "Two Guns" in 2014, "Writer on the Storm: a collection of columns" in 2014, and "Loki: God of Mischief" in 2014. While Hopkins has been in the journalism business for twenty-plus years, he also delved into writing novels over the last decade. His first book, ''Carlomagno'', is based on

King Philip's War King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1676 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England coloni ...

, fictionally elaborating on the story of King Philip's captured son, whom he names "Carlomagno." Hopkins's long love of westerns is apparent in ''Nacogdoches'', which follows “The Rango Kid,” as he impersonates a sheriff and finds himself forced to stand up to a criminal. ''The Prince of Carlomagno'' continues to tell a story of a young Native American's struggles to elude slavery. In ''Twilight of the Gods'', Hopkins explores the science fiction genre by writing about the supernatural coming to life, based on the Mayan calendar's predictions. He then wrote ''Rhyme or Reason: Narragansett Poetry'', which touches on Narragansett tribal history. Most recently in 2014, Hopkins published three books: "Two Guns", a new western fiction; "Writer on the Storm: a collection of columns", a collection of observations concerning images in popular culture; and "Loki: God of Mischief", a mythological thriller about Loki, the Norse god of mischief. In 1999, Hopkins published a tribute in ''The Westerly Sun'' to his grand uncle, the famous runner

Ellison Brown Ellison Myers Brown (September 22, 1913 – August 23, 1975), widely known as Tarzan Brown, a direct descendant of the last acknowledged royal family of the Narragansett Tribe of Rhode Island (also known as Deerfoot amongst his people), was a two- ...

. The tribute is excerpted in Michael Ward's 2006 book, ''Ellison Tarzan Brown: The Narragansett Indian Who Twice Won the Boston Marathon''.

References

External links

*
Author John Christian Hopkins
" Blogspot.com. *
John Christian Hopkins Fan Page
" Facebook.com. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hopkins, John Christian 1960 births Living people 20th-century Native Americans 21st-century Native Americans Narragansett people Native American journalists Native American writers People from Tuba City, Arizona

Journalism

Publications

References

Further reading

External links