The Thunderbird Returns: Stories from the Pow-Wow Trail and the Medicine Path (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781984579386)

A mixed-blood urban American Indian who traces his ancestry to several tribes, JC "Indio" Ortega's "reservations" were the cities he lived in. Cities such as Hartford, Connecticut and Boston, Massachusetts among others. He spent a good part of his youth struggling with alcoholism, drug addiction and a life of petty crime. With the help of the Creator he put this negative lifestyle behind him and began a journey on what he calls, "The Good Red Road." He has been a boxer, has trained in the martial arts of Eagle Claw Kung Fu and Tae Kwon Do, a competition pow-wow dancer, an actor with over 40 stage productions and a movie under his belt, destroyed his knees running over 100 road races and two marathons, and went from being an 8th grade drop-out with a GED to earning a bachelors and two masters degrees. As a member of a Traditional Inter-Tribal Medicine Society he now works to keep the culture, traditions and languages of the tribes he's descended from alive so they can be passed on to future generations.