H.L. Delaney

The journal

Notes from the Basin

Essays on adapting Modoc oral tradition to literary form, the documented record of the American West, and the craft behind the work.

July 29, 2026

Why Place Matters in Native Storytelling

Why naming the real river, lake, and species (the Lost River, the c'waam, Giiwas) matters more than generic nature when you write from a specific place and people.

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July 29, 2026

The Research Behind Salmon Run and Return of the C'waam

The research behind two ecology games about Klamath Basin salmon and the endangered c'waam and koptu suckers, and why a teaching game has to get the place right.

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June 29, 2026

Researching from the Inside: Archives, Oral Tradition, and the Gaps Between

H.L. Delaney on his research method, working between military records, trial transcripts, ethnographic collections, and living oral tradition to write Modoc history from inside Modoc memory.

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June 25, 2026

The Threads Between My Books: Klamath Basin, Memory, and the American West

H.L. Delaney on the common ground running beneath his body of work: the Klamath Basin, the weight of inheritance, and what it means to return to a place through writing.

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June 20, 2026

Writing My People's Origin Stories: On The Spirals of Kemush

H.L. Delaney, an enrolled Klamath Confederated Tribes member with Modoc ancestry, on gathering twelve Maklak origin stories into one cycle in The Spirals of Kemush.

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June 20, 2026

On Retelling the Modoc War: The Story Behind Kintpuash

H.L. Delaney on writing a Captain Jack novel about the Modoc War with honor-first intent and a duty to primary sources.

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June 16, 2026

Why I Adapt Modoc Stories to Literary Form

On the reasons and obligations behind adapting Modoc origin myths as an enrolled member of the Klamath Confederated Tribes, and what literary form makes possible that oral tradition alone cannot.

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June 16, 2026

Carrying Oral Tradition onto the Page Without Flattening It

What happens to a story that was never meant to be read? Working with Modoc oral tradition, the documented record of the Modoc War, and what the page costs you.

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