By: Jay Inman, Lt Col US Army (ret)
Two years ago, I met a fascinating man named Matt Hutcheson while visiting a Federal Prison. He had an amazing story to tell from his cell and it was not his own story. It was about two Apache men, father and son. Visiting him in FCI Engelwood, Colorado, brought the story of Quinny into my life. At this point, I had written and published ten books on Amazon and was looking for a new writing project. All of those were my fiction work, but I wanted to learn how to help others tell and publish their stories. This trek into Apache culture, prison life, conflict with the prison system, Federal courts, and the story of the murder of an Apache Reservation policeman grabbed my heart. As the truth unfolded, I knew I had to get Matt’s story of Wakado, Quinny, and the Apache people published and told. I published it as an independent publisher on Kindle. Its the story of a father’s love for his son in the framework of Federal prosecution, cultural clash, and two men facing the most dire circumstance. My wife leaped into the project as a design artist and did the front cover as a water color. This story strummed the heart strings of my own possible heritage… We think my Great Grandmother was Cherokee in East Texas and I recall my grandfather’s stories about her. In turn, one of my contributions this year in Microsoft Give is to Native American Ministries. It is a school in Arizona (Heart of Apache communities) that provide an educational environment that encourages Native American students to use their abilities in classrooms and sports. Readers of Quinny will see those tasks as hard to access on reservations. Interested readers can discover Quinny on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Quinny-Astonishing-Story-Fathers-Love-ebook/dp/B07QL462ZV/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=quinny+in+books&qid=1570595964&sr=8-5