Seminole Writer Wins College Writing Contest

Editorial by Janice Billie

Tribal citizen Elgin Jumper is the son of Eva and Alan Jumper. He is a member of the Otter clan who grew up on the Hollywood Seminole reservation.

Recently a friend of his called The Seminole Tribune office informing us of his first place wins in two writing contests. He is taking writing classes at Broward Community College and I spoke with his instructor Elisa Albo.

“He is an excellent writer,” Albo said. “He chooses the right words to evoke all kinds of feeling. It’s a pleasure to have him in class.”

He stopped by the Tribune office at my request to drop off his poem and short story. He told me a little of the inspiration for each of these two pieces.

The “Picture of Ned Christie” was written for a class assignment. Jumper had to find a picture and write a poem based on it.

He said in his drinking days he rescued this particular picture from a bar he frequented. Ned Christie was a Cherokee senator falsely accused of murder and hunted down and killed by federal marshals in the late 1800s. He said the story and picture of Ned Christie haunted him and he wanted to memorialize him in his own way.

During the time Jumper was thinking of writing this poem, Ned Christie’s story was featured on the History Channel. He took it as sign that he chose the right subject.

In the short story “Blow, Winds—” Jumper says he wanted to write about conflict and unsettlement since he had been thinking a lot about the war in Iraq. He wrote this short story while shut in during Hurricane Wilma.

We talked long enough for me to appreciate Jumper as a guy with a story to tell.

He says he loves to write and first started writing at eight years of age.

Jumper says, “I not only love to write, I need to write because it is like breathing to me.”

While doing time in prison he spent the majority of his time “reading, reading and reading.” He said he loves Shakespeare and has read most of the classics. He talked openly about his troubled past and welcomed the opportunity to share it with others.

I suggested he write a short bio to go along with his two writings He did it with the thoroughness of someone who finds writing a joy.