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Thinning blood : a memoir of family, myth, and identity / Leah Myers.

Penn Museum Library E99.C82 M94 2023
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Format:
Book
Author/Creator:
Myers, Leah (Writer), author.
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
Myers, Leah (Writer).
Myers, Leah.
Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe.
Clallam Indians--Washington (State)--Jamestown--Biography.
Clallam Indians.
Indians of North America--Washington (State)--Social life and customs.
Indians of North America.
Indians of North America--Washington (State)--History.
Indians of North America--Ethnic identity.
Indians of North America--Washington (State)--Folklore.
Genre:
Autobiographies.
Biographies.
Physical Description:
163 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Edition:
First edition.
Place of Publication:
New York, N. Y. : W. W. Norton & Company, [2023]
Summary:
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by The Millions A vibrant new voice blends Native folklore and the search for identity in a fierce debut work of personal history.
"Leah Myers may be the last member of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe in her family line, due to her tribe's strict blood quantum laws. In this unflinching and intimate memoir, Myers excavates the stories of four generations of women in order to leave a record of her family. Beginning with her great-grandmother, the last full-blooded Native member in their lineage, she connects each woman with her totem to construct her family's totem pole: protective Bear, defiant Salmon, compassionate Hummingbird, and perched on top, Raven. As she pieces together their stories, Myers weaves in tribal folktales, the history of the Native genocide, and Native mythology. Throughout, she tells the larger story of how, as she puts it, her "culture is being bleached out," offering sharp vignettes of her own life between White and Native worlds"-- Provided by publisher
Contents:
Introduction: A Lineage
Part I: Bear
A legend of the bear mother
Real live Indians
An annotated guide to anti-native slurs
Bear's decision
Part II: Salmon
A legend of salmon women
Roots
Skinwalker
Native enough
Salmon's memory
Part III. Hummingbird
A legend of hummingbird
Portrait of a perfect native
A writer who can't read
Hummingbird's movement
Part IV Raven
A legend of raven stealing the sunlight
Unreported violence
Scalping knife turned scalpel
A letter to my seventh generation descendant
The sound of the end
Raven's emergence.
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 159-163).
Other Format:
ebook version :
ISBN:
9781324036708
1324036702
OCLC:
1373726096

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