Title:
Thinning blood : a memoir of family, myth, and identity
Author:
Edition:
First edition.
Publication Date:
2023
Publication Information:
New York, N. Y. : W. W. Norton & Company, [2023]
Physical Description:
163 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
ISBN:
9781324036708
Abstract:
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.
Personal Subject:
Subject Term:
Geographic Term:
Language:
English
