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243 pages, Hardcover
First published June 4, 2024
‘Federal Indian Law makes no sense. None. And so in reading her novel—in seeing how Erdrich looked at the law—I wondered, what is a situation that could arise out of the nonsensical structure holding up Indian Country? Blood quantum jumped into my head and that was the genesis.’
‘All I wanted was that she know the history that was hers, that this history wasn’t lost or wasted because of the illusion we’d tried to live in so neatly, that there was a life she could have lived and been a part of, and that she know she was as much a part of me as she was not.’
'On one hand, I feel like it’s not my responsibility—I will write and have written stories that do not have Native characters in them—but on the other hand, colonialism and a dominant white readership has made it my responsibility. But then again, maybe it’s not about responsibility in terms of storytelling but rather a responsibility to be a story-keeper, a person who holds onto the stories and passes them down.'