A Singular Story of Discovery
And embrace of Indigenous identity
Boozhoo, indinawemaaganidog! Aaniin! That is to say hello, all of my relatives! Welcome to another edition of An Irritable Métis. I’ve been looking forward to this announcement since I first started this newsletter way back in 2020, with this post, just a few frantic days after the Little Shell received federal recognition. I already had my book contract, barely, and the recognition meant the happy ending was in place. I just had to write the damn thing. And here we are. I wrote it. And now you can line up to read it.
This level of self-promotion makes me uncomfortable and yet it’s part of the game and I have to accept it. I trust you understand. And as always, your support means everything.
Things are just getting started, my friends.
Signed and/or Personalized Copies Available for Preorder
That’s a screen grab from the official listing on the Milkweed page. You can certainly order it from there.1 Or from anywhere, really. You can order it!
But if you want me to sign it for you, and personalize it, whatever, you can only get that from one place: Fact & Fiction Books in Missoula. That is my home bookstore, my home away from home. The people who bust their asses there are my friends. It’s damn near as much their book as it is mine. I want to bury them in preorders because it’s good for all of us if that happens. I have a modest goal of blasting 500 preorders through there, in fact, which is a fraction of what the book will need to sell to be meaningful, but pretty awesome for the store if we generate that many.
And that is all up to you lovely people.
CLICK HERE TO PREORDER
Here is the ad copy or whatever that Milkweed is using to promote the book:
From Montana Poet Laureate Chris La Tray, a singular story of discovery and embrace of Indigenous identity.
Growing up in Western Montana, Chris La Tray always identified as Indian. While the representation of Indigenous people was mostly limited to racist depictions in toys and television shows, and despite the fact that his father fiercely denied any connection, he found Indians alluring, often recalling his grandmother’s consistent mention of their Chippewa heritage.
When La Tray attended his grandfather’s funeral as a young man, he finally found himself surrounded by relatives who obviously were Indigenous. “Who were they?” he wondered. “Why didn’t I know them? Why was I never allowed to know them?” Catalyzed by the death of his father two decades later, La Tray embarks on a sprawling investigation. He takes a DNA test, which offers the first key clue to his heritage: a family tree. He scours the archives of used bookstores, interviews family, and travels to powwows, book fairs, and conferences. Combining diligent research with a growing number of encounters with Indigenous authors, activists, elders, and historians, he slowly pieces together his family history, and eventually seeks enrollment with the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
As La Tray comes to embrace his full identity, he discovers the rich history of his people. He learns of Métis origins and border crossings; usurped territories and broken treaties; exile and forced assimilation; poverty and food deprivation. He also encounters the devastating effects of settler colonialism rippling through surviving generations today, from the preservation of blood quantum laws and the trauma of boarding schools for Indigenous children to the ongoing crises of homelessness, addiction, and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. And eventually he is moved to take part in their 158-year long struggle for federal recognition, unflinchingly documenting past and present along the way.
Brimming with propulsive, vibrant storytelling, Becoming Little Shell is a major contribution to the burgeoning literature of Native America.
About That Cover
Friends, I’m not going to lie, I’ve been up and down in how I feel about it. But that’s because I’ve been looking at that picture of my face for a couple years now and I’m tired of it … as I imagine many of you are too. I also have reservations ala that “self-promotion” stuff that I think I will address in the future. But the design folks at Milkweed made a strong case for the image when they said they were….
… so taken with your author photo and how well it communicates the tone of your prose that I immediately wanted to try it out as cover artwork— this is the kind of photo we might have commissioned, it's so spot-on for the book's attitude and your position as a storyteller— love how it plays with the conventions of portraits of Native people from the 19th century, but your body language is resolutely resistant to anyone else telling your story for you. This book is about the Little Shell band, but it's your story, and I think the book will do best if we present it that way to the public— this cover seems like a great way to accomplish that.
I think it is a great argument. And it is a great photograph, and for the book to be successful a few thousand more people who haven’t seen it yet need to see it. So I went with it. When I step back and not look at it as my face, I see the faces of my ancestors and I like it. As I say in presentations all the time, not all Indians look like extras from Dances with Wolves. And when I look at that picture I see the faces of so many of the Métis men who died fighting alongside the likes of Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont and I get emotional and I’m not afraid to say so. We are still fighting for what has been taken from us and I’m happy to be part of that effort. I hope this book is part of that effort.
CLICK HERE TO PREORDER
Of Course There Needed to be a Map
And there is one….
My friends, this is really a big deal. I’ve been all emotional just writing this post, thinking of the effort and the miles and everything and everyone involved with making this happen, including people not here to see it. As I said at the start, things are just getting rolling, and I’m happy to have each and every one of you along for the ride.
Chi-miigwech, big, big thank you, for all of your support.
Except orders direct from the publisher don’t count as “sales” as far as bestseller lists and such are concerned. Not that I expect to flirt with any of those or really care, I just urge you to buy from someone local whenever you can.
Oh Chris, we are so excited to be buried in pre-orders for this book (it has already begun) and to see the fruition of all of your hard work. All the F-ers at F&F love you and want to share that love with the world.
Yay!! Ordering it as a surprise gift for my husband, Charley. Of course, from your home-away-from-home local bookstore there in Missoula.