Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home

Winner of the Pacific Northwest Book AwardWinner of the Reading the West Book AwardA People and Esquire Best Memoir of the Year"A strong and beautiful story of identity, kinship, and the journey toward justice." -Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding SweetgrassGrowing up in Montana, Chris La Tray always identified as Indian.Despite the fact that his father fiercely denied any connection, he found Indigenous people 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, and “Why was I never allowed to know them?” Combining diligent research and compelling conversations with authors, activists, elders, and historians, La Tray embarks on a journey into his family’s past, discovering along the way a larger story of the complicated history of Indigenous communities-as well as the dev