Welcome to Litsy!

Despite being raised by a Native man and accepted fully into his family by the tender age of 2, Charles must leave the Rez the moment he comes of age because he does not have Native blood. When he fathers a child with a Penobscot woman he‘s been friends with since childhood, she leaves him and begs him to keep his parentage a secret — “for their daughter.” This secret turns his own life to ash and burns through the lives of others. 👇🏻

“Louise,” I said. “Do you know where you are?”
She looked at me again. “Where I am?” she repeated.
“Yes,” I said. “Do you know where you are?”
Never before had I heard such certainty in a voice. “I‘m in my bones,” she said, and she rolled back onto her side.

#AuldLangSpine @Christine

“Look, Uhkomi, I have sweetgrass!”

This book would be an awesome edition into Native American culture. And would be an excellent addition to classroom library.

Illustrations in this book are amazing. The contents of the story were also really good. Overall I would recommend this book for a classroom library.

A story about Musqon learning to pick and braid sweetgrass from her grandmother. This was written by Suzanne Greenlaw, who is Maliseet, and Gabriel Frey, who is Passamaquoddy (both are groups of native peoples from around Maine).

“'Our people have been coming here to pick sweetgrass for generations. We call it welimahaskil, and we use it in ceremony as well as baskets. Sweetgrass is a spiritual medicine for us.'“

So excited to read this to my littles. I am not a huge fan of thanksgiving. So i do try and find alternative books for them.

A vibrant retelling of events around the swearing in ceremony of Deb Haaland to the office of cabinet secretary of the Department of Interior.

This was a sad story but I enjoyed it. Charles is a Native American living in Maine. He‘s taking care of his mother who has dementia. He lives across the lake from his daughter and her mother, keeping tabs on them though his daughter doesn‘t know of his existence. Charles is a storyteller and tells us about his life through various stories about himself. There are a lot of layers to this one and it is thought provoking.