Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger5/9/2023 ![]() Us, the Light Gray People.Įlatsoe by Darcie Little Badger is a magical story about seventeen-year-old Elatsoe, or Ellie, living in an America very much similar to our own except that Ellie’s town has been shaped by magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its people, both Indigenous and not. We were never extinct, we were always here. Now, for the first time, our tribal members can see our culture, our beliefs, reflected in print thanks to the young adult novel Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger. We assimilated into other cultures to survive but the stories kept our souls alive. ![]() ![]() We were often told of traditions and stories from our tribe but they must be kept secret. Through oral storytelling, my tribe, the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas, was kept alive. I wondered, “How can it be zero when I’m sitting right here feeling the pulse of my heart and air flowing through my lungs?” Why was my existence not included here? These were questions that wouldn’t be answered for many years. It was the first time I saw the words Lipan Apache in print but the number next to it-zero-sent an ache to my chest that I didn’t quite understand. Sitting in my fifth-grade history class in west Texas, I read a chart in my textbook that listed surviving members of Native American Texas tribes. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |