Chris La Tray has written a memoir that is so very much more than his personal story. It’s the story of how, for generations, his Native family has been brutalized, ostracized, robbed, and dismissed. It teaches about Blood Quantum laws, migration patterns, genealogical searches, and Indigenous customs of the Metis people in Montana and the landless tribe of the Little Shell Chippewa Indians. It weaves through all of this vital information the stories of how his family has continued living and loving, seeking connection and community in a country that has tried to erase that they ever existed.
Becoming Little Shell by Chris La Tray, (List Price: $28, Milkweed Editions, 9781571313980, August 2024)
Reviewed by Maggie Robe, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina