"I belong to Glacier Bay...And I loved to hear her say that, for it describes our relationship to the land. Who our land now belongs to, or if land can even be owned to, or if land can even be owned is a question for politicians and philosophers. But we belong to the land...This is our land, for we still belong to it. 'We belong to Lingít Aaní.' We can't help but place our love there."

Blonde Indian by Ernestine Hayes
was January's pick for @erinanddanisbookclub. I have never read a memoir like this before. Ernestine tells her story through Lingít folklore, sharing the history of Alaska & the landscape & telling anecdotes of other Lingít people. I loved that the format was not linear & gives glimpses of Alaska & its original peoples during different points of time.

Where the book shines is the prose. It is raw, emotional & compelling. The story tackles the grief from colonialism, genocide, stolen land, boarding schools, forced assimilation, loss of language and the after effects: alcoholism, poverty, depression, and generational trauma. The descriptive writing paints a picture of the beauty of the landscape and how the natural order of life is sustained through the relationship with the native peoples.

Each person in the book is longing to go home and holds on to the memories they had of happiness on the land. This was a recurring theme throughout, the inability to move forward without returning home. Essentially the land is the place that holds their love, their dreams and their hope. It is the place that connects them to the past and provides the knowledge of the future.

This book really resonated with me because it reminded me of times spent with my grandparents in Puerto Rico watching them care for their land, plant crops and make cultural comfort foods. I watch my mother until this day caring for her plants, growing herbs & food and watching the joy that it brings her. Their connection with nature and the love they have for it makes me smile. I think of all the stories they have shared with me and all the instructions they gave me about caring for nature. The land & all the comes from it was the source of joy which was the message of this book. ( )

Gorgeous storytelling and structure, with three threads of narrative wound throughout and around one another. Hayes writes enough detail to have made her suffering vivid to me as a reader, but not so much it is titillating. Her writing of finding emotional and spiritual peace was a sweet relief. ( )

This is a book of beauty and also of grief. Perhaps more than any other book I have read lately, this one helped me to understand just how wide the divide is between cultures, and just how destructive one culture can be to another. Ms. Hayes' memoir left me with an admiration of her tenacity in coming home, and a deep sorrow for all those who have lost their way, who have had their moorings cut by well-meaning but disrespectful people in power. ( )