Praise for Becoming Little Shell
La Trays pride and conviction will have readers eager not only to learn more, but to take action. A brilliant contribution to the canon of Native American literature.Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Blending history and memoir, research and interviews, La Tray combines separate yet connected personal, family, and community narratives to craft a story of both recovery and loss."Esquire, "Best Memoirs of 2024"
[ A] gripping debut memoir. . . . La Trays crystalline prose and palpable passion for spreading Indigenous history bolster his account. Readers will be fascinated.Publishers Weekly
"Heartbreaking, infuriating, and remarkable, Becoming Little Shell is a memoir thats packed with historical details,transcending and amplifying a personal quest to understand a familys past."Foreword Reviews, starred review
Smart, emotional, and bracingly honest, La Tray is a powerful storyteller who should have significant appeal.Booklist
La Tray is as much a consummate storyteller as an Indigenous historian, breathing life into how the Little Shell people became landless, belonging to no reservation and not earning federal recognition status until 2019. Flathead Beacon
Im in awe of Chris La Trays storytelling. Becoming Little Shell creates a multilayered narrative from threads of personal, family, community, tribal, and national histories. Together they make a story as strong and beautiful as a Metis sasha story of identity, kinship, and the journey toward justice.Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass
Chris La Tray is a powerful voicea force of nature, reallyto guide us through the swirling confluence of Native and white worlds, both past and present. Becoming Little Shell is the American story of our eratracing the arc of its author brought up in the white world before discovering his roots as an original inhabitant of this continent.Peter Stark, author of Gallop Toward the Sun
Indigenous identity can be complicated, and Becoming Little Shell compels us into the thick of itNative people dispossessed of not just land but recognition; blood quantum laws originally crafted to complete a genocide and still wreaking havoc in identity debates today; racism that drove many Native people to disassociate from their families; and descendants, like La Tray, who have found their way back, fighting for the reconnection of their communities and for the observance of their very existence. La Tray is a loving, discerning, curious, funny, and generous guide. This is a beautiful, big-hearted book.Sierra Crane Murdoch, author of Yellow Bird
Becoming Little Shell is a moving, deeply felt, and incredibly detailed account of Chris La Trays search for his origins among the Métis, Pembina, and Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Combining memoir, history, interviews, and travel, La Tray gives us nothing less than the history of a people in the form of an absorbing and emotionally searing memoir. This book will, without a doubt, become a classic in Native American literature. Must read.David Treuer, author of The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee
What I appreciate so much about Chris La Trays writing on Indigenous identity and history is the wit, clarity, and integrity embodied in every word. Becoming Little Shell beautifully encompasses a journey that we can all learn from, a journey toward asking better questions about land, belonging, and connection, and through this book La Tray epitomizes historian, poet, and teacher. Full of Indigenous history, personal stories, and the complex dance between the two, La Tray reminds us that the journey of finding ourselves and making sense of the way colonialism plays out around us is an essential part of being human. Please read this book. Youll be so glad you did.Kaitlin B. Curtice, author of Living Resistance
