Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian's Journey Home by Chris La Tray

Winner of the Pacific Northwest Book Award

A People Magazine Best Non-Celebrity Memoir of 2024

A People Magazine "Best New Book of the Month"

A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction of the Year Selection

A Book Riot "Best Memoirs, Nonfiction Science, and Food Writing of the Last Year"

Growing up in Montana, Chris La Tray always identified as Indian. Despite the fact that his father fiercely denied any connection, he found Indigenous people alluring, often recalling his grandmother's consistent mention of their Chippewa heritage.

When La Tray attended his grandfather's funeral as a young man, he finally found himself surrounded by relatives who obviously were Indigenous. "Who were they?" he wondered, and "Why was I never allowed to know them?" Combining diligent research and compelling conversations with authors, activists, elders, and historians, La Tray embarks on a journey into his family's past, discovering along the way a larger story of the complicated history of Indigenous communities--as well as the devastating effects of colonialism that continue to ripple through surviving generations. And as he comes to embrace his full identity, he eventually seeks enrollment with the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians, joining their 158-year-long struggle for federal recognition.

Both personal and historical, Becoming Little Shell is a testament to the power of storytelling, to family and legacy, and to finding home. Infused with candor, heart, wisdom, and an abiding love for a place and a people, Chris La Tray's remarkable journey is both revelatory and redemptive.

Chris La Tray is a Métis storyteller, a descendent of the Pembina Band of the mighty Red River of the North, and an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians, he is also the author of One-Sentence Journal: Short Poems and Essays from the World at Large, which won the 2018 Montana Book Award and a 2019 High Plains Book Award, as well as Descended from a Travel-Worn Satchel, a collection of haiku and haibun poetry. La Tray is the Montana Poet Laureate for 2023-2025 and a former bookseller at Fact & Fiction. He writes the weekly newsletter "An Irritable Métis" and lives near Frenchtown, Montana.

Review Quotes:

"La Tray's 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 Tray's 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 that's packed with historical details, transcending and amplifying a personal quest to understand a family's 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

"I'm in awe of Chris La Tray's 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 sash--a story of identity, kinship, and the journey toward justice."--Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass