Description
The Beadworkers - Stories - by Beth Piatote, Nez Perce enrolled with Colville Confederated Tribes, is a book of poetry, verse, and prose. The four parts of The Beadworkers is an exploration of Native American life through land and life, Indian Wars, I tell my story/I conjure my powers/I make a wish and, human beings. Each story is a gift. Feast I, Feast II and Feast III introduce The Beadworkers moving to Indian Wars in The News of the Day and Fish Wars and include stories about treaties and rights. These actions and reactions of these stories resonate long after the events. In section three, and in the Braiding Lesson chapter, the narrator teaches her niece to make beaded earrings while in wIndin! two friends discuss politics while making a board game, discussing Indigenous rights and love. Other stories are Rootless, Falling Crows and Kaytdid about reuniting, friendship and change. This is followed by the longer story, Antikoni, where Antikoni tries to rescue the remains of her ancestors from the museum where they have been interned by White Coats and White Gloves. The unifying themes of the stories are in the strength of kinship, the pulse of longing, and the language of return. Nez Perce grounds these short stories in the language.