THIS INDIAN KID

This memoir by award-winning author Chuculate (Muscogee Creek) is a testament to the importance of support from family and friends in shaping identity.

This work is largely centered on Muskogee, Oklahoma, during the 1970s in what was a racially mixed community. Chuculate shares episodes from his daily life that readers can reflect on and interpret to draw their own life lessons. These seemingly random memories collectively tell his story of growing up Native in an inclusive environment with white, Black, Native, and Latine friends; his best friend, Lonnie, was Black, and the multiracial environment felt completely ordinary. Growing up, Chuculate spent a great deal of time with his maternal grandparents, Granny and Homer; following his parents’ divorce, he barely saw his father. But he was close to his mom and stepdad, Roman (Chickasaw), and his family’s guidance provided Chuculate with a loving environment that nurtured him. Hearing Creek spoken by relatives and in church, he was fascinated and wrote down the words he learned. In high school, Chuculate began covering sports for the Muskogee Daily Phoenix, something that sparked his passion for writing and led to his work-study job writing about college athletics. The conversational style and family photographs throughout help bring this intimate, anecdotal memoir to life.

Will make readers feel as if they’re sitting beside a relative, listening to stories and shared knowledge.