A Zibby Mag "Most Anticipated Book" * A San Francisco Chronicle "Feel-Good New Book" * A Publishers Weekly "Memoirs and Biographies: Top 10" * The Millions "Most Anticipated" * An Electrically Lit "Books by Women of Color to read"
"We have more local stories now, but we haven't heard anything like this before. Whiskey Tender is unexpected and driving, delicate to be sure, but also told boldly and beautifully, like a drink you didn't know you had you are. "I'm thirsty. This book is nothing short of fascinating and full of family stories and important local history. It pulses, aches and soars constantly. It weaves together so much truth when we're done that what has been woven together is of a kind Fullness of
equals brokenness and a hope to recognize love, loss and love by calling it that.“—Tommy Orange, author of the national bestseller There There
Evoking the works of Mary Karr and Terese Marie Mailhot, a memoir of family and survival, coming of age on and off the reservation, and tensions in mainstream America. indigenous culture and heritage; Assimilation and reverence for tradition.
Deborah Jackson Taffa was raised to believe that some sacrifice was necessary to achieve a better life. His grandparents, citizens of the Quechan Nation and Laguna Pueblo Tribe, were sent to Indian boarding schools run by white missionaries, while his parents were encouraged to participate in vocational training outside of government reservations. Assimilation meant moving, but as Taffa grew up, she began to question the promise of her elders and American society: that if she gave up her culture, her land, and her traditions, she would not only be accepted, but accepted would be able to achieve the “American Dream”.
Whiskey Tender tells how a native girl from a mixed tribe, born on the Yuma Reservation in California and raised in Navajo Territory in New Mexico, comes to her own interpretation of identity, despite her parents' wishes that she transcends class and “Indian” status. of their birth through education and despite the Quechan tribe's particular traditions and beliefs regarding oral and recorded histories.Taffa's childhood memories unfold in meditations on tribal identity, the rampant criminalization of Native men, the government's assimilation policies, the Red Power movement, and the negotiation between belonging and resistance to systemic oppression. Pan-Indian and specific tribal histories and myths are mixed with stories of a childhood in the 1970s and 1980s spent on and off the reservation.
Taffa offers sharp and thought-provoking historical analysis, peppered with humor and heart. As he reflects on his past and present: the promise of assimilation and the many personal and historical betrayals his family has suffered; Traumas passed down from generation to generation – remind us of how the cultural narratives of their ancestors were excluded from the core mythologies and structures of America's melting pot, and reveal all that is sacrificed for the promise of acceptance in
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