num_pages: 320
description: Black Indian searing and raw is Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club and Alice Walkers The Color Purple meets Leslie Marmon Silkos Ceremonyonly this isnt fiction. Beautifully rendered and rippling with family dysfunction secrets deaths drunks and old resentments Shonda Buchanans memoir is an inspiring story that explores her familys legacy of being African Americans with American Indian roots and how they dealt with not just societys ostracization but the consequences of this dual inheritance. Buchanan was raised as a Black woman who grew up hearing cherished stories of her multi-racial heritage while simultaneously suffering from everything she (and the rest of her family) didnt know. Tracing the arduous migration of Mixed Bloods or Free People of Color from the Southeast to the Midwest Buchanan tells the story of her Michigan tribea comedic yet manically depressed family of fierce women who were everything from caretakers and cornbread makers to poets and witches and men who were either ignored protected imprisoned or maimedand how their lives collided over love failure fights and prayer despite a stacked deck of challenges including addiction and abuse. Ultimately Buchanans nomadic people endured a collective identity crisis after years of constantly straddling two then three races. The physical spiritual and emotional displacement of American Indians who met and married Mixed or Black slaves and indentured servants at Americas early crossroads is where this powerful journey begins. Black Indian doesnt have answers nor does it aim to represent every Americans multi-ethnic experience. Instead it digs as far down into this one familys history as it can gosometimes with a bit of discomfort. But every family has its own truth and Buchanans search for hers will resonate in anyone who has wondered maybe theres more than what Im being told.
language: English
title: Black Indian: A Memoir
publisher: Wayne State University Press