Métis storyteller and Montana Poet Laureate visits the Open Book Club

Nearing the end of his 18-state book tour to introduce "Becoming Little Shell, A Landless Indian's Journey Home," Chris La Tray, Métis author and Montana Poet Laureate, presented his new book at the Alpine Artisans Open Book Club on Nov. 9 at the Swan Valley Community Center. La Tray read from his new book, shared poetry and answered questions from the crowd.

The book tells the story of La Tray's growing up around Huson and discovery of being Chippewa, and the history therewithin. While growing up, La Tray's father, who was Chippewa, never talked about his Native heritage, yet La Tray was thrilled to know he was Native.

"I really wanted to be Conan the Barbarian," La Tray said. "But Conan isn't real so I was excited to be Chippewa."

In 1996 at his grandfather's funeral in Plains, he was amazed to see so many Indigenous people. His dad and grandfather shared complete denial of their heritage, yet here was a collection of people he'd never known but to whom he was clearly connected.

"I could never understand why I was the opposite. I wanted to be Indian," La Tray said in his book's introduction. "I wanted that identity, and I took it for myself. To me, it was cool. Who wouldn't want to be Indian? Who wouldn't want to be Chippewa?"

After his dad passed away in 2014, La Tray had a lifetime of questions about who he was and where he came from. La Tray decided he would do what he could to answer his questions, if not from his dad, then through people who lived a similar experience, through the story with his people.

As La Tray described his journey and his attempt to answer some of those questions, he shared his travels to other states and provinces, seeking out wisdom and accurate historical information about the past 150 years of Little Shell Chippewa history.

"If I've learned anything at all, it is that I'm not the only one to grow up in these kinds of circumstances," La Tray said. "I'm also not alone to find my way back to who I was all along, a proud Indian."

Through La Tray's research he found Little Shell Chippewa history included a series of broken treaties, persecution and genocide. The tribe was disenrolled from Montana in 1892 due to Chief Little Shell's disagreement with a treaty, which reduced their land by ceding 10 million acres to the U.S. government.

"This created the ludicrous situation of any Indigenous North Americans being described as 'landless,'" La Tray said.

The tribe received federal recognition and was re-enrolled in December 2019.

"I feel compelled to share the story of the Métis people of Montana with the world, to tell the story of the Little Shell tribe, the long time landless Indians of Montana, because it's clear we're largely unknown," La Tray said.

In response to a question from the crowd, La Tray spoke about writing the book and the balance between history and personal issues, without the book becoming too trauma-based.

"In the last three weeks I found out from my uncle that my grandfather went to the Ursuline boarding school in St. Ignatius," La Tray said. "That little piece of knowledge answers every lingering question."

La Tray said he was very curious about how his distant uncle delivered the ultimate puzzle piece to answer so many of his questions.

"The generational trauma resulting from boarding schools has touched every Indigenous family in North America in one way or another," La Tray said.

While sharing the history of the Little Shell Chippewa, La Tray mentioned the value he's found in the long-term knowledge of history. The tribe has been known as the toughest buffalo soldiers in the world, La Tray said. They went through a time of persecution and genocide, yet still remain.

"People devoted their lives to making it happen, and they didn't live to see it. But there was the next generation, the next generation and the next generation," La Tray said. "And in December of 2019 we finally were restored the federal recognition, and there were so many elders who lived their entire lives wondering if it ever happened and it did, and what a joy it was for them."