Waterlily Cherokee Twenty-something Philip Big Pipe disappears

Twenty-something Philip Big Pipe disappears from an unsettled life he can hardly tolerate and ends up in an off-reservation town

and the Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways in Michigan

and the trajectory of this brilliant novel

For as long as Paul could remember there were eagle feathers around him

This historic and personal work tells the Native American side

Waterlily Cherokee Twenty-something Philip Big Pipe disappearsWhen Blue Bird and her grandmother leave their family's camp to gather beans for the long, threatening winter, they inadvertently avoid the horrible fate that befalls the rest of the family. Luckily, the two women are adopted by a nearby Dakota community and are eventually integrated into their kinship circles. Ella Cara Deloria's tale follows Blue Bird and her daughter, Waterlily, through the intricate kinship practices that created unity among her