Decolonizing the Choctaws: Teaching LeAnne Howe’s Shell Shaker with a Tribalography Approach

Authors

Patrice E.M. Hollrah, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Winter 2004

Publication Title

The American Indian Quarterly

Volume

28

Issue

1 & 2

First page number:

73

Last page number:

85

Abstract

Shell Shaker (2001) by LeAnne Howe (Choctaw) is a novel that gives students an opportunity to learn that the history and culture of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma are alive today. Winner of the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award in 2002, the novel deals with two parallel stories that converge in the present, one about the eighteenth century murder of Choctaw warrior Red Shoes, and the other about the 1991 murder of corrupt Chief Redford McAlester. The novel illustrates how history continues to impact the present-day Choctaw characters and how those characters exemplify the process of decolonization. This article deals with how I teach Shell Shaker in the context of a course on American Indian literatures, but the strategies are useful for the novel in any course.

Keywords

American literature--Indian authors; Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; Indians of North America

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | English Language and Literature | Indigenous Studies | Literature in English, North America | Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority | Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the item. Publisher policy does not allow archiving the final published version. If a post-print (author's peer-reviewed manuscript) is allowed and available, or publisher policy changes, the item will be deposited.

Repository Citation

Hollrah, P. E. (2004). Decolonizing the Choctaws: Teaching LeAnne Howe’s Shell Shaker with a Tribalography Approach. The American Indian Quarterly, 28(1 & 2), 73-85.