Ok rant below:

So I pre-ordered “Crooked Halluelujah” by Kelli Jo Ford (not tagging because I don’t know her) and I looked on Goodreads to see what ARC reviewers were saying about the book because I’m so excited for it, and...

A lot of reviews were saying that they didn’t like it because it didn’t seem “authentically Cherokee,” since the characters weren’t continuously speaking Cherokee, engaging in Cherokee spirituality, etc. In short, they didn’t think the story was an authentic Cherokee story.

“Crooked Hallelujah” is about a Cherokee family that moves to Texas during the mid-twentieth century for (what seems to be) economic opportunity.

Natives (especially OK Natives), sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

For the Fives Tribes, outside of OIWA-recognizes tribes like the UKB, tribes did not (and COULD NOT) reorganize into recognized polities as a result of the Dawes Act. The Cherokee Nation did not become a fully-functioning, independent tribe until the seventies, early eighties.

As a result, many people leaved territory. Allotment lands were the only generational wealth many had, so many sold them to pursue economic opportunities elsewhere. For Oklahomans across the board, the closest place is Texas.

My Dad’s family is originally from Spiro and Tulsa, but my Dad was born in Dallas, Texas. My Grandpa and Grandpa moved there (as well as other places like California) for work before returning to Oklahoma later in life. I wouldn’t be surprised if Crooked Hallulujah ends the same.

Oklahoma Natives being forced their balance their tenuous relationship to their homeplace post-Removal with the need to have economic survival in the United States IS an authentic Native experience.