Book Club
Tuesday, November 26th, 2024
Noon – 1pm MST, Virtual Link
Discussing the novel
‘Whiskey Tender:
A Memoir’
By author Deborah Jackson Taffa
Hosted by
American Indian
College Fund
President Cheryl Crazy Bull
Book Club Recording
November 26th
We were honored to host Ms. Taffa for a virtual book club to discuss Whiskey Heart, co-hosted by College Fund President Cheryl Crazy Bull. Over an hour long discussion covering all dimensions of Taffa’s experience as an artist, mother, daughter, and Native leader, there is plenty to learn for viewers from all walks of life. Featuring shared stories, insights, and a Q&A with the listeners.
Whiskey Tender: A Memoir by Deborah Jackson Taffa
Finalist for the National Book Award
Whiskey Tender traces how a mixed tribe native girl—born on the California Yuma reservation and raised in Navajo territory in New Mexico—comes to her own interpretation of identity, despite her parent’s desires for her to transcend the class and “Indian” status of her birth through education, and despite the Quechan tribe’s particular traditions and beliefs regarding oral and recorded histories.
Meet the Author
Deborah Jackson Taffa was raised to believe that some sacrifices were necessary to achieve a better life. Her grandparents—citizens of the Quechan Nation and Laguna Pueblo tribe—were sent to Indian boarding schools run by white missionaries, while her parents were encouraged to take part in governmental job training off the reservation. Assimilation meant relocation, but as Taffa matured into adulthood, she began to question the promise handed down by her elders and by American society: that if she gave up her culture, her land, and her traditions, she would not only be accepted, but would be able to achieve the “American Dream.”
