Shell Shaker

“A flurry of color took flight. Lips opened in awe, then transformed into multicolored beaks and wings. Voices thinned out, and tangled in throats that turned into other voices. A song of birds. Grandmother and her sisters soared over the heads of the Hispanos and dropped excrement on them.” 

Shakbatina tells the origin story of the Choctaw, describing how Itilauichi, the spirit of the Autumnal Equinox, helped Grandmother and her sisters after Hispano de Soto arrived, transforming them into birds who get their revenge on the Spanish conquistadors in a fitting way.

“The Inkilish okla were evil. They had traded me disease for our corn. It was in their blankets, the ones I brought back to Yanàbi Town. The disease destroyed many of our people and knapped my body like a piece of flint. Since then, I’d often dreamed of hanging Inkilish okla intestines in the trees so everyone could see their shit.” 

Shakbatina expresses her anger over what the English have done to her people. The colonizers who explored the Americas brought with them many diseases to which the Indigenous people had little, if any, immunity. Here, Shakbatina is most likely referring to smallpox.

“I watch the light cap them in blazing reds and yellows. The forest breathes heavily around me. At sunset the bluebirds chitter in the tops of the trees. People and things I’ve forgotten come rushing back to me. Grandmothers planting corn, making pots, cutting cane for baskets, scraping hides, reciting morning prayers, singing sleep to tired children.” 

In the time leading up to her death, Shakbatina remarks on the beauty of ordinary life and remembers different parts of her life. Shakbatina is saddened by what she must give up but does so anyway, demonstrating true courage and compassion.