Wellfleet Public Library

Whiskey Tender

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." 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 in this thought-provoking memoir laced with humor and heart.