Becoming Little Shell with Chris La Tray
MONTANA POET LAUREATE CHRIS LA TRAY TO PRESENT NEW BOOK AT NATIONAL DISCOVERY CENTER AUGUST 30
La Tray to read from and sign copies of his highly-anticipated third book
American Prairie is pleased to announce an evening with Montana Poet Laureate and Little Shell tribal member Chris La Tray on Friday, August 30, at American Prairie’s National Discovery Center. The event, celebrating the release of his latest book, Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home, begins at 7 pm with a reading and discussion by La Tray, followed by a book signing and opportunity to meet the author. The activities, part of American Prairie’s Indigenous Peoples’ Celebration, take place inside the Clyde Aspevig Event Center at the National Discovery Center, located at 302 W. Main in Lewistown. Admission is free. Donations to American Prairie, however, can be made online at https://americanprairie.org or at the door with your phone using a QR code.
La Tray’s newest work, Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home, is highly regarded. Robin Wall Kimmerer, Anishinaabe author of Braiding Sweetgrass, called La Tray's memoir, “a story as strong and beautiful as a Métis sash, a story of identity, kinship and the journey toward justice.” Ojibwe author David Treuer (The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee) calls it a book that, "will become a classic in Native American literature."
Becoming Little Shell braids together the past, present, and future of the Little Shell Chippewa Tribe, which is the most recent tribe to receive federal recognition from the United States Government. It also looks at the history of the Métis people and La Tray’s own search to connect to family, place, and culture. Following the book signing, the audience is encouraged to attend the annual Métis powwow at the Lewistown Fairgrounds.
A Métis storyteller, Chris La Tray is a descendent of the Pembina Band of the Red River of the North and an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians. He is the author of a number of works, including One Sentence Journal: Short Poems and
Essays from the World at Large (a Montana Book Award Winner) and Descended from a Travel-worn Satchel. La Tray is the Montana Poet Laureate for 2023–2025 and a former bookseller at Fact & Fiction. He also writes the weekly newsletter “An Irritable Métis” and lives near Frenchtown, Montana.
The National Discovery Center is free and open to the public Thursday through Saturday from 10am to 4pm. Visit americanprairie.org/national-discovery-center to learn more, and follow American Prairie on Facebook for updates on upcoming events and programming.
