Quotessence
Home / Authors / Leah Myers

Leah Myers Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllIndigenousNativeNative AmericanMemoirFamilyGenocideUs HistoryCulturePacific NorthwestTribal HomelandEuropean HistoryRaceTotemTribal LandUnited StatesBiological WarfareHistoryHomelandMurderSioux

Famous Leah Myers Quotes

“Everything was an excuse. The felt so concrete, so real at the time. Now they are wispy, pathetic. I was terrified. If I participated in the world I moved closer to, then I would have to stomach the chance that I might fail at every task I tackled. I didn't want to fail at being Native. Being Native to me then meant not only having the experience of all of these cultural things, but also being decent at them. I wanted to feel a peace in myself that cultural things brought me, but I had never felt so out of my depth. Failure felt imminent. But I couldn't fail at something I never had the chance to try. So the excuses continued to pour from me, sweetly apologetic to hide the stench of the rotting fear that created them.”

CultureAnxietyMemoirNativeGood EnoughSelf AcceptanceNative AmericanIndigenousFear Of FailureImpostor Syndrome
Book:Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity
Create image

“The phrase "low man on the totem pole" was coined by a White man in the 1940s to mean a person with no respect, status, or power. He clearly did not consult the Natives who carve the poles. They honor the figures they represent by immortalizing them in precious old-grown red cedar. Each member of the totem pole is significant, but the one on the bottom is often given the most reverence. They are the one who holds up everyone else; they are the one who starts the story.”

CultureRaceHistoryMemoirNativeNative AmericanIndigenousPacific NorthwestTotemTotem Poles
Book:Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity
Create image

“The bear is a symbol of motherly love and familial strength in the fiercest way. A mother bear will not allow her children to come to harm, but she will not coddle them either. No one dares come between the mother and her cubs, but still her cubs must keep up with her and learn to be strong themselves.”

CultureIdentityMemoirNativeNative AmericanIndigenousBearPacific NorthwestTotem
Book:Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity
Create image

“No one taught me to be Native American. My mother taught me that I was, but she did not have the context for what that heritage meant. My grandmother mentioned it very little, even though it was visible in her features. Yet from my earliest memories, being Native has always been an integral part of my identity. Even though I was raised far from my tribe, far from any tribe, I heard the drumbeat of our traditions in my heart. My name is Leah Kallen Myers. I am the last member of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe in my family line.”

CultureIdentityMemoirNativeHeritageNative AmericanIndigenousRecord KeeperS KlallamSklallam
Book:Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity
Create image