Thinning Blood

A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity

By: Leah Myers

Narrated by: Kimberly Woods

Length: 3 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by The Millions

Leah Myers may be the last member of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe in her family line, due to her tribe's strict blood quantum laws. In this unflinching and intimate memoir, Myers excavates the stories of four generations of women in order to leave a record of her family. Beginning with her great-grandmother, the last full-blooded Native member in their lineage, she connects each woman with her totem to construct her family's totem pole: protective Bear, defiant Salmon, compassionate Hummingbird, and perched on top, Raven.

As she pieces together their stories, Myers weaves in tribal folktales, the history of the Native genocide, and Native mythology. She tells the larger story of how, as she puts it, her "culture is being bleached out," offering sharp vignettes of her own life between White and Native worlds: her naïve childhood love for Pocahontas, her struggles with the Klallam language, the violence she faced at the hands of a close White friend as a teenager.

Crisp and powerful, Thinning Blood is at once a bold reclamation of one woman's identity and a searingly honest meditation on heritage, family, and what it means to belong.

©2023 Blue Stoat Publishing LLC (P)2023 Tantor

An Extremely Personal Experience.

I come from very similar circumstances to the author, and I knew that coming in. Her prose is vivid and blunt. It was a short listen, but I’m sure the ideas and feelings expressed will stay with me for a lifetime. I raise my hands up in thanks to Leah. háʔnəŋ cn ʔiʔ mán ʔuʔ ʔəy̕ sčáy.

No matter who you are, this is a MUST READ

As I dive more into my own heritage and ancestry, I came across this memoir written by Leah Myers. Leah is the last generation in her family line to be recognized as a member of the S'Klallam Tribe. As she explained in her memoir what that means to her and what that means for future generations, I listened with all of the emotion and understanding of someone who can very much relate. Not only am I a distant descendant of the Jamestown S'Kallam Tribe (1/32 by blood) but I am 1/4th Mexican, and wow, did she hit home with her writing of feeling less than accepted. I cannot tell you how many people refused to believe me when I told them of my heritage. No one would bat an eye if I were to dive into my Scottish, Irish, British, French or German heritage, and learn about their cultures and traditions. So why is having a deep pulling in my soul to also learn more about my Mexican or Salish heritage looked at by so many as trying to be something I'm not? Learning about my ancestors of color is my way of rediscovering what was lost through years of people feeling the need to hide their culture or holding shame or fear over not being "white" enough. For me, learning about all of my ancestors and their cultures has always been important. I can't quite describe the feeling in my chest, the urge to discover and learn and share the knowledge I come by. Leah though, does a wonderful job at expressing that feeling.

From one "Record Keeper" to another, thank you, Leah for your beautifully written memoir. I'll be suggesting your work to everyone I come across! -Linette Deacon

Beautiful and heartbreaking

Thank you Leah for sharing your story and family with us. You’re a beautiful storyteller.

A must read.