This story was published on Reactor/Tor.com between December 14, 2016 and February 12, 2026. The rights have since reverted to the author.
The Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage
This story was published on Reactor/Tor.com between December 14, 2016 and February 12, 2026. The rights have since reverted to the author.
Illustrated by Ashley Mackenzie
Edited by Carl Engle-Laird
Published on December 14, 2016
Mesmerizing!
Oona s autobio isn’t a mean reflection of her tough habitat she grew up,Despite the herculean Girlhood years and her maturity in coping with Missixsippi resIties of life of double citizen birth she could be confessed more hilarious experience that the intellect she poured into the book,However an autobiography isn’t meant to entertain but to unfurl lives sometimes in Its naked format.
Due to stress of the day I wasn’t able to read Ooona s page to page of welldessrved memoir
Welldone
Wow, simply the best short I have read. Period.
I decided to start it . . . and then was glued till the finish. I need to see more!
Splendid
This was lovely and haunting! I love stories with strong connection to the land.
I particularly like the footnotes.
This is one of the most beautifully written stories I’ve read in 2016. I look forward to future work by Alix E. Harrow. However, as a Native reader, do have a couple comments.
I am troubled by the generic nature of Oona’s Native side and the explanation for it. From footnotes: “Over the years the lines between us—the things that made us Shawnee and Quapaw and Osage and Chickasaw—have blurred. We are like rocks under the pressure and heat of the earth, losing our edges and merging to form some new thing.” There is a pervasive, harmful tendency to lump all Native North American peoples together. However, the indigenous cultures here are extremely diverse, even after hundreds of years of real-world colonization. They wouldn’t blur, they’d clash. It may be easier (from an outsider perspective) to write a Native character who lacks the facets that make her culture (whatever it is – Shawnee? Quapaw? Osage?) rich, but I – as a Native reader – found it difficult to believe and disappointing.
Another note: this country was not “wild” before colonization; it has been civilized for thousands of years. The “wild country” narrative is a common one, but it enforces negative stereotypes.
Awestruck, even by the “footnotes,” which I suspect a professional graduate student, or a teenager in the reform school library, might really appreciate. Darwin’s “Voyage of the Spaniel” indeed.
What an incredible story.
holy dang, this was so good it gave me shivers.
I understand and agree with the intent of Kender’s comments, but they don’t seem to make sense in the context of the story itself.
The story is not taking place on our Earth, but on an alternate Earth where the landscape itself changes in unimaginable and mercurial ways, not only in America but seemingly worldwide (as noted in footnote 13). So it is not that this country, i.e., the America we’re living in, was not “wild” before colonization, but that the land itself is keeping the country west of the Mississippi wild until a painstaking and slow colonization can take place. (Take note of the dates and occurrences throughout the story; colonization planet-wide seems to be greatly slowed.)
Given that, while the lumping “all Native North American peoples together” could potentially be more problematic, I took the author’s phrase “like rocks under the pressure and heat of the earth, losing our edges and merging,” to mean that the wildness of the earth caused different evolutions from our reality among all the people and other beings of the earth. Certainly, if one’s land is much more willing to kill you, much harder to tame and control, it seems likely that any beings that evolved could be more willing to work together and not clash.
Ironically, I read this story soon after reading the article, “Five Books with Fantastical and Fearsome Landscapes.” Certainly, if this story were a book, it would belong in that article.
Hi Allen – can’t write much, since I’m a bit busy with work, but I’d like to address your response to me! You are misinterpreting my comments. I realize that this is a fantasy story in an alternate world. However, it is the wild country *narrative* I object to. Again and again, the land is described as “wild,” a term that has historically been used to dispossess us; what is worse, this story does not contradict the description, it *justifies* it with the in-universe magic. Tor publishes so few stories with Native American protagonists, it bothers me that I don’t see more that deviate from the “ye olde wild land” trope.
Second, as I wrote in my original comment: we have survived trauma that is much worse than the difficulties that a shifting wilderness may present, and we have not lost our cultures. In addition to the violence, forced relocation, and plagues, our land has literally been torn apart and changed – by humans. We still have very different world origin stories, for example. Different ceremonies, different governmental structures. From a my personal Native perspective, a “fusing” of tribes is not believable. Others may speculate as they like.
Stunningly fascinating and beautiful read. The exquisite prose was matched by a deep dive into themes that matter. I can safely recommend this to 79% of my friends and family and will with pleasure.
Ah jeez, I teared up reading this. Absolutely beautifully written. My heart hurts.
Thanks Kender for your comments. I think we can see from this story what a talented writer Harrow would become. I hope she read what you had to say and took it to heart.