Burrowed in the Bloodline: The Stories That Sustain Me

Abstract: This essay explores the role of family stories as a means of resilience, identity, and historical understanding through an Indigenous lens. Employing autoethnography, Booth situates personal narratives within broader contexts of US and Native histories, emphasizing the power of storytelling to sustain individuals and communities across generations. Family accounts—from poverty in Kentucky to Native Hawaiian migration, Canadian residential schools, and US Indian boarding schools—reveal complex experiences of trauma, faith, adaptation, and perseverance. These "story arrows," borrowing Keith Basso's metaphor, continue to guide lives by embedding lessons of fortitude and hope. The essay argues that history is made by people living ordinary yet meaningful lives and that remembering, sharing, and gathering around stories remains essential for survival and connection today.