Calling for a Blanket Dance Quotes

“We danced, the way Kiowas danced, when called by our people, by our ancestors, to help each other heal.”
― Oscar Hokeah, Calling for a Blanket Dance

“I hugged him and held him for a few seconds. My embrace couldn't fix what was happening with his baby and it couldn't fix the abuse from my tio. But I wanted it to fix what had happened between us. His hug was gentle, and I felt mine soften. My shoulders dropped and I felt his drop, too. Something lifted out of our bodies. I had pictured Ever as a monster. Did he transform? Or did I? Tortuga Bebe didn't grab anyone by the ear and force us to work things out. She drew compassion from our skin with an invisible electricity. She did more work for our families in her three days than I did in two decades.”
― Oscar Hokeah, Calling for a Blanket Dance

“The size of her heart grew big enough to close her ears.”
― Oscar Hokeah, Calling for a Blanket Dance

“Driving out of Lawton, I laid my hand onto Ever's quilt and traced my fingertips around the edges of the bird pattern. I couldn't help but wonder, tla, couldn't help but worry: Would my grandson ever be cured?”
― Oscar Hokeah, Calling for a Blanket Dance

“He enjoyed the genuine attempts and genuine failures.”
― Oscar Hokeah, Calling for a Blanket Dance

“The next morning I drove to an antique store and asked them if they had some of the old tin salt and pepper shakers. Back when Kiowas were made prisoners of war and placed in concentration camps, the U.S. government didn’t allow us to practice our culture. The only thing we had were government rations called commodities, and in those commodities were tin salt and pepper shakers. Most looked at them and saw salt and pepper shakers, but we looked at them through Kiowa eyes and we saw gourd dance rattles. In secret, out of the military’s sight, we practiced our culture, and we modified the rations we had at our disposal. When Kiowas danced with rattles made from tin salt and pepper shakers, it was a proud act of resistance.”
― Oscar Hokeah, Calling for a Blanket Dance

“My mother's uncle Bradley had ten sons and one daughter. Those pre-Nintendo numbers.”
― Oscar Hokeah, Calling for a Blanket Dance

“Time, like masks, could make us reclaim the best of who we were and purge the worst of what we’d become. Ever faced the mask, faced his fears, and I hoped the mask healed him the way it once healed all Cherokees.”
― Oscar Hokeah, Calling for a Blanket Dance

“Maybe I was trying to create a memory, something I could hold on to after they left, or maybe I was trying to create a memory for them, something they could hold on to after I left.”
― Oscar Hokeah, Calling for a Blanket Dance

“I looked a little harder at the man's face, but he wasn't a man at all, just built like one.”
― Oscar Hokeah, Calling for a Blanket Dance

“Life was unpredictable and it allowed us to stay sane. The unpredictability helped us believe we had an infinite number of days.”
― Oscar Hokeah, Calling for a Blanket Dance

“But "one day" said everyday sounded more like "never.”
― Oscar Hokeah, Calling for a Blanket Dance

“A house, like land, taught us how to belong and who we belonged to.”
― Oscar Hokeah, Calling for a Blanket Dance

“When you invited the spirit of something into your body, it took over.”
― Oscar Hokeah, Calling for a Blanket Dance

“Suddenly, people were no longer like ghosts floating around me.”
― Oscar Hokeah, Calling for a Blanket Dance

“But “one day” said everyday sounded more like “never.”
― Oscar Hokeah, Calling for a Blanket Dance

“Kiowa”
― Oscar Hokeah, Calling for a Blanket Dance