Blood Sisters Quotes

“What happens to the land happens to the women. —Native wisdom”
― Vanessa Lillie, Blood Sisters

“So when does the burial ritual start? Can I take pictures or does that steal souls or whatever?”
― Vanessa Lillie, Blood Sisters

“The groundwater is full of lead. The chat poisons our land and toxins are kicked up into the air we breathe. We were left with a town that looks like the surface of the moon and is just as inhabitable.”
― Vanessa Lillie, Blood Sisters

“Ghost Luna leaves me alone as I get my luggage from the baggage claim—no bar—and stare at the wall murals celebrating Oklahoma.”
― Vanessa Lillie, Blood Sisters

“I’d left Sue and our friendship behind when I went to college. I can’t really explain why. I’d left my sister and my family behind, too.”
― Vanessa Lillie, Blood Sisters

“I told the girls we’d always be safe. A promise I had no business making. I said I’d protect them both. Another promise I’d break.”
― Vanessa Lillie, Blood Sisters

“I am trying to stop what’s happened since Columbus stepped foot in this hemisphere. To honor the history and culture of those who lived here for at least ten thousand years before that cataclysmic moment. But that’s not what he’s asking, so I keep it to myself.”
― Vanessa Lillie, Blood Sisters

“This dig is for my senior thesis.” The kid’s eyes go wide and honestly look gleeful when he glances at the skeleton. “I have to know everything.”
― Vanessa Lillie, Blood Sisters

“His eyes go wide. “Murder, huh? My adviser would probably think that’s wicked cool.” I wonder if I can blame the “wicked cool” Saw movie franchise for this kind of dumbass wanting to be a medical examiner.”
― Vanessa Lillie, Blood Sisters

“I think of a buckskin shirt I saw in the Smithsonian Museum. It belonged to an Oglala Lakota man whose body was seized at his death and kept in cold storage for 130 years. He was allowed to be taken home by his family only after the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was passed in 1990.”
― Vanessa Lillie, Blood Sisters

“Many colleges are disrespectful to Native graves and artifacts, going so far as to get a law passed to keep what they stole. Hiding behind the robes of judges to justify human remains and sacred objects being stolen and abandoned to shelves.”
― Vanessa Lillie, Blood Sisters