Sisters of the Lost Nation Quotes

“We all reach for something… Sometimes what we long for is so out of reach that we get stuck or lost in our pursuit of it. The point is not to lose sight of what you already have because if you try too hard for things above you, you might lose sight of everything that’s important.”
― Nick Medina, Sisters of the Lost Nation

“What am I supposed to do? Listen, Anna, we all try to get noticed. All the time. Everywhere. That’s lige. Especially for people like us. If the others, don’t notice us, we disappear.”
― Nick Medina, Sisters of the Lost Nation

“Reading List The Road by Cormac McCarthy Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt The Body Lies by Jo Baker Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind All the Children Are Home by Patry Francis Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng Drowning in Fire by Craig S. Womack Piercing by Ryu Murakami Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist There There by Tommy Orange Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë In the Night Room by Peter Straub The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay Breed by Chase Novak We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas Elevation by Stephen King My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz The Return by Rachel Harrison Dracul by Dacre Stoker and J.D. Barker Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen A”
― Nick Medina, Sisters of the Lost Nation

“Among those injustices is the one faced by Two Spirits. Though the term “two spirit” was coined in 1990, Two Spirits have been recognized within hundreds of Native nations for hundreds of years. Neither male nor female, Two Spirited individuals are both and more, giving them a unique third gender status. It’s important to note that Two Spirits historically took on different responsibilities within their respective nations, though they were always honored and revered for their ability to take on and carry out the traditional roles of both men and women. From matchmaking to mediating, prognosticating, hunting, and beyond, Two Spirits were highly regarded within their tribes. Some tribes even believed that Two Spirits were born of supernatural intervention, making them shamans, healers, chiefs, and ceremonial leaders. Condemned by colonizers—who objected to men who might have looked and acted more like women, and women who might have looked and acted more like men, and (perhaps worse in their eyes) what they perceived as same-sex relationships by Two Spirits who engaged with others of the same biological sex—Two Spirits were commonly subject to violence. They were silenced and shunned. Some still are. While strongly associated with the LGBTQ community today (now often referred to as LGBTQ2S+), it’d be a mistake to assume that all Two Spirits identify as bisexual, gay, lesbian, or trans; their third gender doesn’t indicate a sexual preference. Many Natives who identify as Two Spirit uphold the term to honor a part of history that was almost lost, while embracing freedoms of expression their ancestors were denied. Some”
― Nick Medina, Sisters of the Lost Nation

“May 5 is now Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day. Savanna’s Act, signed into law in 2020, requires the U.S. Department of Justice to establish better protocols and practices to track, solve, and prevent these crimes, among other things. The Not Invisible Act, also signed in 2020, increases intergovernmental coordination by directing the Department of the Interior and the Department of Justice to establish a joint commission on violent crime within and against the Native community. And, in 2021, we saw the formation of the Missing and Murdered Unit, aimed at investigating and solving the murders of Indigenous peoples.”
― Nick Medina, Sisters of the Lost Nation

“The return of the younger sister warmed the older sister’s heart, but still it hasn’t thawed. Nor will it. Not until every woman and girl—sisters that now constitute a tribe of their own, a lost nation—is back where she belongs. Those women and girls may be gone, unvalued, and abused, but their stories won’t be forgotten. Their stories will live on inside the older sister and all the others who will never stop searching. Every morning they’ll turn over another stone. Every afternoon they’ll search another town. Every evening they’ll ask another stranger if their loved one’s photo looks familiar. And every night they’ll look up at the sky with worry in their eyes, asking the same question the older sister had asked the stars while she waited, and waited. “Do you see me?”
― Nick Medina, Sisters of the Lost Nation

“When one of our own no longer lives, she goes with the sky spirit to watch over us at night.” It wasn’t just Anna’s voice that hurt when she spoke those words, her heart hurt too. Sawyer’s breath rushed out of him like air from a burst balloon. He was still for a while, then began to breathe again. “Which one shines brightest at you?” Anna asked. Sawyer used his bottle to point. A small wave of beer splashed over the lip and landed on his lap. “She’ll always be there,” Anna said.”
― Nick Medina, Sisters of the Lost Nation

“When a boy would play as a girl or a girl would play as a boy, the child’s parents would arrange a ring of dry brush out in the field. The tribal members would gather around the ring. They’d place a man’s hunting bow alongside a woman’s woven basket within its center. The child would then be forced through the brush, and the brush would be lit on fire. “ ‘Bring something out,’ the child’s father would call. If a boy escaped the fire with the basket, or if a girl fled the flames with the bow, then the tribe would know the child’s true nature, and the child would be honored for being a perfect and unique balance of male and female, neither one nor the other, but something more—a third gender, one thought to possess two spirits instead of one. The child, it was believed, would grow to be the tribe’s best protector, teacher, healer, provider, and caregiver. The child would forever be respected and revered.”
― Nick Medina, Sisters of the Lost Nation

“Why do people always do that?” “Do what?” “Let one truth take precedence over other truths. Missy is a drug addict who was at the hotel and went missing. All those things are true, yet everyone says she’s an addict like that one fact is all that matters. Like it’s her own fault she’s missing.”
― Nick Medina, Sisters of the Lost Nation

“Never feel guilty for being where you belong.”
― Nick Medina, Sisters of the Lost Nation

“Never feel guilty for being being where you belong.”
― Nick Medina, Sisters of the Lost Nation

“Let one truth take precedence over other truths. Missy is a drug addict who was at the hotel and went missing. All those things are true, yet everyone says she’s an addict like that one fact is all that matters. Like it’s her own fault she’s missing.”
― Nick Medina, Sisters of the Lost Nation

“Hot fury flared within Anna. “Why do we bother?” she said. “Why do we try to fit in when we can just take care of ourselves?” “It’s not about fitting in, it’s about finding balance. Rattlesnakes and field mice. Owls and rabbits. Alligators and deer. They’re predator and prey, yet they share the same ground. Mind you that the people in town aren’t predators and that we on the reservation aren’t prey. You’d think we’d be able to share the same ground. You’d think it’d be easy.”
― Nick Medina, Sisters of the Lost Nation

“She said Frog eximplified transformation. He entered life in one form and left it in another. From egg to tadpole, to tadpole with legs, to amphibian with tail, to tailless frog, he was never the same. He began life in water, only emerging once he was his true self. He symbolized change, rebirth, and renewal, and his spirit could bring rain.
Anna stared down at the ill-fated frog. The reservation was transforming…. And yet the very symbol of change had become a victim of it. The absurdity didn’t escape her.”
― Nick Medina, Sisters of the Lost Nation

“If a boy escaped the fire with the basket, or if a girl fled the flames with the bow, then the tribe would know the child’s true nature, and the child would be honored for being a perfect and unique balance of male and female, neither one nor the other, but something more—a third gender, one thought to possess two spirits instead of one. The child, it was believed, would grow to be the tribe’s best protector, teacher, healer, provider, and caregiver. The child would forever be respected and revered.” Gran’s hands fell into her lap. “But that was long ago.”
― Nick Medina, Sisters of the Lost Nation

“The head has the same eyes as the fish, beady and unblinking, only they’re cloudy and flat, sunken deep into its skull. Its hair grows wild, tangled with beetles, twigs, and burs, and it trails the head like a tail. The flesh itself is rotten and foul, dead as the Heaven and Hell tree, once the tallest old oak on the reservation—its branches stretching for the stars, its roots reaching for the abyss below—and as ragged around its missing neck as the hem of my jeans.” The chain he wore on his wallet rattled as he lifted a foot over the fire, showing off the frayed cuff of his pant leg, streaked with mud. “The mouth”—he paused, clenching his jaw to steel himself—“that’s the worst part of it. It can stretch as wide as it wants . . . wide enough to suck you between its wormy lips.” She thought of the catfish again, their mouths gaping and wide, flanked by whiskers that had curled and turned black after her father had hacked off the fish heads and tossed them into the fire he’d stoked to cook the fish fillets. “It’s got a tongue of old leather and teeth like shattered glass, jagged and sharp.”
― Nick Medina, Sisters of the Lost Nation