A review by cubaitlubin
The Lost Journals of Sacajewea by Debra Magpie Earling

challenging mysterious tense

Do not trust anyone who tells you you cannot tell your story. 
Do not trust anyone who tells you there is only one story. 
If there were only one story 
Or one way of seeing things all stories would die.

Wow. A difficult read, in multiple senses. What a compelling use of language to give voice to Sacajawea and her heartbreaking and reflective perspective. The writing was so purposeful, sparse, and unique, that it was sometimes hard to follow, but nonetheless engrossing. Like a puzzle.  From the author's note: 

History has long been translated by the powerful, so Sacajewea’s translations and transfigurations become her power. She captures the living breath through sound. Nouns become verbs. Verbs become vibrations. Punctuation echoes natural pauses. People are re-remembered through the lens of trauma and loss. On the precipice of colonization she finds emancipation through her own peculiar language. Lines are shattered to reveal spiritual expansiveness.

Also a hard read in facing the realities of her story preceding and during the expedition: kidnapping, pregnancy, loss, and resistance to foreign powers all as a child. This is a fictional account, but the details are visceral and validating. The poetry of nature and language woven throughout makes this more literary than faux-memoir, and that makes it all the more intriguing. It will stick with me a while.