We Who Walk the Seven Ways is Terra Trevor’s memoir about seeking healing and finding belonging. After she endured a difficult loss, a circle of Native women elders embraced and guided Trevor (mixed-blood Cherokee, Lenape, Seneca, and German) through the seven cycles of life in their Indigenous ways. Over three decades, these women lifted her from grief, instructed her in living, and showed her how to age from youth into beauty.
With tender honesty, Trevor explores how the end is always a beginning. Her reflections on the deep power of women’s friendship, losing a child, reconciling complicated roots, and finding richness in every stage of life show that being an American Indian with a complex lineage is not about being part something, but about being part of something.
Native American And Indigenous Studies | Memoir
Birchbark Books, Harvard Book Store
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Praise
“In this personal history, Trevor considers what it has meant to navigate the world as a “mixed-blood” Native woman, whose light complexion belies her ancestors among the Cherokee, Lenape, and Seneca peoples. Born to a white mother and American Indian father in the early 1950s, Trevor delves into her relationship with her paternal grandparents and Auntie, who taught her about the heritage that felt more authentic than her white identity, as well as the elder Native women who welcomed her into their community and schooled her in the “seven ways” of being in tune with Native tradition. Moving back and forth across time, Trevor recounts the complexity of her relationships and experiences and how they were shaped by U.S. law and policies governing Native life and culture. Foreword Reviews calls We Who Walk the Seven Ways “a moving memoir about friendship and identity.”
"Terra Trevor’s memoir is a gentle invitation to journey with her across decades, an invitation to notice with her as she seeks healing and finds belonging. There were phrases and sentences I underlined, places where I wept, passages that will remain with me as they drew me to insights I’d previously struggled to name. I closed the final pages and knew that in reading this book, I had been the recipient of a generous and much-needed gift. While I can certainly finish a book in a day, I chose to move slowly through this one, letting each idea, each paragraph, each reflection gently spill over me, allowing the pages to alter me in some way."
—Patrice Gopo, author of Autumn Song: Essays on Absence
“The book’s insights are fascinating and there is a feeling of authenticity throughout. Terra Trevor confronts big (and often tragic) life events with humility and real wisdom. She not only describes how she makes her way through those events but does so in a very pragmatic way. Additionally, the work incorporates a powerful look at the intersections between gender, race, and culture. This is an important story, beautifully told and extremely relevant for these difficult times.”
—Margaret Randall, author of I Never Left Home: Poet, Feminist, Revolutionary
“Raised to conceal her Native ancestry, Terra Trevor learns from elders to nurture her mixed blood identity and shape her activism in transracial adoption, Indian health and education, and community building. This is an inspiring, heartfelt memoir of one Native woman’s spirit journey from childhood to her own elderhood.”
—Robert Bensen, editor of Children of the Dragonfly: Native American Voices on Child Custody and Education
"This poignant memoir touches on the trials and tribulations of Terra Trevor, a mixed blood American Indian straddling two races. It’s a book you won’t be able to put down, written with simplicity, grace, and urgency, transcending any expectations. In spite of many obstacles, Trevor is a woman of unimaginable strength and courage. After not being heard as a child, she thankfully found her voice as a writer, and how lucky we are!”
—Diana Raab, author of Hummingbird: Messages from My Ancestors, A Memoir
“Covering topics as diverse as race, religion, and the craft of writing, We Who Walk the Seven Ways is a moving memoir about friendship and identity.”
—Foreword Reviews