2 Half-Breed: A Racial Biography in Five Parts

Guiding Questions:

1. How would you define “collective amnesia” that Elliot refers to on page 14? What is your experience of collective amnesia in other contexts; for instance, the writing of the history of nations? OR even family history?

2. On page 16, the author’s Catholic mother is reported as saying that roots were nothing if they lead to Hell. This is in relation to the author’s father’s desire to connect to his Haudenosaunee Six Nations Indigenous roots. Use this as a starting point to discuss how Christianity feels threatened by, and demonizes, Indigenous culture and spirituality.

3. On page 18, the author experiences bullying on the bus from another girl. Why do you think the author chooses to ignore it? How does it affect her?

4. In your own experience, why does bullying happen? How can we respond to it? What if you’re identified as being bullied by others, or as a bully?

5. The author struggles with her mixed-race identity, and being able to pass as white or other non-Native identities, like Puerto Rican. At first she considers she can be a Cheshire Cat or Trickster that can perhaps move between worlds, but later she worries that she is drowning between identities. At the conclusion of the chapter, however, she reconciles with her identity and the responsibilities it brings. How does she articulate this?

6. In your own experience of being mixed-race or having mixed-identities, or observing or researching others who have dealt or are dealing with this, how have you or they expressed this struggle, and overcome it or not?