The Lost Cherokee

Abstract

Abstract:When Gwendolyn moves across the country, they also relocate their mother— diagnosed with dementia and requiring residential care—closer to them. With their mother’s cognitive decline comes the revelation that she has forgotten the family is Cherokee, a discovery that encourages Gwendolyn to examine how they process and understand their own identities. Using the ethnographic research of James Mooney as a touchstone for explorations, Gwendolyn searches for meaning and understanding in intersections of culture, storytelling, family, language, and disability. Through braided fragments of meditation, introspection, and memory, Gwendolyn excavates and reconciles the forms of loss that dominate their thinking.