Description

Finalist for the National Book Award
Longlisted for a Carnegie Medal for Excellence
Winner of the Southwest Book Award

Best Book of the Year: Washington Post, Esquire, Time, The Atlantic, NPR, and Publishers Weekly
Oprah Daily “Best New Book” and “Riveting Nonfiction and Memoir You Need to Read”
New York Times “New Book to Read”
Zibby Mag “Most Anticipated Book”
San Francisco Chronicle “New Book to Cozy Up With”
The Millions “Most Anticipated”
Amazon Editors “Best Book of the Month”
Parade “Best New Work By Indigenous Writers”
NPR “Book We Love”

“We have more Native stories now, but we have not heard one like this. *Whiskey Tender* is unexpected and propulsive, indeed tender, but also bold, and beautifully told, like a drink you didn’t know you were thirsty for. This book, never anything less than mesmerizing, is full of family stories and vital Native history. It pulses and it aches, and it lifts, consistently. It threads together so much truth by the time we are done, what has been woven together equals a kind of completeness from brokenness, and a hope from knowing love and loss and love again by naming it so.” — Tommy Orange, National Bestselling Author of *There There*

In the tradition of Mary Karr and Terese Marie Mailhot, *Whiskey Tender* is a powerful memoir about family, resilience, and the complexities of growing up both within and outside of reservation life. It explores the tension between mainstream American expectations and Native heritage, balancing assimilation and tradition.

Deborah Jackson Taffa grew up believing that sacrifice was necessary for a better future. Her grandparents—citizens of the Quechan Nation and Laguna Pueblo tribe—were sent to Indian boarding schools run by white missionaries, while her parents were encouraged to leave the reservation for government job training. The message was clear: assimilation meant opportunity. But as Taffa entered adulthood, she began to question the promises handed down to her—the idea that abandoning her culture, land, and traditions would lead to acceptance and success in America.

*Whiskey Tender* follows Taffa’s journey as a mixed-tribe Native girl born on the California Yuma reservation and raised in Navajo territory in New Mexico. Her parents pushed her toward education as a way to transcend her “Indian” status and class, while her Quechan community sought to preserve their oral and recorded histories. Weaving together her childhood memories, she examines tribal identity, the criminalization of Native men, government policies of assimilation, the Red Power movement, and the struggle between belonging and resistance. Stories from her life in the 1970s and 1980s—both on and off the reservation—blend with broader Native histories and myths.

With sharp insight, humor, and deep emotion, Taffa offers a thought-provoking exploration of history and personal experience. Reflecting on assimilation, betrayal, and the intergenerational trauma carried by her family, she reveals the exclusion of Indigenous narratives from America’s dominant history. *Whiskey Tender* is a vivid and unflinching examination of what is lost in the pursuit of acceptance—and what remains when one chooses to reclaim their identity.