Leah Altman

For Leah Altman, growing up as an adoptee outside of her culture meant growing up without her cekpa, the Lakota connection to family and homeland. Now an adult, Leah departs her life in Portland, Oregon, to seek out her birth family and reconnect to her heritage—each chapter of her journey a bead in this literary cekpa crafted for her own children.

Blurbs

“Cekpa is a memoir of restoration—not just healing, but the pain of handling what’s been broken. Altman refuses to sand down the jagged edges, instead holding them up to the light in this tremendous book, carefully setting piece after piece into place to tell her story of making and remaking family.” —Elissa Washuta, author of White Magic
“In Cekpa, Leah Altman braids together strands of deep, complicated and sometimes difficult love for her birth family, for her adopted family, for her own daughters, and the family she is building in a world not always inclined to celebrate the multiplicity of traditions she has lived.” —Pam Houston
“With admirable honesty and a masterful sense of narrative, Leah Altman shares the story of herself.” —Allison Larkin
“In this tender and eloquent memoir, Leah Altman takes readers on a lyrical journey into identity, family, love, and culture, asking: What makes a person resilient?” —Erika Hayasaki
“Raw, honest, and enlightening, Cekpa: A Memoir in Beaded Essays by Leah Altman is an emotionally charged collection of essays that transmutes childhood trauma and loss into enduring self-acceptance.” —Terra Trevor
“In unflinchingly honest and compelling prose, Altman lets us in on a love letter to her two daughters, to her extended family, and to the land. We are endlessly fortunate to bear witness. I could not put Cekpa down.” —Charlie J. Stephens, author of A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest
“A series of funny and sad stories of Altman’s life experiences as a young Native girl growing up in Portland, Oregon, outside of her tribe.” —David G. Lewis