The standout main characters are Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield, a postal worker who cares for her sister’s three grandsons, and is traveling to watch her nephew Orvil perform for the first time at the Powwow. T he se characters, many who m are related, are working their way to wards the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Each character's role is gracefully portrayed, while building anticipation by foreshadowing an explosive ending to the novel. The tone of Orange’s storytelling feels autobiographical - despite being a work of fiction.

He gives each character their own voice while simultaneously updating the archaic persona of who Native people are in the modern world. Orange presents to the reader, a variety of personalities and erases the monolithic idea of 'the Native' in historical and past tense. The plot slowly weaves twelve main characters of whom share the single goal of reaching the Big Oakland Powwow. You aren't given much time to digest these horrors and truths before Orange dives you right into the heart of his first character. You begin “There There” with an understanding that non Native Americans and American Indians share an entangled (really messed up) history. The prologue, actually an essay, acts as a little history lesson on the cruelty and historical portrayal of the American Indian. Orange starts his novel with a grand entry. An apple is red on the outside and white on the inside.” He masterfully captures the true internal dialogue of the plight of the Urban Indian on the journey to find inclusion amongst a whitewashed America. Called us citified, superficial, inauthentic, cultureless refuges, apples. In his prologue Orange laments, “They used to call us sidewalk Indians. Orange, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma, tackles Native stereotypes and rewrites what it means to be Native American raised by a city.

Tommy Orange’s debut novel “There There” feels like a reflection of my own childhood and presents a well needed dialogue on the urban Indigenous identity. I spoke simply and stated “I am an American Indian” and presented corn bread as my potluck contribution (as if corn bread is some national identifying Native food.) Before I could sit back down in my seat I was heckled at from a child across the room “INDIANS ARE EXTINCT - LIKE THE DINOSAURS! You’re a liar!” It was the first time I questioned my identity, am I a liar? Am I not Native? What does it mean to be an American Indian? It was part of the usual Elementary multicultural day celebration and I was asked to stand in front of the class and present my culture. The first time I revealed in a public place that I was Native (American) I was in 4th grade.

A review of “There There” by Krystyna Printup ( Tuscarora, Turtle Clan)

Book there there by tommy orange