Becoming Story: A Journey among Seasons, Places, Trees, and Ancestors

by Greg Sarris

For the first time in more than twenty-five years, Greg Sarris—whose novels are esteemed alongside those of Louise Erdrich and Stephen Graham Jones—presents a book about his own life. In Becoming Story he asks: What does it mean to be truly connected to the place you call home—to walk where innumerable generations of your ancestors have walked? And what does it mean when you dedicate your life to making that connection even deeper? Moving between his childhood and the present day, Sarris creates a kaleidoscopic narrative about the forces that shaped his early years and his eventual work as a tribal leader. He considers the deep past, historical traumas, and possible futures of his homeland. His acclaimed storytelling skills are in top form here, and he charts his journey in prose that is humorous, searching, and profound. A gently powerful memoir, Becoming Story is also a master class in the art of belonging to the place where you live.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Nature, Indigenous, History, Native American

158 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 5, 2022

About the author

Gregory Michael Sarris is the Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, the Graton Rancheria Endowed Chair in Creative Writing and Native American Studies at Sonoma State University, where he teaches classes in Native American Literature, American Literature, and Creative Writing.

Reviews

[JOSE GONZALEZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you make Sonoma Count home, especially in and around Petaluma, this book provides an indigenous history of the place that you ordinarily see.

[Wyndy KnoxCarr · Rating 5 out of 5]

What if we moved over to a sense of time which is seeking and passing on what Sarris called a “blueprint for the future” in this present moment, describing to each other “how to use ethics, aesthetics to create stories, models for grandchildren” when a particular writer speaks, photographs, or puts pen to paper, seven generations into the future, resting on just as much ancestral knowledge into the past? Can it be done? Maybe it has to. Maybe it’s the humans’ task in what’s left of the reciprocal gift culture of thour remaining abundant, resourceful world…
I’m learning another “deep ecology” story. World history “independent of its instrumental benefits for human use.” What a concept!
Sarris’ Becoming Story, another gem from Berkeley’s Heyday Books, is about just that – the stories that knit together his own life with his Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok, Filipino and white foster parent community and ancestors with the land as living being: the happenings in that fabric with the “history,” song and story of earth, water, wind, ocean, fire, flora, fauna, birds, reptiles, insects and the relative latecomers known as human beings.
Redwoods, rivers and ospreys, however, “contain a longer memory of the forest. ” "For Coast Miwok people, like all indigenous peoples of central California, the landscape was nothing less than a richly layered text, a sacred book; each ocean cove, even the smallest seemingly unassuming rock or tract of open grassland--each feature of the natural world was a mnemonic peg on which individuals could see a story connected to other stories and thus know and find themselves home." The values, practices, culture, memories and languages woven together of what became Sonoma and Marin Counties in the present day.
"...Believing that everything in nature is alive---and has power---you have to be careful not to mistreat or insult even the smallest pebble on your path. Likewise, people have power, often secret power…If you have to physically assault another person, you reveal that you have no secret power…it suggests that you possess no spiritual power and can therefore be attacked without worry of retribution…the culture was predicated on profound respect: you had to be mindful of all life, reminded always that you were not the center of the universe but just a part of it."
When Sarris lamented to elder Mabel McKay “If everything’s going to burn, what do I do?” as they drove through the desiccated landscape of Sonoma County, she replied, “You live the best way you know how, what else?” and laughed.
They declare "You must remember the plant’s (animal’s or place’s) name, or it will forget you,” with an ominous, sincere, ceremonial and sacred sense of responsibility, “consequence” and reciprocity.
Extinction happens. Built in to the stories and language, “You are,” (unlike Descartes, Popes, Kings, Deists, heroes, celebrities and the Enlightenment scientists,) “not the center of the universe.” If you don’t have and show “respect, you get corrected.”
Wonderful book. Very fine writer. Moving life experiences. Healing visions. What more could you ask for?

[Maileen Hamto · Rating 4 out of 5]

The complex layering of memory and nostalgia intermingle with Indigenous identity and knowledge in Greg Sarris’ "Becoming Story: A Journey among Seasons, Places, Trees, and Ancestors." As a tribal leader of the Coast Miwok and Pomo peoples in what is known as Santa Rosa, California, Sarris shares profound realizations about the nature of change in this moving memoir. Seasons mark the continuous confluence of places, people, plants, birds, and others, coming and going in Sarris’ lifetime. Every memory is a story that yields legends anew, strengthening existing bonds.

Becoming is a process, identity is complex, and all hard-fought journeys require time. In Becoming Story, stories are anchored in places transformed by people who are themselves transformed by time. As the head of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, Sarris has a nuanced perspective on Indigenous lifeways that emphasize interdependence. Centuries of colonization through the Spanish Catholic missions in California both destroyed and created a unique culture inhabited by descendants who share both generational pride and wounds.

Sarris’ Northern California landscapes are sacred texts, peopled with elk, pronghorn, osprey, and lizards. Traversing different lives, Becoming Story is a heartfelt contemplation of one man’s decades-long journey of returning home.

[Miz Lizzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a series of related but separate essays, Sarris explores his own life and that of his people, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, in relationship to the land. His focus is on story in place, history (and who tells it), and the challenge of living in harmony on the land in today's world. Sarris was adopted as a baby and grew up thinking he was white, only learning his ancestry and connecting with his family as a young man, even though he knew many of them growing up. Interesting and thought-provoking.

Book Pairings:
Connecting to their native land of Britain through stories of the land, Martin Shaw and Sharon Blackie.
Mixing western science with an indigenous perspective of the land, Braiding Sweetgrass.

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't know what to expect from this becoming story. It turned out to be a memoir of the author's growing up in Santa Rosa, and a deeper history of the Native Americans who lived there before he was born, and then before the Europeans came. I liked the idea of a place being more than one thing, like a river being more than a stream of water but being a chain of places - where the berries grow, groves of certain trees, where the fish are in deep water, etc. I learned history I didn't know. And I wish I had a way of belonging to my "home" as he does to his. But I only gave it two stars because it woulds sometimes repeat the same stories he had told me a chapter or two ago.

[Pj Gaumond · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third book I've read by Greg Sarris. It's a memoir but so much more. The author explores the links between things and people and the respect we must have for all things. At one point he talks about initiative to return spaces to the way they were in the past, but can that really be done in a sustainable way? The book is thought provoking on so many levels from the past on through today and on to tomorrow. I highly recommend this book and any of Greg Sarris' works.

[benMartin Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would give 4.5 if there was. It is a tiny book with a great memory. The memory brings us millions years back and helps us to touch grass, coyote, stars, love, fear, hope. Their mix in nature and life. It was a random pick for me, language was so clean like something you grab from nature. A friendly book, with sweet words and teaching something important even you don’t notice.

[Pegeen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of thoughtful essays… learned Native histories, which were new to me, and good to know. I did end up thinking that such a connection and history IS a form of wealth. As someone who has a personal history of moving on, and independence from family, it was both interesting and apart from my own experience.
I think I’ll pursue his fiction. Might connect to that more.

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a collection some of the essays began to feel a little repetitive. Still interesting things to learn along the way, though. Possibly will resonate more for those familiar with the region in which many of these stories take place (Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo territory, or Sonoma County, CA).

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I live in Marin county and the local references made this book that much more impactful. The ecological history of the area is so interesting and a bummer because so much of it is gone. Overall enjoy his writing style.

[Lucy Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A humble and persuasive book

I found a subtle insight into the mind, into people. How do we make home in a land? What is history? How do we act with respect for a place, our place? What is our place in the minutiae and grand sweep of life?

[Jude Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I live in Petaluma, California, which plays a part in this collection by tribal chief Greg Sarris and so connected instantly to the places he describes; but it is the Native history and legends that intrigue. Sarris is a gifted writer and does Native American Californians a huge service in this readable and memorable book.

[MacKenzie Galloway · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really really wanted to like this book, but it was honestly insufferable to get through.

[V · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*
A generally interesting set of musings and reminiscences... that does, unfortunately, tend to repeat itself.