Shell Shaker

LeAnne Howe’s Shell Shaker was first published in 2001; this guide refers to the 2007 Kindle edition. Howe, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, is a professor of English specializing in Native American studies. A former Fulbright Scholar, Howe received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 from the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas. Shell Shaker received an American Book Award in 2002.

One on hand, the novel is a mystery about who killed the famed Choctaw warrior Red Shoes in 1747, and who killed Redford McAlester, Chief of the Oklahoma Choctaws, in 1991. On the other hand, the story is also about the Billy family, a powerful and well-known Choctaw family in Oklahoma who can trace their ancestry all the way back to Shakbatina, an Inholahta woman in the 18th century. Though the central storyline revolves around the deaths of two powerful men, this story is really about the powerful women of the Choctaw, Shakbatina and her daughters in the 18th century, and their 20th-century counterparts, Auda Billy and her sisters.

Howe sheds light on some of the darkest moments of American history and explores how to move forward from such trauma and violence, offering a unique perspective on the legacy and the future of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Howe’s reading of history refuses to position Native Americans as mere victims of white colonizers. This is, of course, part of that story, but the focus is always on the people themselves, not as victims but as independent and powerful agents. 

Plot Summary

The story takes place in two different timelines: one in 18th-century America, and the other in 20th-century America. These timelines are parallel, and each character in the 18th century has a modern-day counterpart. Furthermore, the events occurring in the 20th century are a repetition of similar events in the 18th century.

The story begins in the 18th century as Shakbatina, a leader of the Choctaw people, prepares to sacrifice herself in place of her daughter, Anoleta, accused of murdering her husband’s other wife. Anoleta’s husband, Red Shoes, is a famous Choctaw warrior who has become corrupt and incites tension between the different Indigenous tribes and among his own people. He also works with both the English and French colonizers and betrays his people to them. Shakbatina suspects that the English planted the idea that Anoleta murdered the other wife to have the Indigenous people battle and kill each other off, leaving the English to claim the Indigenous lands as their own. Nonetheless, Shakbatina knows she must offer herself as a sacrifice. In so doing, she protects her daughter and becomes the guardian of her people.

In the 20th-century timeline, Shakbatina’s spirit influences a similar sacrifice. Auda Billy is a member of the well-known and well-respected Billy family, and is one of Shakbatina’s direct descendants, though Auda does not know this at first. Shakbatina’s granddaughter by Anoleta, Chunkashbili, provides the Billy family their name. Under Shakbatina’s influence, Auda prepares to kill the current chief of the Choctaw, her lover Redford McAlester. Like Red Shoes, Redford has become corrupt and greedy, betraying his own people and laundering money for the mafia in the tribe’s casino, which he then uses to fund the Irish Republican Army, a terrorist organization in Northern Ireland. Redford feels a connection to the Irish because the Choctaw sent money to the Irish during the potato famine in the 18th century.

Redford is also Red Shoes, and Auda is also Anoleta, Shakbatina’s daughter. The story is theirs: how they loved these men and then tried to stop them, despite that love. They are tied together because of Red Shoes’ greed, not just for money and power, but for Anoleta as well. As Red Shoes dies, he pledges that he and Anoleta will remain together in the afterworld. Auda must break these bonds, but she cannot do it alone. After Auda murders Redford, the Billy family and the Choctaw people come together to help Auda and to ensure Redford/Red Shoes’ spirit remains in the afterworld, where it cannot harm anyone else.

Auda’s sisters, Tema and Adair, come to her aid, as does their mother, Susan, and their Uncle Isaac. Similarly, in the 18th-century timeline, Anoleta is aided by her sisters Haya and Neshoba, her Uncle Nitakechi, and her father, Koi Chitto. As the story continues, the timelines collapse into each other, and most of the 20th-century characters experience visions of themselves as their counterparts, though none of them knows the whole story. Indeed, that is one of the main messages of the text: No individual knows everything, and no individual can set things right; it takes a communal effort and communal knowledge.

In the 18th-century timeline, Shakbatina and her daughters can’t prevent the war between the different tribes and the violence and damage inflicted on the Indigenous people by the white colonizers. Many of the Choctaw are removed from their homelands and forced to move to what is now Oklahoma, but some remain behind in what is now Mississippi. The Choctaw are fractured, doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. In the 20th-century timeline, however, the Oklahoma Choctaw reunite with their Mississippi family. It is this reunification, as well as the burial of Redford/Red Shoes near Nanih Waiya, closely guarded by the spirits of Uncle Isaac and his wife, Delores, that allows a resolution for the conflict started so long ago. Indeed, Auda, unlike her counterpart Anoleta, does not have to sacrifice either her life or her freedom to stop Redford/Red Shoes. The novel ends with Auda seeing a new woman in the mirror, indicating that she is no longer a counterpart to her ancestors, but a new beginning, one yet untold.