Life-Telling: Indigenous Oral Autobiography and the Performance of Relation

Focusing on a single autobiographical story by Lakota/Kiowa Apache storyteller Dovie Thomason, this article argues that “life-telling” should be recognized as an important Indigenous art form, one that remains a vital and living practice. By paying attention to the performative elements of storytelling and its Indigenous contexts of ceremony, territory, and community, the article shows how oral autobiography enacts Indigenous sovereignty.