Copper Bright

At sixteen, there are a lot of things about life Alaia knows. Her heritage is one she would rather forget. When faced with a choice that could change everything, what will be her new path?'My mother is really dead, I guess, because she cared so much about what she used to call ‘our culture’. She referred to me and her as if I was Ojibwe like she and not a half-blood with a dad that left us both one night when I was four. She went to the pow-wows every year, long after I stopped going. When I started the sixth grade some boy I liked said he wouldn’t date me because all Indians grew up to be drunks. After that, I decided I didn’t want to be Ojibwe. She respected my decision, I guess. But she kept trying to tell me things about being native, things I still don’t understand. Like how she knew for certain that the underwater panther chose my name.'At sixteen, there are a lot of things about life Alaia knows. Her heritage is one she would rather forget. When faced with a choice that could change everything, what will be her new path?