Seven Aunts

Staci Lola Drouillard, a descendant of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Anishinaabe, lives and works in her hometown of Grand Marais, Minnesota, on the North Shore of Lake Superior. Her first book, Walking the Old Road: A People’s History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe (Minnesota, 2019) won the Hamlin Garland Prize in Popular History and the Northeast Minnesota Book Award for nonfiction and was a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award.

• Prologue: My AuntiesFayeLilaDoreenGloriaBettyCarolDianeCoda: Seven LessonsAcknowledgmentsNotes

"Seven Aunts is a celebration of the women in Staci Lola Drouillard’s family who struggled to escape a daunting legacy with unsung courage, humor, and an unbreakable love for family. Far more than a family history, Seven Aunts is an honor song that reveals the everyday heroism of these women’s lives."-Diane Wilson, author of The Seed Keeper"Reading Staci Lola Drouillard’s Seven Aunts is a mesmerizing experience. A family story at once vast and intimate, it’s also a book about womanhood and mothering, the confluence of Native American and settler lives, and the resplendent, beautiful northern third of Minnesota, with all its warm homes and tangled family trees. Though these are not your aunts, you’ll wish they were; for all the wisdom and love they’ve shared in their remarkable, ordinary lives, you will."-Peter Geye, author of Northernmost"Seven Aunts gives us a unique and privileged insight to the intimate lives and history of a blended Indigenous and immigrant family in northern Minnesota. Staci Lola Drouillard has written with honesty and truth about ‘the treacherous beauty of life’ in a family rich in characters, in love and loss, all with great humor. AnaÏs Nin wrote that reaching deep into the personal becomes universal. Seven Aunts is exactly that. It speaks to us of the universal love of family, the reality of historic social challenges, and the strength of the unbreakable bonds of knowing."-Hazel Belvo "Staci Lola Drouillard explores the lives of her seven Anishinaabe and European aunties with fierce and unflinching admiration. Like a quilter sewing the final layer of a quilt, her detailed stitches reveal patterns that honor their harsh yet resilient lives. In the end, the reader gains a deeper appreciation for women’s survival along Minnesota’s North Shore and beyond."-Nora Murphy, author of White Birch, Red Hawthorn"In this unique and compelling memoir, Staci Lola Drouillard tells the story of her seven aunts-Anishinaabe and European-whose strength, spirit, and determination to thrive illustrate that of so many other women throughout history."-Ms. Magazine   "Staci Lola Drouillard's new memoir has many merits, none more important than its generous spirit."-Star Tribune   "A must-read."-Northern Wilds   "Superb."-ABC Newspapers   "In this book, Drouillard turns her attention to the lives of her seven aunts- four maternal and three paternal- which together span most of the 20th century and adress many of the challenges faced by women, especially working class and rural women, of those years."-Minnesota Alumni