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The Auntie Way: Stories Celebrating Kindness, Fierceness, and Creativity is available in paperback and Kindle!

Click on the book cover (with beautiful original art by Yakama artist, Crystal Buck) to go to the book’s product page on Amazon. I hope you enjoy this fun and loving collection of stories.

Praise for The Auntie Way

“Michelle Jacob’s The Auntie Way is a refreshingly poignant account of how aunties of all stripes—family and found, blood related and chosen, those still with us and those watching over us from the other side—impact our lives in both profound and everyday ways. From teaching us to love ourselves in all of our eccentricities and finding value in the mundane to lifting others up and taking strong stands when necessary, Jacob’s “auntie magic” provides a road map to “upgrade” every part of who and what we are for ourselves, our families, our communities, and our wider field of relations. Though, as one selection reminds us, there’s no such thing as a “perfect” Auntie, I’ve been fortunate to know many who, by simply taking an interest in my life, have made me a better son, brother, uncle, teacher, mentor, and friend. Reading The Auntie Way brought them back to me for a time, reminding me of all they continue to mean to me and all that I continue to owe them in return.”

-Dr. Kirby Brown (Cherokee Nation), Author of Stoking the Fire: Nationhood in Cherokee Writing, 1907-1970

“Michelle Jacob expands on her groundbreaking Native feminist works Yakama Rising and Indian Pilgrims to offer a user-friendly workbook on how Native wisdom is shared, how decolonization is practiced and shows us how Auntie love is healing. This book offers Auntie stories as tools to instruct us on ways to love harder, decolonize more fiercely and share wisdom through kindness. Michelle Jacob has given us a set of stories we can go to again and again, and share through generations.”

-Dr. Angie Morrill (Klamath Tribes), Director of Indian Education, Portland Public Schools

“The Auntie Way is such a beautiful gift to the world. Each story reflects an Auntie we may have had growing up, or wish we had, or have been, or wish we could be. The stories, which are both light-hearted and deeply profound, invite us to reflect on and appreciate the Aunties in our lives, and to aspire to their wit, wisdom, and resourcefulness. Through story, reflection, and journaling, Dr. Jacob walks us along a path of remembering and dreaming so that we, as our Aunties often demand (in a good way), can become our best selves.”

-Dr. Leilani Sabzalian (Alutiiq), Author of Indigenous Children’s Survivance in Public Schools

“In The Auntie Way, we are invited into stories that help us reflect on, appreciate, and learn from the “aunties” in all parts of our lives.  Through stories and reflection prompts, the reader has the opportunity to think deeply about the wisdom, support, and guidance they have gotten from mentors (‘aunties’) as they navigate life. This collection of stories allows us to center the love, wisdom, and power provided to us by ‘aunties’ from our past, present, and future.”

-Dr. Anthony B. Craig (Yakama), Director of Leadership for Learning, University of Washington

“Dr. Jacob has written a beautiful book of stories demonstrating the need for, and the effects of, love in our lives, particularly from our ‘Aunties’. It makes me laugh, cry, smile, and be inspired. This book shows us the importance of love, family, and caring in many forms, and how much we all need Aunties in our lives. Dr. Jacob is one of my Academic Aunties, and now she can be your Auntie too!”   

-Stephany RunningHawk Johnson (Oglala Lakota), Author of “Native Philosophy as the Basis for Secondary Science Curriculum”

“This beautiful lyrical weaving captures the humor, grace, and responsibility expressed in the very special relationship we aunties and auntie’d have among each other and to ourselves. Dr. Auntie Michelle not only tells the stories of our aunties, she opens and demonstrates for us, giving the auntie nudge, how to practice the auntie way and to be proud of who we are and what we do when Auntie-ing. The Auntie Way is proof that auntie stories are good medicine.”

-Yvonne P. Sherwood (Spokane/Coeur d’Alene), University of Toronto, Mississauga; Author of “Toward, With, and From a Fourth World”

Thank you for visiting The Auntie Way blog by Michelle M. Jacob.

To learn more about Dr. Jacob’s other books, courses, and events, please visit https://anahuymentoring.com/