She Who Carries Fire - A letter from the author, Crystal Tonihka

What is this book about?

She Who Carries Fire is not just a book.

It is ceremony.

It is every prayer I whispered in the dark when I had no one to turn to but the stars.

It is a bundle of memory, grief, resistance, and rebirth, wrapped in words, stitched with songs only the spirit can hear.

This is a book of poetry, reflection, and Indigenous truth-telling.

It walks the line between memoir and medicine.

It speaks in the voice of a future elder remembering who she had to become to survive.

It is for the ones who still carry the burden of silence, and the ones ready to lay it down and rise.

Why did you write this book?

Because I needed to.

Because my bones were full of stories I had no more room to carry.

Because I am the daughter of those who endured Indian boarding schools, and the mother of those who deserve to be free.

I wrote this book because healing is political.

Because my pain deserved to speak.

Because we are still here and our fire deserves pages that won’t burn.

Too many of us live our entire lives asking for permission to exist, to tell the truth, to be whole.

I wrote this as a declaration: you don’t need permission. You only need to remember.

What do you want people to take away from this book?

I want you to feel seen.

I want you to remember your medicine.

I want every reader, Native or not, to walk away understanding that stories are sacred tools for survival, not just entertainment.

If you have ever felt like the fire inside you made others uncomfortable. this book is your reflection.

If you were ever told to shrink, to be quiet, to behave. this book is your resistance.

If you are the cycle breaker in your family, the warrior hiding under layers of obligation, the one doing sacred work in unseen ways. this book is your ceremony.

What inspired you to write this book?

My ancestors.

My grandchildren.

The women who sat in circles and told the truth when no one else dared.

I was inspired by every moment I almost gave up.

By the medicine in fasting, in prayer, in silence.

By the old ones who visited my dreams and whispered, “Write it down. We carried it so you could speak it.”

This book was years in the making. But it has lived in me for generations.

⸻

May this book light your fire. May it remind you who you are.

And may it carry our truth long after we’re gone.

With all my heart,

Crystal Tonihka

Author of She Who Carries Fire