Papa's Pills

Papa’s Pills is the story of Selo and Tefe, an elderly couple navigating the end-of-life stages on the southeastern fringe of the Muscogee (Creek) Reservation in Oklahoma. The novel takes place in the mid-1990s, a time of significant cultural and governmental change for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and its tribal town communities. The Mvskoke language is woven skillfully throughout this novel, making it a key for cultural continuation.Selo is stubbornly committed to taking care of her blind and nearly deaf husband, Tefe, in their remote farm home, even as his mental and physical challenges become more than she can handle. Selo juggles Tefe’s hallucinatory episodes, his out-of-touch non-Mvskoke doctors, and the daily confusion of his ever-shifting pill prescriptions—all while maintaining her farm chores and managing community gossip, including from the local Chief of the Lighthorse police, who is convinced she has committed a crime, a case he is determined to crack as the last heroic act before his retirement.Selo must wrestle with reconciling her own life with the decline of her partner’s quality of life. In the process, she finds hope for cultural continuation through a cast of younger Mvskoke (Creek) community members. Read more