Miko Kings

Content Warning: This section contains references to racism against Indigenous people.

One of the themes in Miko Kings is the relationship between land and identity. Many characters leave their home only to find the need to return, either literally or through memories. Additionally, since the story is set against the backdrop of the Allotment Era, there is another layer of the relationship between land and identity. This theme explores what it means to call a place home and what it means when home is stolen from a group of people.

Lena grew up feeling a disconnect with her Choctaw grandmother and ultimately chose to leave that identity behind in search of a fresh start. As a result, she became a nomad who “regularly questioned who [she] was—an Indian from Oklahoma, always from, but forever absent?” (20). It wasn’t until a shock of grief knocked her down that she heard a call back to Oklahoma. This was a pleasant surprise for Lena, who thinks, “So I hadn’t purged all my Native connections after all. Even though I’d put ten thousand miles between me and Oklahoma, the land of my ancestors had tracked me down and was speaking” (20). Upon her return, Lena unlocks the history of the land and the stories of her family that took place there.