Shell Shaker

Shakbatina describes her ancestor Grandmother as the first Shell Shaker, symbolic of the Earth as a whole. When the people hear that they are about to be invaded by the Osano Hispano de Soto, Grandmother “strapped the empty shells of turtles around each ankle” and danced around the fire for four days and nights, moving her lips “in silent prayers” so that the children do not “hear sorrow in her voice” (loc 94). At the end of the fourth day, Grandmother’s “ankles were swollen and bloody where the shells and leather twine had cut into them” (loc 94). However, her prayers were answered: Miko Luak, the spirit of fire, “took pity on her” and “carried her prayers up to Itilauichi, the Autumnal Equinox” (loc 94) who promises to answer her prayers when she asks for his help. Indeed, when de Soto kills Tuscalusa and his men, Itilauichi transforms Grandmother and her sisters into birds, which fly to a new land, the birthplace and home of the Choctaw people.

Shakbatina is also a Shell Shaker, which has become synonymous with diplomacy and peacemaking. It also represents the respect the people have for the natural world and the gifts that it gives them.