Standing alone on a stage and trying to explain your worldview to a crowd of strangers is a difficult undertaking. But in her memoir play And So We Walked, running through May 13 at Portland Center Stage, DeLanna Studi allows the audience a glimpse of what life is like as a modern Cherokee woman, and the awkwardness of straddling two cultural worlds.
The one-woman show begins with Studi ruminating on the importance of stories. “Every great story has truth in it, and truth demands to be told,” she says. Then she dives in, starting with an irritating question she’s often asked: “How much Indian are you?” Born to a white mother and a Cherokee father, explains Studi, her identity is complex. As an actress, she’s often told she’s “too Indian” to play white roles, yet in the Cherokee Nation, she doesn’t belong to a clan because clanship is passed down through one’s mother.