Miko Kings

Miko Kings by LeAnne Howe is a historical fiction book that follows Lena, an Oklahoma Choctaw woman, as she pieces together the history of the first Indigenous American baseball team: the Miko Kings. Howe is an acclaimed Choctaw writer, scholar, and poet. She is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Miko Kings is one of seven books Howe has authored, and it was originally published in 2007. The book explores themes of The Relationship Between Land and Identity, The Importance of Preserving an Accurate History, and The Intersection of Baseball and Indigenous Identity.

This guide refers to the original 2007 edition, published by Aunt Lute Books in San Francisco, California.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss racism and intense violence and include brief mentions of sexual violence (including acts with children and animals). This guide reflects the text’s use of outdated and offensive terms to refer to Indigenous Americans only in quotations.

Plot Summary

Miko Kings follows the story of Lena, a Choctaw Woman from Oklahoma, as she researches the Miko Kings: America’s first Indigenous baseball team. Over the course of the book, Lena weaves together the events surrounding the last game the Miko Kings ever played and how that story is interwoven with her own family’s torrid past.

The book jumps between three distinct timelines: In the present in 2006, Lena returns to Ada, Oklahoma, after over two decades away. She had been working as a freelance journalist, first in New York and then in the Middle East. When her partner, a photographer, was killed in a bombing, she felt a pull back home to Oklahoma. Although she spent so many years trying to run from her Choctaw identity, and from Oklahoma itself, she knew that she had to return and start to heal from her grief.

Lena moves into the house that her grandmother MourningTree Bolin left to her when she died a few years ago. When Lena was a child, she spent every summer with her grandmother in this house, where she learned some of the Choctaw language and traditions. However, there was always a disconnect between the two, as MourningTree resented Lena for being born since her own daughter, Kit, died giving birth to her.

Lena is renovating the house, and as some of the walls are being torn apart, she discovers a long-lost mail pouch. It contains a mysterious set of documents and photographs. One striking photo is of a group of Indigenous American men, most of whom are wearing historic baseball uniforms. The photo is from 1907, and an inscription on the bottom says that the men are the Miko Kings.

The mail pouch launches an investigation that soon connects Lena with the past. As she is researching the Miko Kings, Lena is visited by a spirit named Ezol, who knew the Miko Kings. Together, they start writing a book about what happened almost 100 years ago and why they were forgotten.

The second timeline in Miko Kings is in 1969, and it follows two characters: Hope Little Leader and Justina Maurepas. Hope Little Leader is an elderly Choctaw man who is spending the remainder of his days in a nursing home. There, as he is tended to by his nurses, he tells stories of his days as a pitcher for the Miko Kings. He longs for his lost love, Dusky Long-Gone Girl (later revealed to be Justina), and has many regrets from those years on the team. Most notably, Hope is missing both of his hands. The story of how Hope lost both his true love and his hands is a mystery that slowly unfolds.

In this same timeline, a professor named Algernon Pinchot is interviewing Justina Maurepas. He is researching her life as a civil rights activist, where she garnered the nickname “Black Juice.” Justina, who now lives with her great-granddaughter Evangeline, is initially hesitant to talk to Algernon. Like Hope, she has many regrets from her youth. However, he convinces her that the only way to get the truth out is for her to tell the story in her own words. Justina agrees, but she says that she will not talk about her social justice work, only her time with the Miko Kings.

The final timeline follows the rise and fall of the Miko Kings baseball team. It takes place during the Allotment Era, when thousands of white Americans claimed to be Indigenous Americans and took claim to the recently privatized land. This timeline chronicles the early days when Henri Day (Ezol’s uncle) founds the team, the height of their success and having a film being made about them, and finally the detrimental shuttering of the team after they lose their last game.

When Henri first starts the Miko Kings with his cousin Lonnie Johns, no one believes that the team will amount to anything. Henri is an outsider among his people and a poor businessman. However, the team soon gains both traction and a number of promising athletes. Hope Little Leader is the pitcher for the Miko Kings, alongside legendary hitter Blip Bleen. Gambling is a common pastime in Ada, and it is the gamblers’ funds that ultimately help the Miko Kings get off the ground.

Ezol, the spirit who is visiting Lena, lives in the past timeline of 1907. She is the niece of Henri and good friends with Justina. Eventually, she and Blip begin a romance, and she confides in him about her mathematical theories. She is studying Choctaw time and how the rules of time and space are intersected with ancient Choctaw traditions, such as baseball. These theories are what she discusses with Lena in 2006 and ultimately what allow the characters to access both past and present.

Two other relationships emerge in 1907: Cora Day (Henri’s daughter and Ezol’s cousin) begins a romance with Bo Hash (Justina’s cousin), and Hope and Justina begin their own love affair during this time period. Each of these relationships becomes complicated when some shady characters in town put a deal on the table: They offer $5,000 to the person on the Miko Kings who will throw the final game, causing them to lose to the Fort Sill Cavalrymen. Cora tries to convince Blip to do it and ends up spending the night with him. He turns down the offer, so Bo Hash goes to Hope and asks him to throw the game. He explains that it’s the only way both couples (Hope and Justina and Bo and Cora) can leave Ada peacefully and be with each other since Justina and Bo are part Black and face discrimination from the Choctaws. Hope considers this and decides to take the offer so that he can have the money for a new life with Justina.

The loss leads to new ownership of the Miko Kings, and Hope’s decision is a massive betrayal. A few days after the big game, Blip and two other players track down Hope and Bo. They cut Hope’s hands off with an ax so that he will never pitch again. The attack ends in a standoff, and five men end up dead: Blip, the two other players, Bo, and Tom Bobbitt (one of the gamblers). Hope is nursed back to health but never plays baseball again.

Back in 2006, Lena discovers that Cora is actually MourningTree, her grandmother. Her mother, Kit, was the result of Cora’s affair with Blip. Shortly after the big game, Ezol died in her home in a housefire. Cora felt guilty over her betrayal and took on the name MourningTree. Lena realizes that this means Ezol was her grandmother’s cousin and is Lena’s ancestor.

Lena and Ezol finish writing the book about the Miko Kings. Many of the characters deal with grief in a number of ways, but writing the truth allows for old wounds to heal. Eventually, Lena must part ways with Ezol, but Lena knows that Ezol will always be with her in spirit.