Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o’s theory of decolonizing the Indigenous mind and his decolonial storywork, focused on “fight back, creative culture” through the performing arts genre, parallels the modern North American Indian experience of continued colonization in the United States and illuminates the decolonial power of contemporary First American artistic and literary productions. Assimilation tactics by the European American hegemony, such as the establishment of federal boarding schools for Native children to teach the English language and weaken tribal community relations, perpetuates acculturation to the settler’s culture and ensures Indigenous erasure. Distant Thunder, an all-Native musical performed in 2022 at the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City, utilizes the performing arts genre to subvert European American language imposition by spotlighting Indigenous language preservation techniques, emphasizing the American Indian oral tradition, and paying tribute to place-based identity.