Bear Dancer: The Story of a Ute Girl [Hardcover]

Thelma Hatch Wyss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 27, 2005

Elk Girl, sister of a Ute chief, lives a traditional life with her tribe high in the Rocky Mountains in 1860. Elk Girl is bold: She loves to hunt deer with her brother, and she races her pony to win. She also knows the importance of ceremonies like the Bear Dance, which wakes the bears from hibernation and celebrates spring.

But all of that changes when Cheyenne warriors capture Elk Girl. They take her to the Great Plains and make her a slave. On the Plains, Elk Girl encounters white men for the first time, and she sees how the Cheyenne have come to depend on their handouts. She also sees the truth of what her brother has told her: The white men are the real enemy. Their soldiers are everywhere. Even if Elk Girl could escape, how would she get home?

Thelma Hatch Wyss has crafted a moving story based on the life of a real girl. It is both a gripping personal adventure and a compelling look at two cultures confronting each other at a pivotal time of change.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8–This fascinating story is based on a real person, Elk Girl, who lived during a time of great upheaval and loss of tradition. Wyss describes in vivid detail life among the Ute people of the early 1860s, including their loss of hunting lands and traditional ways at the hands of white settlers and laws. During the years in which the novel is set, the teen is captured by the Cheyenne and later traded to the Arapaho for a sack of wormy treaty flour. Eventually rescued by a white soldier, she becomes Susan Carroll and is finally returned to her village to find her people preparing to resign themselves to signing the White Men's treaty. Wyss's portrayal of Elk Girl within various tribal communities gives readers an insight into Native culture and history. Most works on Elk Girl fixate on her adult life as Susan Johnson (her married name), and while her heroics during the Meeker Massacre of 1879, negotiating for the safe return of several white women and children, are noteworthy, her tribal life within the Ute culture is equally, if not more, important. An excellent addition to historical-fiction collections.–G. Alyssa Parkinson, Highland Township Library, MI
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From Booklist

Gr. 4-7. The first historical novel from seasoned author Wyss (Here at the Scenic-Vu Hotel, 1988, and others), based on true events, presents the drama of the American West in approachable terms for middle-grade readers. Elk Girl is a Tabaguache Ute who is seized by a raiding tribe then traded to another, an experience that leaves her "with no heart left for caring, just an empty place inside her." Ultimately she is rescued by the most feared enemy of all: a white soldier. Along with her lyrical, unobtrusive writing about distinct Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho traditions, Wyss refuses to allow readers to fall back on assumptions culled from lesser novels' tropes. Whether Indian or white, her characters span the full spectrum of human nature--and for every compassionate white woman who sews her a calico dress, there are others who encourage Elk Girl to "talk treaty" with her Ute community. The novel ends long before Elk Girl intervenes on behalf of white hostages during the 1878 Meeker Massacre, a historical postscript explained in an afterword. --Jennifer Mattson Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books (September 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416902856
• ISBN-13: 978-1416902850
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,774,686 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At the Crossroads of Native American Culture, September 1, 2009

By 

LME "The Discerning Viewer" (Central CA, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Bear Dancer: The Story of a Ute Girl (Hardcover)

This short novel is an excellent introduction to the destruction of flourishing Native American cultures. It is written for ages 9 and up but I recommend it for 11, 12 and up. The subject matter, although not treated graphically, is best for a maturing child. It would still be appropriate in early high school and may provoke fruitful discussions.
Elk Tooth Dress is a young Tabeguache Ute woman coming of age in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado when she is captured by Cheyenne warriors. A long two years of miserable captivity follow in which she is taken by the Arapaho and finally the feared white man. When she finally returns to her people they are beaten down by poverty and smallpox. All the neighboring tribes are "in the same canoe", so to speak, because the white settlers and their treaties are now the norm. Elk Tooth Dress becomes a liason between different factions due to her unique experience.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From the Indian viewpoint, January 20, 2006

By 

Gwynne C. Spencer (Mancos, Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bear Dancer: The Story of a Ute Girl (Hardcover)

Elk Girl, later a pivotal figure in the Meeker bloodbath, tells her story of kidnap, exile, despair, courage and return in a fully engaging "biography" appropriate for ages 9-14. Reading level is about 4th grade, with large print, 175 pages goes quickly. Biography of Native woman who deserves wider readership.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What can I say, she's my aunt., April 4, 2006

By 

idutms (Utah) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bear Dancer: The Story of a Ute Girl (Hardcover)

I love my aunt Thelma and her books!