Customer Reviews

Lakota Woman

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This is one of the best books available to people interested in contemporary Native Americans. Mary Brave Bird's life story sheds light on traditions of her Lakota (Sioux) people from the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations in South Dakota. She shows, in a very clear way, their tortured history with the missionaries, state bureaucracy, the courts, the FBI and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). We see to what extent the government has succeeded in destroying the old life and how small groups of the Sioux managed to preserve traditional ways and ceremonies.

The book is written in a way which preserves the unique appreciation Indians have for unadulterated truth - a style which is simple, direct and in which personal experiences are recounted in a frank, almost brutally dispassionate manner. It reveals perfectly the heartless school system ran by abusive Catholic priests and nuns trying hard to deprive young people of their traditions (don't these people have better things to do?); we see the corrupt BIA system designed to prevent cultural and economic emancipation of the Native American "traditionals" (and steal federal money) and the pointless fear that the FBI has of organized Indian movements. Above all, we see the violence that the Sioux face daily from the white South Dakotans as well as the inter-Sioux violence caused by the hopelessness of the life on the rez. I was especially amazed to see that South Dakota has preserved, at the least up to early 1980ies, the barbaric attitudes towards the Native Americans (who are, after all, the original inhabitants, and who were cheated out of their own land by the very same whites who persecute them) which have by and large disappeared from the rest of the civilized world. This includes (unpunished) assaults by drunken lumberjacks and ranchers, systematic discrimination in the courtroom, forced sterilizations at the provincial hospitals (Mary's own sister Barbara was sterilized against her own will) and a system designed to eliminate all of the Indians' most courageous and spiritually conscious young people. A system that would make Uncle Mao proud, but which made this reader very sad, ashamed and angry. I suspect many of these things are still going on in our name. I mean, why can't these people leave the Indians in peace, allow them to practice their religion and (is this too much to ask for?) respect their desire to be different?

There are also many wonderful things in this book. The descriptions of relationships between Lakota men and women, between the young and the old, between the full and half-bloods and between the host and the guest are simply priceless. Likewise Brave Bird's descriptions of peyote meetings, Sundances and Ghostdance revivals. Mary has very strong opinions about the Sioux male machismo and the reluctance exhibited by many Sioux men to providing a comfortable and loving home for their families yet she understands that this is the inevitable consequence of the systematic destruction of the old ways of tribal life. After having read the book I can see the challenges facing the indomitable Sioux nation, the challenge of preserving and honoring the old ways while educating a new elite familiar with the white system (without considering them to be sellouts); only when they gain political representation and economic self-sufficiency will Native Americans be able to keep at bay the greedy timber, mining and ranching industries whose interest is to keep the tribes divided and the people dispirited and lost in alcohol. The Lakota of today need to find a way to create loving conditions for their children. And they need to speak their truth, as often as they can, just as Mary Brave Bird has done in this amazing book.

In this 1990 autobiography Mary Crow Dog relates her life growing up on a Sioux reservation and her involvement with the American Indian Movement during the 1970s. There is another writer's name, Richard Erdoes, next to hers on the cover which makes me assume that she did not write this herself. Perhaps that accounts for the style, which is overly simplistic as the book seems to be targeted towards young adults.

However, I have very scant knowledge of American Indians even though they

have always fascinated me. And that is why I enjoyed this book completely. It's feels true and real and its starkness only underlines the story which, in reality, is not only Mary Crow Dog's personal story, but that of all American Indians in our country.

We are right there with her in the one room shack she was raised in with 8 other people in North Dakota, a house without electricity, plumbing or a single modern convenience. As there were no television or any connection with the outside world, she thought that everyone lived like this and had a happy childhood, warm and secure in the bosom a loving family.

And then she was sent off to boarding school run by the Jesuits. Here, the children were beaten, humiliated, punished by being sent into isolation, and forced into a mold that was foreign to them. It was the 60's then, and she rebelled, leaving school and joining forces with other Native American teenagers who drank and shoplifted and lived on the fringe of society.

Then the American Indian Movement came along and she joined, identifying with her people's struggles and learning the history. She was at the siege of the National Indian Affairs building in Washington, DC and then again at the 71-day takeover of Wounded Knee in the 1970s. It was here that she gave birth to her son while gunfire was going on around her.

Later, she married Leonard Crow Dog, the leader and medicine man. He had been brought up totally as an Indian and had never ever learned to read. She stood by him though his unlawful imprisonment, learned to make speeches at rallies, visited other tribes and totally absorbed her heritage. She bore him four children and is a spokesperson for her people. Hence this book, which I understand had been made into a TNT movie and is used as a textbook in schools.

By telling her own personal story, Mary Crow Dog gives the reader an insider's view of the racism around her, the hardships, the religious

rituals and the pride of her people. For anyone with an interest in this special area of American History, this book is extremely helpful.

Recommended

A breathtaking autobiography by Mary Crow Dog. This autobiography dipicts the life of an Native American in South Dakota in the seventies you see this through the eyes of a young girl from childhood to adulthood. Mary tells it how it was and spares no detail which makes this book very powerful. You see the racism that the Native Americans had to go through and also their struggles against society to gain freedom. This book is a must read for anybody who's interested in Native American Culture and the struggle they had to go through to be considered equal to whites.

This is a very powerful book about Mary Crow Dog's experiences growing up as a Lakota (Sioux) woman on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. It should be required reading for anyone who feigns ignorance of the ways that Native Americans continue to be treated in the US today. Local whites, the state of South Dakota, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the rest of the power establishment have their inhumanity exposed.

Crow Dog writes in a very sparse style, and writes of brutal incidents in a matter-of-fact way. While this style makes the book compelling, it is also responsible for a major weakness of the book. Throughout the book, Crow Dog is never introspective. Things happen (she uses drugs, starts shoplifting, chooses men poorly) or happen to her (she is raped, among other things), but she doesn't think about why these things happen. She conveys neither a sense of her own agency in these events, or a sense of her own lack of agency.

Oddly for an autobiography, Mary Crow Dog is the object, not the subject, of this story. Even at Wounded Knee, she doesn't really understand why she is there, other than the fact that she has followed the male authority figures of the movement into the siege. She made her choice and put her body on the line but can't really explain why. How life on the reservation produces people like this is certainly worth reflection.

This siege at Wounded Knee provides the centerpiece of the book, and its natural climax. Crow Dog has a very different view of these events than the accounts provided by the leadership, who knew their history and knew what they were trying to do. Crow Dog also talks about the aftermath of the siege, and the period when her husband was in jail. At this time, she also followed him into the practice of Native American religion, and - - more implicitly than explicitly - - explains why this religion is attractive to many.

Finally, this book also provides a valuable insiders' perspective of the dysfunctional communities on Pine Ridge. It's interesting that the politically correct crowd condemns Ian Frazier's "On the Rez" while praising "Lakota Woman"- - both paint similar pictures of the same reservation. It's true than a Lakota insider brings perspectives not available to outsiders, but a white outsider also bring perspectives not available to insiders. Read them both and make up your own mind.

From the second page I was hooked! Mary Crow Dog writes like a person would speak and the result is an open, honest account of her life, growing up a Lakota Woman. She speaks of the events she experienced and the poverty she grew up in without self-pity. She shares a wisdom that only she could have, gleaned from her life, in each of it's stages as a child, a revolutionary, a mother and a wife to a powerful medicine man. She depicts the life of the Sioux woman in a simple way explaining the importance of their role. This was such an interesting book! I especially enjoyed reading the details of the Sun Dances in the book. That is a religious ritual that really intrigues me and I relished every detail.

Having to read this text for a university class, I initially did not expect to enjoy it as throughly as I actually did - I had the mindset that I would just read it once, just because I had to, and that would be that. Yet I enjoyed this book completely, with its realism and frank, yet emotional, portrayal of Indian life. I would recommend it to all; its simpistic style makes it accessible to younger readers. Whether you are interested in Indian culture or not, I guarantee you will be by the final page.

This is a book you may have a very hard time putting down. It is a dramatic autobiography of a life full of struggle, oppression, action and empowerment. This book is intense and a must read. The challenges and experiences of Native Americans during the peak of the American Indian Movement in the 1970's is highlighted here. You get it first hand from the personal experience of an amazing woman. She was in the middle of it all standing up for the rights of her people and supporting the others around her who were fighting like hell for justice and their rights. This book sparks a lot of tears and anger, as well as much laughter. You will find history of the American Indian Movement and the siege at Wounded Knee, as well as a great story and much more here written in an easy to read, personal manner. It's as if you were sitting across from her at the kitchen table listening to her tell the tales of her life. It reads like a magnetic, fiction novel while educating like a history book. Highly recommended!!

Lakota Woman is a great autobiography which shows all of the hard times for American Indians during the 1970's in order to gain the freedom to which they have today.It is a unique piece of American Indian literature, a story of dying,crying, determination to beat the white man system and not the white man himself, and the cruelties they had to indure for their freedom and culture. Lakota Woman takes you right to the boarding schools that the young American Indians were thrown into by the government in hopes to change their ways of life. It will make you sick but yet happy that it is no longer, when reading about all the in depth cruel thing the indians suffered through. Such as the sterilization of pregenant mothers without their consent. The Indians were able to get leadership through the American Indians Movement(AIM), which joined all indian tribes together as one. "They called us the new indians. Hell, we are the old indians. The landlords of this continent, coming to collect the rent." This attitude lead them right into the battle of Wounded Knee which took the lives of many."Two thousand came to Wounded Knee in 1973. One stayed." It is definitely a must read autobiography.

While I agree that this is a powerful and elegantly written story, it suffers from obvious bias. Most disturbingly, it soft-shoes the issue of domestic abuse. In fact, in one passage, the author seems to take a sort of perverse pride in recognizing that Lakota women tolerate physical and mental abuse and think little of it. The author generally side-steps the issue of whether her own husband was abusive but shows her hand toward the end of the book by recognizing that the stress of constant surveilance and imprisonment "takes it's toll."

I do not believe that this is a matter of judging another's cultural mores by Western standards of decency, but rather recognizing that issues exist outside of the sphere of cultural relativism. Crossing the line by striking your spouse is wrong, regardless of circumstance or cause.

I read this when it first came out in 1990, but it is timeless: her struggle and success in surviving a time and place difficult for her race and sex, and much on her own, is profoundly touching. Even if you have read "In The Spirit of Crazyhorse", this adds to that since it is a very personal story told by a Native American woman who was a part of AIM and who gave birth to her first child under fire at the siege at Wounded Knee in 1973. But the story of how her personal strength was forged and tested begins prior to that when she leaves her one-room cabin on the reservation as a child for missionary school, which then sends her on a downward spiral from which it took hard years to recover. Some feelings are shared by women across the boundaries of race and time.