Last Standing Woman [Hardcover]

Winona Laduke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1997

A powerful and poignant novel tracing the lives of seven generations of Anishinaabe (Ojibwe/Chippewa).

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Native American activist LaDuke, a Harvard-educated member of the Anishinaabe Nation, has given us a powerful first novel that presents the lives of seven generations of Anishinaabe (Ojibwe/Chippewa) from initial contact with whites in the 1860s to a surprisingly utopian peak in conditions early in the next century. LaDuke's characters are as vital and fully realized as any in a Louise Erdrich novel, but instead of dwelling on the quiet desperation of their lives, as Erdrich so often does, LaDuke finds ways for them to surmount their circumstances and offer support for one another. Following the lives of a series of women named Last Standing Woman, LaDuke's chronicle moves to the beat of the drums that symbolize Native culture and its survival despite the odds. A fine work; recommended for both public and academic libraries.?Debbie Bogenschutz, Cincinnati Technical Coll.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"This book goes out into the world much as a prayer. Reading it, I am blessed by the writer's use of language and strengthened by her courageous vision." -- Louise Erdrich, novelist

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 299 pages
• Publisher: Voyageur Pr; 1st edition (October 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0896582787
• ISBN-13: 978-0896582781
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #792,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For those who still think white..., May 5, 2001

By 

Craig Hubley (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Last Standing Woman (History & Heritage) (Paperback)

LaDuke, who has run twice (in 1996 and 2000) for Vice-President on the Association of State Green Parties ticket with Ralph Nader for President, is arguably the most important woman in North America. She often shows up in short lists of "Leaders of the Future", certainly "on the left", but yet she lives quietly on a reserve in Minnesota, and does not campaign even when she's running for Vice-President. What is going on here? Who is she?

LaDuke's novel says it all. It bares the roots of five hundred years of rather incredible history, the conflicts between cultures and peoples, the imposition of an extremely violent system of governance and retributive justice for property crime, the denigration of native peoples, application of "terra nullius", breaking of treaties, and the whole legalist campaign that put British descendants in firm control of North America.

Feminine, aboriginal, and ecological values are barely visible at the surface of this novel - there are no explicit treatises, no ideological passages. This is not "Atlas Shrugged for Greens" - you will not be sold a Green Party Card by this book. Nor is it the romanticized "Dances With Wolves" - you will not see the lives of the many diverse human beings of the native tribes of this small patch of North America as some kind of mystical journey. You will read real stories of each generation.

You will be brought up to the present.

This is the history book you were not given in school. You were, instead, taught something about military glory and how "proper" courts and "real" justice now prevail in North America west of the Mississipi River. You were taught nonsense.

You have a chance to learn the truth from a masterful author. If she someday becomes your President, and I can only hope that she will, you will understand why, and you will see why this is a necessary evolution. Women, Natives, Ecology still sound like special interest groups today. LaDuke's beautiful storytelling and poignant moments of misery and remnant pride will demonstrate better than any political speech, why they are not, and why there can be no future other than that which elevates the feminine, the aboriginal, the ecological, to their right precedence over the masculine, the colonial, and the industrial.

It is time to abandon the tribes you came with, and choose new ones. Let this book be your entry point. You will not regret it.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A first for LaDuke - and hopefully not the last!, August 5, 1998

By 

Gene Harrison "generules" (Nevada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Last Standing Woman (Hardcover)

Winona LaDuke crosses the fiction threshold in her own distinctive style. Her personal & political activism recreates itself in a fictionalized history of her own tribal people. Weaving a tale connecting several generations, LaDuke probes true-to-life conflicts and situations with which most Indian tribal descendants can identify. With a somewhat staccato, yet orchestrated effect, her characters come to life; in fact, they become today's modern generation of native Americans still struggling to survive on small, troubled land bases the "powers that be" have granted back to the more persistent survivors. A must-read for any who appreciate the ancient and recent stories of the first Americans.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Last Standing Woman Rings True to Woodlands History, January 18, 2005

By 

Charleen Touchette "Author of IT STOPS WITH ME" (Santa Fe, New Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Last Standing Woman (History & Heritage) (Paperback)

I loved this richly told story of Woodland indigenous history. LaDuke's prose is so evocative, reading it feels like sitting on the shores of Round Lake listening to the loons or canoeing through the rice fields at the edges of Gull Lake startling the Great Blue Herons and seeing Ojibwe history unfold out of the early morning mist. Winona captures the essence of the lakes and forests of Northern Minnesota and brings to life the tragedies and joys of the Anishinaabe people through generations of survival through all the vagaries of the seasons and the challenges that history forced upon them. A beautiful book with charming pictographs. The original hardcover had a beautiful cover painting by Artist Jeffrey Chapman. Highly recommended.