Customer Reviews

Madonna Swan: A Lakota Woman's Story

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Being a fanatic of Native American writings and lore I find again Mark St. Pierre, top of the list. I understand he has lived in the Lokata nation for the last thirty years and writes from the heart. Follow this writer because he is destined for fame. No writer has captured this beautiful culture with more passion than he has. I look foward to his next work.

If you are a "Little House on the Prairie" fan, this book, based on a true story, is for you. The story follows a Native American woman's life as she survives tragedy and ultimately triumphs. I'm not usually much of a reader, (in fact this was an assignment) but I just couldn't put it down! The author did an excellent job capturing the reality of the Native American way, and depicting the main character's struggle with TB; the isolation, loss of friends and her own illness. This book really makes you appreciate your health and everything you have.

This book is not a continuous story, rather a compilation of interviews between the author and Madonna Swan. However, the interviews flowed nicely and you almost forgot you weren't reading a story. It begins in the 1920s when Madonna is young, talks about half of her siblings passing away for various reasons, then when she's older she suffers from TB, and is placed in a sanitorium for about ten years with miinimal contact with family. Throughout these years in the sanitorium, she sees about 500 people come in and leave in body bags and is always believing she'll be next. Then finally she escapes and ends up at the "white sanitorium", because up untill now she was at the "indian saitorium". Here, she meets an okay white doctor who tries to help her by doing a surgery that is still new and has never been done on anyone. She agrees to have the surgery, which includes taking out a couple of ribs and parts of her bad lung. However, we learn in the book that the doctor accidentally cuts her arm nerve during surgery, but he apparently apologizes, so I guess it's okay. Now, she can't use her one arm, or control her head, so she has to be placed in a brace for support. Eventually she recovers, but it takes about a year. Anyway, she continues her life, but discovers she cannot have children because of all the TB medicine she had to take, she does get married, but they have issues later on with their cattle ranch. She tries to go to school and finish her degree but her health continues to stop her. The book ended with her being positive as usual. I was kind of disturbed by the whole thing, and I thought why would God put someone on this earth just to suffer like that? I reccomend the book for everyone, just to see what some people have gone through in their lives. You kind of come out of it appreciating what you have a bit more, especially, if you have your health.