Ohitika Woman [Paperback]

Mary Brave Bird (Author), Richard Erdoes (Collaborator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 14, 1994

The dramatic, brutally honest, and ultimately triumphant sequel to the bestselling American Book Award winner Lakota Woman, this book continues Mary Brave Bird's courageous story of life as a Native American in a white-dominated society.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sequel to the bestseller Lakota Woman (Brave Bird was then known as Mary Crow Dog), this candid memoir by a forceful feminist Native American should please fans despite redundancies and meanderings. "Ohitika" means "brave" in Lakota, and Brave Bird, a 36-year-old grandmother, fulfills that appellation in recounting the peripatetic life she led after 1977, when her first book concluded. Writing with Erdoes ( The Pueblo Indians ), she devotes chapters to the peyote-using Native American Church, to the rituals of a Lakota sweat lodge and to the Sioux's fight for ancestral lands; but the book centers on her personal struggle against alcohol abuse. Though life with her former husband Leonard Crow Dog brought his "half-breed" wife to her roots and to political activism, the couple grew antagonistic, and she took refuge in drink. Even during her 1991 book tour she went on binges; a suicide by an alcoholic friend finally led her to abstinence. She got married in 1991 and returned with her husband to the "res"--the reservation--in South Dakota. Photos not seen by PW .
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Native American activist Brave Bird--whose autobiography Lakota Woman (1990; written under the author's former married name of Crow Dog) will soon be released as a film directed by Jane Fonda--returns with a disturbing sequel. Lakota Woman turned heads with its angry plea for Native American rights, its outspoken feminism--and its blatant antiwhite racism. Brave Bird has mellowed a bit, although she still makes caustic remarks about white women, especially New Agers whom she accuses of cashing in on traditional Indian religion. Sadly, her personal life seems as chaotic as ever, as she relates a horrifying story of chronic drunkenness, drug-taking, brawls, poverty, homeless shelters, and batterings by lovers. Readers willing to put up with the sordidness--which culminates in a drunk-driving crash and subsequent open-heart surgery for Brave Bird--will no doubt get the message: that Indians, Lakota in particular (Pine Ridge reservation is the poorest county in the nation), have been shoved to the bottom of the American barrel. Easier to digest are Brave Bird's accounts of Native American rituals, including sweat lodges, spirit communication, and sun dances (during one, Brave Bird is suspended from a tree by thongs skewered through her back). Once again, the author presents a fierce feminist brief, offering biographical tributes to a number of Native American women and celebrating her own ``womb power,'' which brought her five kids-- the last by her new husband, Rudi, a tattoo artist. Without the intrinsic excitement of the first installment, with its firsthand history of AIM and the siege at Wounded Knee; still, a forceful presentation of Native American life today. (Eight pages of b&w photographs--not seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 274 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (September 14, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060975830
• ISBN-13: 978-0060975838
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #696,826 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Emotional; Very Candid; Very Powerful, July 22, 2005

By 

D. MILLS (Manassas, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ohitika Woman (Paperback)

Most history consists of the actions of royalty and people in power. We know the stories about the lives of the pharoahs but not of common laborers. Until now. This book documents the life, not of a chief, but of an ordinary Native American woman. We see how she lives, how she feels, how she thinks, and she is open in expressing her opinions on political issues as well as cultural and social issues.

In addition to telling the accounts of her life, the author Mary Brave Bird opens up to allow the reader to see deep into her heart and innermost thoughts. She is very candid not only about her thoughts and feelings but about her actions as well. She does not try to hide her faults and describes her own infidelity and irresponsibility without excuses.

While reading the book, one is tempted to judge her. But don't. She must be applauded for being so open and honest.

At one point, she assigns blame to the white man for all the ailments of Indian society. Yet remarkably she knows that more handouts from the government or more government programs will not be the answer. The Indians themselves are the only ones who can lift themselves out of poverty, and she is honest in that her own decisions and her own behavior has prevented her and her children from living better lives.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unnecessary sequel to the illuminating "Lakota Woman", August 8, 1997

By 

Chris Perry - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ohitika Woman (Paperback)

Mary Brave Bird's first book, "Lakota Woman" (written under her former husband's last name, Crow Dog), is a gripping and explicit account of Native American life on a reservation and details the beginnings of the American Indian Movement and its battles against the United States government and corrupt tribal government. It is also an illuminating first-hand account of a feminist within the movement. The sequel, "Ohitika Woman" (which translates to "brave woman"), which takes place some 15 years after its predecessor, attempts to pick up where "Lakota Woman" left off but instead spends much of its length reiterating everything from the first book. Brave Bird's divorce from Leonard Crow Dog and her subsequent remarriage is touched on, but the bulk of the book is devoted to disjointed retellings of the first book's stories. There is little to gain from reading this sequel, and it is written in a confusing manner; not only does the book repeat its predecessor, it repeats itself---characters are introduced and reintroduced over and over throughout the book by telling the exact same stories. "Lakota Woman" is a stellar book, and those interested in Native American topics or feminism should stick with that. Those who read only "Ohitika Woman" are really missing out

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Daring, Provocative, Enlightening, January 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Ohitika Woman (Paperback)

Mary Brave Bird tells the very compelling and dramatic story of her life, growing up as an American Indian woman. This is a life full of non-stop action, from Wounded Knee, to stand-offs in Washington, from rags to riches, from love, to heartbreak. This is a book for all Americans. As a Native Canadian, I understand her strength, her generosity, her courage, her pain. I am most impressed by her overwhelming fighting spirit, and her desperate and never-ending need to finish her work fighting for First Nations people across the continent. Derek Sinclair, aspiring writer