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Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer: A Story of Survival (American Indian Lives)

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Allison Adelle Hedge Coke's childhood and young adult years as recounted in this gritty and courageous memoir, are not only a story or survival but a story of strength. Under the best of circumstances, a mixed blood Cherokee/Huron child looks out at a world where discrimination against Native Americans is the norm. Add to this an insane mother, mental and physical abuse at home as well as in her relationships, rape, alcoholism, drugs, theft, and numerous periods of hospitalization for life-threatening injuries and you have a powerful recipe for disaster. If you are strong, this memoir will test your strength. If you are standing in similar shoes, this memoir will uplift you and provide hope. In the final analysis, the culture that we've placed behind the eight-ball of our misunderstandings was the foundation of A. A. Hedge Coke's strength and her emergence as a survivor. Life and memories endure through stories, and this story is strong medicine.

What kind of childhood can a little girl have when she frequently watches her mother being dragged away to receive shock treatment therapy for schizophrenia? Allison Adelle Hedge Coke's memoir, Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer, tells how her mother's schizophrenia and its ineffective treatment tears apart her family and her life.

Ms. Hedge Coke uses her Native American backdrop to add depth and dimension to her memoir and exposes a society intolerant of Native Americans. Her poetic prose immerses the reader in a world not only of mental illness and paranoia, but also of pride in her Cherokee and Huron heritage, as evident in this passage: "My father recounted tales of rich black soil and luxuriant flora greening the topsoil quilled with lavish tree trunks and topped with a canopy of leaves and pine needles thickly spread about all over this great place we originated from."

Because she is the main focus of her mother's paranoia, Ms. Hedge Coke is forced to leave her family's home at a young age. At first she goes from friend to friend, sleeping wherever she can, but later she resorts to hitchhiking back to the land of her Native American heritage, North Carolina. The memoir follows her journey from Arkansas, where she escapes from racist children who throw rocks at her, to the point where she nearly overdoses on drugs.

At the age of seventeen she marries a Native American who is a veteran of the Vietnam War. They make a living working in the vegetable fields on a reservation. Ms. Hedge Coke says these are the best days of her life--but they don't last. Her husband begins to show signs of paranoia, reminding the author of her mother's schizophrenia. Her marriage ends and she journeys to California, into another abusive relationship.

Despite the bleak circumstances, Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer ends with hope. Ms. Hedge Coke is able to forge a life for herself in American society and, in a tremendous act of courage and forgiveness, helps her mother find competent help for her mental illness, bringing the book full circle, a healing circle.

Sometimes the most captivating stories are told from the pen of an adult, through the voice of a child. This is one of those stories. But this is not only a story of survival against insurmountable difficulties; it is also a story of finding one's heritage, a heritage snatched from the arms of an honorable and proud people.

by Sallie Moffitt
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women