Turtle Lung Woman's Granddaughter (American Indian Lives) [Hardcover]

Delphine Red Shirt (Author)

Book Description

Series: American Indian Lives | Publication Date: April 2002

Turtle Lung Woman's Granddaughter is the unforgettable story of several generations of Lakota women, told in their words. Delphine Red Shirt-like her mother, Lone Woman, and her mother's grandmother, Turtle Lung Woman-grew up on the wide open Plains of northern Nebraska and southern South Dakota. Lone Woman told her daughter the story of her life growing up on Pine Ridge in the early and mid-twentieth century. Remarkably, Lone Woman also recounted the life of her own grandmother, Turtle Lung Woman, who had grown up Lakota before her people had been forced to live on reservations in the late nineteenth century. These two women's lives overlapped by fifteen years, allowing the younger to learn many fascinating details and stories about the life and times of the elder. Delphine Red Shirt has delicately woven the life stories of her mother and great-grandmother into a continuous narrative that succeeds triumphantly as a moving, epic saga of Lakota women from traditional times to the present. Especially revealing and riveting are Turtle Lung Woman's relationship with her husband, Paints His Face with Clay Land, her healing practice as a medicine woman (where turtle shells become animated and crawl during the Yuw'pi ceremony), Lone Woman's hardships and celebrations growing up in the early twentieth century, and many wonderful details of their domestic lives before and during the early reservation years. Lone Woman passed away just after telling her story to her daughter. This splendid, magical story is a legacy for her and for all Lakota women. Delphine Red Shirt is a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and is an adjunct professor of American studies and English at Yale University. She is a columnist and correspondent for Indian Country Today and is the author of Bead on an Anthill: A Lakota Childhood (Nebraska 1997).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this "prequel" to her own growing-up story (Bead on an Anthill: A Lakota Childhood), Red Shirt lets readers listen in as her mother, Lone Woman, recounts her life and that of her grandmother, Turtle Lung Woman. With her fluid incorporation of her mother's Lakota phrases and songs, Red Shirt, a Yale professor of American studies and English, brings to life Lakota language, lore and history from the mid-19th century, "when things were still steeped in the old ways," to the mid-20th century, when "the world was changing daily." Details of Lakota life in South Dakota and Nebraska (such as the momentous adoption of canvas rather than buffalo hide moccasins) are etched with clarity, as are the consequences of larger historical forces. A medicine woman, Turtle Lung Woman lived among Crazy Horse, Red Cloud and Sitting Bull. She was 28 when the U.S. government forced the Lakota to move to a reservation in 1879, and she recalls hearing about Wounded Knee in 1890. Family marriages and births, Lakota standards of behavior, the practice of medicine women and "their own legends about how they came to be" mingle harmoniously in this dual memoir. Red Shirt does not lecture; rather, her vivid, simple prose turns the reader into a witness. "I was there and I remember," she writes, and readers will feel that way, too. Though the book is written for a general audience, women's studies scholars, anthropologists and ethnologists should be interested as well.

Review

"Part family history, part myth, it is made especially revealing by the lively, fantastic stories of Red ShirtÍs mother, Lone Woman. . . . These legends and histories, related in spare but eloquent language, are fascinating throughout."—The Washington Post

(The Washington Post )

“Red Shirt does not lecture; rather, her vivid, simple prose turns the reader into a witness. ‘I was there and I remember,’ she writes, and readers will feel that way, too.”—Publishers Weekly

(Publisher's Weekly )

"A colorful, emotional journey. . . . It is the intimacy and sacredness of the way these individualized stories have been preserved and retold that gives this story an uncommonly poignant spiritual glimpse into the historical perspective of these Lakota women."—Kaia Hemming, Voices from the Gap

(Kaia Hemming ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 242 pages
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press (April 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803239475
• ISBN-13: 978-0803239470
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,997,024 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Lakota way of life, January 6, 2004

By 

Marta Maslowska "HeavenSent" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Turtle Lung Woman's Granddaughter (American Indian Lives) (Paperback)

I was sceptical to read this book because it was assigned to me to read for one of my criminal justice courses. However, I was really absorbed in the story of the Native American Tribe, the Lakotas. The book is written from an "Americanized" point of view. It tells a story of the authors great grandmother and her life as a Lakota woman. There are many fun and interesting things that happen to the Turgle Lung Woman. She speaks of her courting rituals, battle rituals, labor divisions between men and women, children roles.
There are interesting stories about homosexuality, adultury, death, commitment to the tribe and war.
Definitely an interesting book that contains historical facts and the culture of the Lakota tribe.

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Eloquence Within, February 27, 2002

By 

Keith Rabin (Evergreen, Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Turtle Lung Woman's Granddaughter (American Indian Lives) (Hardcover)

A beautiful minds, loving words, about family, about a people, about a way of life. This story combined with the beauty in word of " Bead on an Anthill " Delphine's first book sets the mind and soul, for a journey into one's self.
In the female voice of the Lakota, live the life set in the beauty that is the Northern Plains, of this Turtle Island.
The writting style is such , to savor each word as if it could fill you with the images it creates.
This is what award winning writing should be about.........

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, January 26, 2006

By 

plains-girl (lawrence, kansas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Turtle Lung Woman's Granddaughter (American Indian Lives) (Hardcover)

Unlike the last reviewer I was excited to read the book. Unfortunately it was a big dissapointment. I was bored to tears while reading this poorly written remake of every Native American story ever written, with none of the originality. It is truly surprising to see the level of writing published today, this is horrible.