Customer Reviews

Waterlily

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
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Waterlily is the story of two Sioux women, mother and daughter, and their relationships with their tribe and the larger world. Ms. Deloria's book is straightforward, with the negatives of Sioux life discussed quickly and without sentiment. Stories of tribal children being scalped or the inter-tribal warfare that goes on are almost treated as small ancillaries that do not affect the people. The main characters are described through their words and actions, more than through delving into their thoughts. This makes for a fast-paced book that shows in great detail a general, edenic version of Native American life before the European invasions and genocides. The Sioux are portrayed as brave, hardy people who live with an extensive tribal code of hospitality and interdependence. it is hard not to envy their "tiyospaye" in this disconnected, frenetic world and look with longing back to a slower, simpler time.

I actually read this book as an assignment in a Native American literature course during my undergraduate studies. I have been not been more impacted by any other book. I found the vivid descriptions of Native American life, before white intrusion to be both exciting and depressing. I have a profound sense of loss by not being able to witness these events, before white influence. The descriptions of ceremony, daily life and the life of a woman in the time before my ancestors arrived here, gave me a new understanding of current and past Native American culture. I recommend it to all.

What an extraordinay book. I guarantee it is unlike any other you have read.

If I had written this review immediately after reading the book, I probably would have rated it slightly less. What I find now, two years later, is that I remember the details and impact of the book far more than any other I have read in recent years.

The author wrote it to share not only the tragic and the glorious, but also the mundane. Her intent, as an academic and as a Lakotah, was to leave us with a better understanding of the life of her people before and in the early stages of the white man's influence.

While the book was not "difficult" reading, I did have to suppress my expectation and desire for the book to follow the patterns of typical fiction. But as a result, when the book ended I had a more complete "relationship" with Waterlily. She was fascinating. I still think of her frequently.

This is one of my favorite books. I received it as a gift from a friend whose mother was full-blooded Sioux, and I have since given it to several women friends. It is beautiful and moving in it's depiction of the everyday life of a young woman as she comes of age, marries and lives among her people observing intricate kinship relationships. The prose is somewhat slow moving, but to me, it evolks the rhythm of a far away place and time. There is life, death, celebration and sadness. I, too, find myself remembering it often.

I'm very into learning about Native American cultures, and Waterlily provides a look into the daily lives of the Dakota Souix people, particuarly that of the women. WARNING-this book is not meant to be exciting, it is a true-to-life novel. Even so, if you are interested in women's roles in early American culture, this book is for you.

I really enjoyed this book. I looked forward to reading it every chance I got. It was so interesting and easy to read that it seemed to take just hours to complete it. Right away the book starts with a courageous Lakota woman who manages to give birth to the main character, Waterlily, by herself. From there, you learn of an interesting group of people who have a love and respect for their kin in a way that I have never heard of.

Waterlily is a novel about the life of the Dakotas (Sioux) written by a Sioux and set in a time when there was little, and in most cases, no interaction with white people. A well-written, novel from a woman's point of view, the story begins with Waterlily's birth. The birthpangs began while the people were moving, the sun hot , the mother astride a horse. When she can endure it no longer, Blue Bird hands her horse's reins to her mother-in-law, dismounts and steps out of line. No one comes to her aid and so she delivers her first child alone. This seemed unnecessarily harsh to me and I could see no reason for it, even though it is sort of explained through the thoughts of others. I felt somewhat better when Blue Bird with the infant, Waterlily, rejoins the line of moving people and her cousin offers her sancuary and lets her ride on a travois to the next camp site. The story follows Blue Bird's life and then Waterlily's until the girl is grown, married, widowed, and married again, all within a short span of time. The real strength of the novel lies in showing us the society of those long ago people, from how they disciplined their children (very gently and shocked when they saw whites hitting their children) to where the visitor sits in the tepee. How the girl children are trained to be modest and the boys to ride and hunt, making a very marked distinction between the sexes. There is some mention of raiding tribes and once, the warriors go after a tribe who had attacked them, killing two of their children and kidnapping another. The tribe's ceremonies are interesting and include among others: the Ghostkeeping ritual, the Sun Dance, the Virgin's Fire, a ceremony that only virgins could attend and was held to restore the honor of one of their members wrongly accused. The people's main objective was to be of service to one another and all were taught from early childhood with examples of hospitality and generosity.
Although not an exciting book, it is interesting, and it kept this reader anxious to read more. Eunice Boeve, Author of Ride a Shadowed Trail

I read this book for a college class, and it remains one of the nearest and dearest to my heart out of all the works of fiction I've ever read. Deloria's writing style is both informative and beautifully simple, so much so that I find myself wanting more from her; I desperately wish she had written a sequel. I wish I could stay in the tiyospaye just a little bit longer.

I lack the words to adequately describe Waterlily, Blue Bird, Gloku, Rainbow, Lowanla, Sacred Horse, and the other members of the camp circle that have come to mean so much to me. All I can say is that you must experience it for yourself. A heads-up for those who are fans of the traditional historical fiction, though: it does not follow the usual patterns, in part because it is told entirely through the eyes of women. I have given it to several friends, including one male friend who considers himself quite the "manly man." He is halfway through it now and although he says he likes it so far, he grumbled extensively about the lack of battle scenes and "action."

In my opinion, however, that is a large part of the book's magic: it is not written simply to please the action junkie. Walk into any bookstore and you will find shelves and shelves of westerns boasting all the gunfights, tomahawks, and scalpings you could wish for. Too often the plains are depicted as a stage for masculine adventures while women are relegated to the usual roles of Wife, Mother, Captive, Prostitute, and (my personal favorite) Helpless Heroine Who Stands By and Screams While the Hero Gallantly Rescues Her. Maybe a baby is born or crops are planted or someone binds a wound with a piece of her petticoat, but women are by and large just filler. Not so with Waterlily: this is a book entirely built around the softer, slower rhythms of women, family, kinship, and the camp circle. Deloria's tireless research adds a final touch to this moving story; the ceremonies, kinship ties, and customs that make up Waterlily's life offer an unparalleled glimpse into nineteenth-century native culture.

On a personal level, I always come away from this book with a renewed respect and awe for my own strength as a woman, and for the Creator. I wish I had discovered it years ago: I got a fuller picture of the meaning of femininity out of the time I spent with Blue Bird and Waterlily than I ever did out of the towering stacks of books I consumed as a teen with titles like "And the Bride Wore White," "The Set Apart Young Woman," and "The Lost Art of True Beauty." This beautiful little book will forever have an honored and well-deserved place on my shelf.

(Try looking for the gorgeous New Edition cover, with a new introduction.)

Be submerged in a society highly regulated with different rules of appropriate behavior, where all is understated; a society that encourages gentleness, kindness, fortitude and patience, where ties of friendship are as strong or stronger that ties of blood, where people strives to treat people with humanity, where people are bound and proud to give back, where life is harsh.
The point of view is of a woman and her attachments and I could not help to connect it with "Pride and Prejudice": the same exacting propriety. It lacks the polished finish but it is a diamond in the rough.
Mischievous ending.
It was given to me in kinship.

A friend of mine who is a Lakota Native recommended that I read this book to learn about Native Culture. He chose this particular book because it was written from a woman's point of view. It is a beautiful story beautifully written, very insightful. It tells about the Native culture's importance of family, obligation and birthright. The colorful presentation of the rituals and cultural events was enlightening. It was well written so that I wanted to read it all in one sitting.