Mary Crow Dog
Lakota Woman
(New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990; reprinted New York: HarperPerennial, 1991)
"Between 1870 and 1880 all Sioux were driven into reservations, fenced in and forced to give up everything that had given meaning to their life —their horses, their hunting, their arms, everything. But under the long snows of despair the little spark of our ancient beliefs and pride kept glowing, just barely sometimes, waiting for a warm wind to blow that spark into a flame again."
--Mary Crow Dog
In the book Lakota Woman, Mary Crow Dog (nee. Brave Bird) described the difficulties and hardships she was forced to endure as a Native American woman growing up on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota. It traces her life from it start in 1953, growing up in a fatherless one-room cabin which did not contain plumbing or electricity, to her discovery of purpose in her life with eventual involvement in the American Indian Movement.
At the start of the book we find an unsure, immature girl who described herself as a half-breed, "looked down upon by whites and full bloods alike."1 In the course of the book she would be forced to attend a Catholic boarding school where they would try to "Americanize" her. She describes these schools and the children in then this way, "…children were like the victims of Nazi concentration camps…."2 Once old enough to leave the school, returning home held no promise. Indians were being murdered with no repercussions to the murderers, women were subject to forced sterilization (Mary's sister had this happen to her) and the women were beaten by their husbands. With no motivation or goal combined with the fact that the life of an Indian was not "held in great value in the State of South Dakota,"3 she would like many other Native Americans, turn to drinking and drugs.
Two factors would influence Mary's life for the better, the first being a young hippie from New York who visited the reservation in the 60's and managed to gain the trust of some of the Indians. She told them about the civil rights movement and the Indian movement in St. Paul and California. The second factor was the arrival of the American Indian Movement. This movement "hit our reservation life a tornado…a drumbeat from far off getting louder and louder."4 It was during her first encounter with the AIM at a powwow in 1971 that Mary would meet Leonard Crow Dog, her future husband. He was a spiritual and political leader of the AIM. Through her involvement with AIM, Mary would participate in the occupation of the BIA building in Washington D.C. and the second Wounded Knee in 1973, where her son would be born in the 'traditional Indian way.'
Leonard Crow Dog and AIM would revive the Indian Spirit and ancient Indian religion and ceremonies. Mary was discovering that she was the descendant of a vast history and being a half breed has less and less effect on her life. However, it wasn't until Leonard was arrested that I feel she truly discovered the power within herself as an Indian and also as a woman. During her two year struggle she would travel the country gaining support for Leonard, she began to make public speeches and made many friends. However, it was not until Mary's participation in the Sun Dance that she truly admitted her new found inner strength, "I felt nothing and, at the same time, everything. It was at that moment that I, a white-educated half blood, become wholly Indian. I experienced a great rush of happiness…."5
While this book is the story one woman's life and struggles with poverty, brutality of not just the American Government, but also, the male Indians, alcoholism, drug abuse and the loss of many of her loved ones, it is also the story of many. This book has become a history of the occupation of the BIA, the occupation of Wounded Knee; it pays tribute to her murdered friends including Annie Mae Aquash and Micmac. After reading this story you can see why Mary was given the name 'Brave Woman'.
Notes:
1 Mary Crow Dog, Lakota Woman p.5
2 Ibid., p. 28
3 Ibid., p. 25
4 Ibid., p. 73
5 Ibid., p. 260
Further Readings:
Mary Brave Bird with Richard Erdoes, Ohitika Woman (Grove Press, 1993)
Percy Bullchild and Mary Crow Dog (Introduction), American Indian Genesis: The Story of Creation (Ulysses Press, 1998)
Leonard Crow Dog and Richard Erdoes, Crow Dog: Four Generations of Sioux Medicine Men (New York: HarperCollins, 1995)
Paul Chaat Smith and Robert Allen Warrior, Like A Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee (New Press, 1996)
Richard E. Jensen, Eyewitness at Wounded Knee (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991)
John Vance Lauderdale and Jerry Green, After Wounded Knee: Correspondence of Major and Surgeon John Vance Lauderdale While Serving With the Army Occupying the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation (Michigan State University Press, 1995)
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