Lakota Woman- Quest Book Review (revised)

Crow Dog, M., & Erdos, R. Lakota Woman. New York: Harper Perennial, 1990. 263 pp. $11.00. (front pages, 16 chapters, epilogue)

Lakota Woman is biography of Mary Crow Dog, a Native American, Sioux woman from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. The book follows Mary’s life, as she moves from a free spirited, bitter child to the strong, warrior-type woman who plays a unique role in the American Indian Movement (AIM). Her life is a series of struggles, heartache, and conflict. However, despite her trial Mary Crow Dog changes her life around after embracing her Native American spirituality. She joins the AIM organization and it opens her eyes to a new world. It is through the AIM that Mary finds herself, by the helping of others, and commits the rest of life to doing so. Mary writes Lakota Woman in a style that is very honest and straight to the point. She tells her story as it is and, in no way tries to glamorize it or conceal any truth.

Lakota Woman had been sitting amongst my father’s great collection of Native American literature. It had always attracted my eye, yet I never picked it up. At a time in my life where I am solidifying my identity, I found this book to be most appropriate for reestablishing who I am as Native American woman. What I like most about this book is observing how Mary Crow Dog’s trails turned her to the woman she is today. Mary had a difficult life that includes harsh experiences at boarding school, injustice on the reservation, a dark period of drugs and alcohol, bloodshed of beloved friends and family, the giving of birth to her son, Pedro, amongst the siege at Wounded Knee and lastly, the imprisonment of her husband, Leonard Crow Dog, a well respected medicine man and AIM activist.

In her book she writes, “At age ten I could drink and hold a pint of whiskey. At age twelve the nuns beat me for ‘being too free with my body.’ All I had been doing was holding hands with a boy. At age fifteen I was raped (p.4).” Somehow, despite these hardships, Mary was able to move on and let go of the hardships by the assisting of others. What I learned from Mary Crow Dog is this: trails, hardships, pain, and suffering come into our lives. They sometimes seem difficult to bear and overcome, but “life goes on” (p. 263) and just as she said, “I will live” (p.260), we too will live.

One of Mary’s strengths in Lakota Woman, as I mentioned before, is her honesty. She did not try to pretty up or keep clean the events of her life. She had a story to tell and she wrote it in a way that is both loud and clear. Mary also writes in a way that is very passionate and descriptive. At times in her life when she experiences anger, sorrow, or happiness, the reader can feel and sense that emotion as if you were Mary herself. The only limitation I found was that perhaps Mary Crow Dog hasn’t allowed enough time to pass before she decided to write Lakota Woman. In some of the stories she tells, the reader can still sense the pain or anger she feels. Sometimes she sounds as if she is prejudice against white people in general and not just the ones who wronged her. Lakota Woman was written not too long after the AIM movement took place and perhaps Mary needed more time to sort out a few issues. From a reader’s point of view, Mary did a great job of keeping the reader interested in the book. I could not seem to put this book down. Taking a break and disruptions seemed painful. However, a delimitation that I came across is that sometimes Mary would go off in another direction that would make things confusing. For example, while Mary tells about an interaction with her friend Annie Mae Aquash, she brings in something that irrelevant to the story. This sparks another idea and then another, until the reader sometimes becomes lost. This makes it harder to follow along her wonderful story.

In the end, I really enjoyed this book. It has certainly helped me along my quest of solidifying my identity. I recommend this book to all who want to know a little bit about the truth of what Native Americans experience today, for sometimes history books conceal certain truths. Life is not nearly the same as what Mary experienced, but some of the trails that she experience still persist for Native Americans today. I also recommend this book to other Native Americans. The people of the AIM did something remarkable and paved a way for other Native Americans today. Just by reading it myself, I have gained a great appreciation for what people like Mary Crow Dog did in order for me to have greater opportunities today.

On a final note, I warn that for those Native Americans who do read it, it is very easy, especially while reading all the unjust and inhumane things that the Native Americans experience, to become very angry and bitter toward other people and want to seek some sense of revenge. However, one thing that is important to understand is what the AIM organization was all about. Their main purpose was to educate Native Americans of the rights that were being ignored because they lack this particular knowledge. Thus, I believe that what the AIM people and Mary Crow Dog would want for people is to educate themselves so that experiences like theirs do not resonate in within their own lives.