"THE RESERVATION" AND " LAKOTA WOMAN."
We have finally come around to calling them "Native Americans" instead of Indians. But, we forget that the various tribes were here on this continent long before Eric the Red of Columbus or Cortez, or any European arrived in the so-called "New World". We have also forgotten the needs of these people, and their right to live in dignity and freedom, and, without that, it is no wonder they rebel and angrily fire shots at places like Wounded Knee.
"I am Mary Brave Bird" is how "Lakota Woman" begins. "After I had my baby during the siege of Wounded Knee they gave me a special name- Ohikita Win, Brave Woman." (Crow Dog 1990 3) And, there is no doubt about the fact that this is a book about the life of a young Native American woman who could, no doubt, use all sorts of Anglicized names to identify her. Proudly she says "I am". Not "My name is", or "Let me introduce myself". No, it is "I am" and it is the strong steely resolve of which she is made.
The book begins with a Sioux proverb (she is Sioux, and, as she says, "it is not easy") "A nation is not conquered until the hearts of its women are on the groundà " Crow Dog 1990 3) She has not let her heart touch the ground, but went through more difficult times than anyone in our day and age should have to endure.
What makes the matter-of-fact way she tells about her early life (there is a follow-up book to this one called "Ohikita Woman") makes the reader wonder what it is that a supposedly civilized nation, like the United States could possibly want from Native Americans, that keeps them not only in bondage (a.k.a. reservations) but seemingly without hope. And when something comes along where these Native Americans are frustrated enough to revolt, a disaster like Wounded Knee happens.
This is not a regular "book". This is an angry reaction of a woman, born in 1953, raised in the most miserable poverty, gr...