Lakota Woman
**Lakota Woman Overview**
"Lakota Woman" is a powerful autobiographical account of Mary Crow Dog, detailing her experiences from her birth in 1953 to the early 1970s. As a member of the Brule (Burned Thigh) tribe, Crow Dog grew up on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, navigating her identity as a half-Native American woman with a white father. The narrative explores her early life, marked by challenges such as a repressive Catholic education and involvement in petty crime, before she becomes an active participant in the American Indian Movement (AIM). Key events in her journey include her participation in the Trail of Broken Treaties March in 1972 and the Wounded Knee siege in 1973, where she gave birth to her son.
The book intricately weaves together Crow Dog's experiences as a public figure in AIM and her personal struggles, showcasing a broader commentary on the conflicts between Indian and European values, as well as the impact of modern consumerism on traditional Lakota spirituality. Collaboratively crafted with Richard Erdoes from recorded dialogues, "Lakota Woman" presents a voice that captures both the joys and struggles of Native American life, emphasizing a search for cultural identity amidst the pressures of assimilation. Through her story, Crow Dog highlights the ongoing fight for civil rights and the emergence of a new cultural identity rooted in ancient values.
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Subject Terms
Lakota Woman
First published: 1990
The Work
Lakota Woman describes Mary Crow Dog’s life from her birth in 1953 to the early 1970’s. Daughter of a full-blooded Lakota mother and a white father, Crow Dog was reared by her mother on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in tiny He Dog, South Dakota. She is a member of the Brule (Burned Thigh) or Sichangu Tribe, one of seven that constitute the Lakota (also known as Sioux) Nation. Before identifying herself with the American Indian Movement (AIM), she attended a grim and repressive Catholic school and lived a marginal existence as a shoplifter. The central events in her biography described in Lakota Woman are her participation in the AIM Trail of Broken Treaties March on Washington in 1972; her participation in the siege of Wounded Knee in 1973, where she gave birth to her son Pedro in April; and her involvement with the Native American church.
Lakota Woman interweaves Mary’s public story as an AIM Indian and her private story as a half-Native American woman whose troubled life exemplifies the lives of many Native Americans. As a historical account Lakota Woman is cheerfully biased and unsupported by documentation, but the drama of Mary’s story and her confident voice make the book a convincing portrait of her identity as a Native American woman.
Richard Erdoes, Mary Crow Dog’s collaborator, pieced together Lakota Woman and its sequel, Ohitika Woman (1993), out of audiotaped conversations and dialogue. The book therefore has the flavor and the rambling organization of talk, but it also is carefully constructed so that each chapter coalesces around the chapter title and epigraph. Thus, for example, the chapter titled “Aimlessness,” describing Mary’s wild youth and the problems of reservation life, comes right before the chapter titled “We AIM Not to Please,” which outlines the development of the American Indian Movement.
In Lakota Woman, Mary Crow Dog describes the conflict of Indian and European values, a conflict that has escalated into a clash between modern materialistic consumerism and the spiritual values of the Lakota. The spiritual side is represented by her then-husband Leonard Crow Dog. In another sense, the book is about change and assimilation. A main thrust of AIM’s efforts has been to secure for Native Americans the civil rights they are guaranteed under United States law. Mary Crow Dog’s story reveals a woman in the process of helping a new cultural identity emerge out of synthesis of ancient Lakota values and modern society.
Bibliography
Brave Bird, Mary, and Richard Erdoes. Ohitika Woman. New York: Grove Press, 1993.
Fire, John, and Richard Erdoes. Lame Deer: Seeker of Visions. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972.
Matthiessen, Peter. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse. New York: Viking, 1991.
Means, Russell. Where White Men Fear to Tread: The Autobiography of Russell Means. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995.
Wexler, Rex. Blood of the Land: The Government and Corporate War Against First Nations. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1992.