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A unique autobiography unparalleled in American Indian literature, and a deeply moving account of a woman's triumphant struggle to survive in a hostile world.
Customer Review: Powerful and compelling account of a woman on the reservation
This is a very powerful book about Mary Crow Dog's experiences growing up as a Lakota (Sioux) woman on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. It should be required reading for anyone who feigns ignorance of the ways that Native Americans continue to be treated in the US today. Local whites, the state of South Dakota, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the rest of the power establishment have their inhumanity exposed. Crow Dog writes in a very sparse style, and writes of brutal incidents in a matter-of-fact way. While this style makes the book compelling, it is also responsible for a major weakness of the book. Throughout the book, Crow Dog is never introspective. Things happen (she uses drugs, starts shoplifting, chooses men poorly) or happen to her (she is raped, among other things), but she doesn't think about why these things happen. She conveys neither a sense of her own agency in these events, or a sense of her own lack of agency. Oddly for an autobiography, Mary Crow Dog is the object, not the subject, of this story. Even at Wounded Knee, she doesn't really understand why she is there, other than the fact that she has followed the male authority figures of the movement into the siege. She made her choice and put her body on the line but can't really explain why. How life on the reservation produces people like this is certainly worth reflection. This siege at Wounded Knee provides the centerpiece of the book, and its natural climax. Crow Dog has a very different view of these events than the accounts provided by the leadership, who knew their history and knew what they were trying to do. Crow Dog also talks about the aftermath of the siege, and the period when her husband was in jail. At this time, she also followed him into the practice of Native American religion, and - - more implicitly than explicitly - - explains why this religion is attractive to many. Finally, this book also provides a valuable insiders' perspective of the dysfunctional communities on Pine Ridge. It's interesting that the politically correct crowd condemns Ian Frazier's "On the Rez" while praising "Lakota Woman"- - both paint similar pictures of the same reservation. It's true than a Lakota insider brings perspectives not available to outsiders, but a white outsider also bring perspectives not available to insiders. Read them both and make up your own mind.
Customer Review: Unforgettable impact.
I read this when it first came out in 1990, but it is timeless: her struggle and success in surviving a time and place difficult for her race and sex, and much on her own, is profoundly touching. Even if you have read "In The Spirit of Crazyhorse", this adds to that since it is a very personal story told by a Native American woman who was a part of AIM and who gave birth to her first child under fire at the siege at Wounded Knee in 1973. But the story of how her personal strength was forged and tested begins prior to that when she leaves her one-room cabin on the reservation as a child for missionary school, which then sends her on a downward spiral from which it took hard years to recover. Some feelings are shared by women across the boundaries of race and time.


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