Lakota Woman

Mary Crow Dog, with the help of a ghost writer, provides an intimate look into the life of Native Americans, particularly the life of the Lakota Sioux. The daughter of a Lakota mother and a "white truck driver," Mary ultimately chose to live as an Indian. During the course of her life she endured the harsh life of a Roman Catholic school while being introduced to Native American religious culture. After marrying Leonard Crow Dog she reared her son from a previous relationship as well as Leonard's children. She endured the 1972 encampment at Wounded Knee and, even as a very young mother, learned to be the wife of a medicine man and tribal leader. Even during Leonard's several imprisonments Mary remained faithful. Her travels took her from rural South Dakota to urban New York City as she sought to be near Leonard. She gained many friends through the American Indian Movement (AIM) and counted among her friends many "White" Americans and celebrities. After years living as a rebellious youngster she finally reconciled with her mother, having come to appreciate her mother's struggles.

Mary I want to thank you for taking me back to 1970 my husband and I were stationed at ellsworthair base and I saw first hand how the so called towns folk treated the lakota nation,,,there was sucha struggle...and to read how brave you and your people were...IT upset me all over again to see thatsouth dakota was settled by the first americans the indian...my ancesters came from Italy and Ireland... I had a friend that was stationed with us Quintan LaGrande...one night he put his native clothes on and showed us briefly a dance his people did at the pow wows...i could see how such pride went into the sybolic feathers and animal hide and everything ...I have since gone to a pow wowand when I entered and heard and felt the beat of the drums and the singing I felt it was important and came from the earth ....bless you for your book

I remember the 1973 Wounded Knee stand, but never knew the real details. I am grateful that Mary Crow Dog wrote her account of this defining time. I have always felt a certain sadness of Anna May Aquash's life and murder, so Mary Crow Dog's remembrance of her friend was poignant indeed. Life is short and precious, it is difficult to believe that Mary Crow Dog has passed and her life and time is now part of the great Lakota Sioux Nation's turbulent history. Invaluable historical record written by a woman who was there.

Mary Crow Dog is a Sioux Lakota Native American woman. The book was copyrighted in the year 1990. It tells the turmoil that Native Americans endure to understand and keep their Indian traditions and to also live in a white man's world. Some are full blood but many are half bloods trying to find their place in life. The book describes life on the reservation and talks about the conflict at Wounded Knee between the FBI, local police and the Native American Indians. The reader will learn a lot about Indian religion and the different ways of practicing it such as the Sun Dance, Ghost Dance, Sweat Lodge, etc.

We think the native americans suffered injustice in the XIX century; but the harassment continuous today. This is a story of the second part of the XX century. Sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes heartwarming, Lakota Women is not extraordinarily well written, but it is written with honesty and love. I would recommend it to the people that like social history. All Americans should know the real stories of the Native Americans and what they went through.

Mary Crow Dog relates her experiences during the 1970’s Wounded Knee troubles, which included her decision to give birth on the reservation, among her own people, instead of taking refuge off-site with the whites. She strongly defends the Native American way of life. She understands whites’ attitudes, including those based on wrong assumptions but challenges them in ways that make you think. As the Medicine Man ’s wife she is exposed to situations and resolutions that could also be encountered by white Christian ministers, yet the white world sees the same issues and procedures as foreign and her husband’s actions as radical even though the result may turn out the same. Tribal societies’ religions, like hers, are often based on their natural surroundings. Example: some Neandertals worshiped the Cave Bear. She’s not saying that we all must do the same. She seeks understanding and wants us to ask ourselves: Do your religious thoughts and feelings relate more to the Natural world that touches you or to the ideas of ancient Biblical tribes in middle-eastern deserts. Think about it.

“Lakota Woman” by Mary Crow Dog is one of those books that I can relate to deeply, yet find difficult to review. It is a memoir; which automatically puts it in the category of “Important” from my perspective. Although the events at Wounded Knee occurred in 1973, when my main involvement and focus was on African American Civil Rights (my husband and I were at that time teaching at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama), in 1974 we moved to the Navajo Reservation in northern Arizona and taught at what is now Diné College. At that time, of course, our awareness shifted. We learned a great deal about AIM and the importance of the American Indian Church, which of course features largely in Mary Crow Dog’s narrative. My perspective is not "detached", but on the other hand even then I was not deeply involved. South Dakota and the Sioux culture were very different.However, this story is authentic, at times amusing, but deeply heart rending. Anyone who wants to know “what really happened” is this point in recent history will be rewarded and yet deeply challenged by reading this book.

Rarely have I bought a book and read it from cover to cover on the same day. This story of Mary Crow Dog is written in a conversational style and chronicles her life growing up as a child of two worlds, her rebellious teenage years, the abuses of the Catholic church, who really should hang themselves on their own crosses, the siege at Wounded Knee in 1973 when outnumbered Lakota took on the power of the most powerful nation on the planet, her marriage to Leonard Crow Dog, his arrest and her fight to free him. In a world of plastic heroes, Mary Crow Dog stands out as one of a kind, I found it an easy read and yet at the same time it made me almost ashamed to be white. The antics of the Federal Bureau of Incompetency (FBI) are a direct parallel of Hitler's Gestapo. Had they done that in Britain or even Australia the police would all have been in jail serving long sentences. It's frightening that in a country that champions itself as the world's global policeman that such abuses can happen right in their back yards and they pretend it's not happening.And yet through it all Mary Crow Dog's courage and humour shines through, you find yourself cheering for her towards the end, this book will remain on my bookshelf and will continue to be reread if only to remind myself that as Edmund Burke once said, 'evil does prosper while good people do nothing.'A stunning read and one guaranteed to kindle once again the flame of freedom, a nation will be judged on how it has treated its poorest citizens. Cry freedom and let freedom live through the words of Mary Crow Dog.

Must read book about native americans, but also about women, spirituality, pride, dignity, hope, about the world we live in, about who we are,raw and aesthetic, light and heavy, superficial and profoundit touches to everything that makes life, with the story of something destroyed and something reborn

I have read several books on the Native American History as I really enjoy the understanding they show for the earth and all living things. This was more as it really made me feel a little as to how much suffering we have caused to the natural balance not only of a gentle people but a way of life destroyed without any consideration. The best book I have read so far on this subject.

Mary Crow Dog highlighted the ongoing difficulties suffered by her people on the Indian reservations in America in this autobiography. A brave and spirited lady - I was sorry to read that she died earlier this year.

I watched a program about her husband and its another truth about what we have done to these people we should all hang are heads in shame.