Title: Lakota Woman [amazon]
Author: Mary Crow Dog
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reissue edition (May 8, 1991)
Pages: 288
Book Number: 14
What’s this 52 Books in 52 Weeks thing about?
This was an assigned reading for the American history course I’m taking this quarter. It was assigned to give students a look into the Native American civil rights movement, which coincided with the larger African-American Civil Rights Movement. The book is an autobiography of a Sioux woman; she took part in AIM (the American Indian Movement), and was at the siege of Wounded Knee in 1973 (she actually gave birth to her son, Pedro, there).
I had mixed feelings about this book. I think it’s a good book in that it is a first hand account of many of the issues Native Americans were subjected to, and it actually opened up the whole Native American civil rights movement to me. Before reading the book, I knew nothing about what had happened to the Native Americans during the 20th century. As it is, the book has emerged as a bit of a modern classic about the topic.
There were some things in the book, however, that I didn’t really agree with. Alcoholism among the Native Americans was one of them, specifically Crow Dog’s claim that the alcoholism among the natives was a “white man’s problem.” Certainly, whites brought alcohol to the Indians, and certainly, the poverty-stricken conditions that America placed the natives in caused them a lot of distress. So, context, obviously, had a role to play in many Indians becoming alcoholics. However, ultimately, the Indians could have stopped drinking if they had wanted to. Blaming whites for the Indian’s alcoholism seemed a bit like a white American alcoholic blaming Kroger for selling booze. Yes, Kroger makes alcoholic beverages available for purchase, but that doesn’t mean you have to buy the drinks and consume them.
Another thing I had issue with was the section of the book which was about Mary Crow Dog and friends basically “running the roads” for a time, camping out, etc. During this time, when they would run out of supplies, they would simply rob a store of whatever they needed. They called it “liberating” the goods. They made their theft morally alright by pointing to the shopkeepers on reservations who charged exorbitant prices for goods, essentially stealing from the Native Americans (and the U.S. government). It was also mentioned that storekeepers basically expected the Indians to steal, and so would watch them like hawks, standing by, not letting the Indians have any peace. While I can understand the Indians’ viewpoint, I still don’t think what they did was really right. “Two wrongs don’t make a right”, as the saying goes. So, I could see why they would steal, due to their circumstances, but I still don’t really agree with it.
Having said all of that though, I liked the book well enough. As can be expected from an autobiography (a really long, extended blog post, basically!), it had its biases. If that’s taken into account, though, the book is a great look at the problems the Native Americans had (and still have, in many respects). It also has quite a few interesting sections on traditional Native American culture, such as the sweat lodge, which I knew nothing about. If you’re interested in Native Americans or the Civil Rights Movement, consider this book recommended.