Native American Literature

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

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become part of AIM, or agree with Russell Means or Dennis Banks. And, yet, he believed in the philosophy of his elders: "Whatever you're near, however you spend your time whoever you spend your time with, however things are- that's the way you'll become." (Williams 1976 250) He did not become a radical, but, like it or not, would always be an "Indian". Mary, on the other hand, writes that she does not consider herself a radical or a revolutionary, that white people put those tags on her. Still, the siege at Wounded Knee, the prison sentences for many (including her husband, Leonard), could have been avoided, if only there had been some better understanding of the needs of the Indians, and a better provision for their well-being. Reading her life story, and her reports on friends and family, well-meaning but myopic Catholic nuns who tried to educate Indians for the white man's life-style, the reader stops short: "Wait a minute!" a perceptive reader might shout. "Don't you UNDERSTAND? Can't you see that they want to live their own lives, in their own traditions, with their own rules and laws?" She talks about "Indians" as well in her narrative. One is tempted to ask whether that term has simply come into commonplace us
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1982
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)