Guides: Book Reads: Lakota Woman (fall 2023)

Welcome to Book Read for fall 2023

The book to read Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog

Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog; Richard Erdoes (As told to)
ISBN: 9780802145420
Publication Date: 1990
Mary Brave Bird grew up fatherless in a one-room cabin, without running water or electricity, on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Rebelling against the aimless drinking, punishing missionary school, narrow strictures for women, and violence and hopeless of reservation life, she joined the new movement of tribal pride sweeping Native American communities in the sixties and seventies. Mary eventually married Leonard Crow Dog, the American Indian Movement's chief medicine man, who revived the sacred but outlawed Ghost Dance. Originally published in 1990, Lakota Woman was a national best seller and winner of the American Book Award. It is a unique document, unparalleled in American Indian literature, a story of death, of determination against all odds, of the cruelties perpetuated against American Indians, and of the Native American struggle for rights. Working with Richard Erdoes, one of the twentieth century's leading writers on Native American affairs, Brave Bird recounts her difficult upbringing and the path of her fascinating life.

Speakers for the Series

Dr. Catharine R. Franklin

Catharine R. Franklin specializes in the history of the nineteenth-century American West, with an emphasis on indigenous peoples and the United States Army. Her work upends the story of the so-called “Indian Wars.”

A native New Yorker, Dr. Franklin earned a B.A. in English Literature and American Studies from The City College of New York, and the M.A. and Ph.D in History at the University of Oklahoma. She serves on the editorial board of Montana: The Magazine of Western History and maintains close relationships with Native scholars and friends across Indian Country.

Dr. Patricia (Patti Jo) King

An enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, Dr. King is a historian and retired Professor of American Indian History and Studies. She is also a journalist with over 50 years experience with both mainstream and Native publications, as well as a Native history consultant. Prior to her career in academia, she worked as a publicist with a number of organizations, including American Indian Movement. She has served as the founding director of American Indian History Matters since 2009. In addition, she served on the Placer County Human Relations Commission, the San Francisco Native American Business Task Force, the City of Oakland Native American Education Task Force, and the Cherokee Scholars Consortium. Her forthcoming book, Charlatans, Hucksters, and Spiritual Orphans, discusses the issue of cultural exploitation and identity fraud in academia. She makes her home in the heart of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma.

Dr. Allison Whitney

Allison Whitney is an Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies in the Department of English at Texas Tech University. As a film and media scholar, much of her work incorporates intersectional feminist approaches, particularly in discourses of film genre, reception studies, film and technology, film and media pedagogy, sound studies, and local film culture. She directs the Interdisciplinary Minor in Film and Media Studies, and co-directs the “Expanding the Circle” initiative, funded by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, to support Indigenous and Native American Studies at Texas Tech.