Barbara is one of many Native American women whom doctors sterilized during the 20th century. It’s generally ordered by a government or organization without regard to the woman’s own preference, and sometimes without her even knowing. Audible really needs to hire Native people to narrate books like Lakota Woman.Forced sterilization is a medical procedure that makes a woman unable to reproduce. I had to stop the book multiple times and almost quit altogether simply because the narration was so poor. I believe the narration may have also played into my dislike for Mary. Her mispronunciations of Lakota words and their awkward intonations, probably due to not understanding what certain words meant, were grating. That being said, there are some wonderful parts of the book, such the first had accounts of Wounded Knee and relationship with Anna Mae Aquash. Her references to white people as “honkies” and police as “pigs” is out of line. Her portrayals of Native men and Native women is condescending and rude. Mary Crow Dog, while admirable in her role and actions in AIM, comes off as trite and stereotypical. I was very interested based on the title alone and the notoriety of the author’s last name.

Working with Richard Erdoes, one of the 20th century's leading writers on Native American affairs, Brave Bird recounts her difficult upbringing and the path of her fascinating life.Īs a Native woman, this book has been on my radar for years. 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. Originally published in 1990, Lakota Woman was a national best seller and winner of the American Book Award. Mary eventually married Leonard Crow Dog, the American Indian Movement's chief medicine man, who revived the sacred but outlawed Ghost Dance. 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 '60s and '70s. Mary Brave Bird grew up fatherless in a one-room cabin, without running water or electricity, on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog