Lakota Woman

Mary Crow Dog · Richard Erdoes

Nov 2014 · Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

About this ebook

The bestselling memoir of a Native American woman’s struggles and the life she found in activism: “courageous, impassioned, poetic and inspirational” (Publishers Weekly).
 
Mary Brave Bird grew up on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota in a one-room cabin without running water or electricity. With her white father gone, she was left to endure “half-breed” status amid the violence, machismo, and aimless drinking of life on the reservation. Rebelling against all this—as well as a punishing Catholic missionary school—she became a teenage runaway.
 
Mary was eighteen and pregnant when the rebellion at Wounded Knee happened in 1973. Inspired to take action, she joined the American Indian Movement to fight for the rights of her people. Later, she married Leonard Crow Dog, the AIM’s chief medicine man, who revived the sacred but outlawed Ghost Dance.
 
Originally published in 1990, Lakota Woman was a national bestseller and winner of the American Book Award. It is a story 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.

Ratings and reviews

Surprisingly recent troubles of a Sioux Indian woman in particular, and the challenges of North America natives in general.

It resonated with me. As I read it I thought to myself, I was not alone.

Wonderfully written and wonderful insight into indigenous traditions and history. Beautiful

About the author

Richard Erdoes (1912–2008) was one of America's leading writers on Native American affairs. A prominent illustrator and photographer, Erdoes was the author of more than thirty books, including Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions; American Indian Trickster Tales; and Ohitika Woman (with Mary Brave Bird).