Mary (Ellen) CROW DOG Nationality: American
WRITINGS BY THE AUTHOR:
"Sidelights"Mary Crow Dog is the author of an autobiography that chronicles a personal journey from her troubled early years to her work as an advocate for Native American rights. The 1990 volume Ohitika Woman was cowritten with fellow activist and writer Richard Erdoes. Originally authored with her family name of Brave Bird, Crow Dog reissued the book in 1991 under the title Lakota Woman, assuming the surname that she currently uses. The volume was well-received by critics who praised Crow Dog's forthright style. As her story relates, Crow Dog was born in the 1950s to Sioux parentage but was told little about her ancestral background. Her mother refused to speak their native tongue with her young daughter because she felt that learning anything about Sioux culture would only hinder the girl's assimilation into mainstream American society. Crow Dog was later sent to a Catholic boarding school and suffered physical abuse at the hands of the teachers. As a teenager she led a transient life, living in a number of places both on and off the reservation, and grappling with alcohol abuse. She took part in a 1972 cross-country march in Washington, DC, with a group of Native American activists that came from her generation; there they occupied the federal building housing the Bureau of Indian Affairs offices. As Lakota Woman recounts, the turning point in Crow Dog's life came in South Dakota, the year following her participation in the occupation of Wounded Knee by American Indian Movement (AIM) activists. The 71-day siege of a museum, church, and trading post marked the beginning of a new era for this younger and radical group of Native American activists who had marshaled forces around AIM in 1968. In 1890 Wounded Knee had been the site of the last major conflict between Native Americans and United States government troops, and the casualty list of that battle was typical of previous debacles--twenty- nine soldiers killed, and two hundred Native Americans-- including women and children--slain. Seventeen years old and pregnant during the occupation, Crow Dog went into labor during the action, but more significantly discovered a previously- unknown part of her heritage. She became acquainted with Leonard Crow Dog, a medicine man whom she later married, and began learning from him and others the intricate rituals of Native American spirituality. The remainder of Lakota Woman is engaged in retelling the story of her subsequent years as an activist, mother, and spouse. Crow Dog discusses the political events in which she and her husband have participated, and their day-to-day life together that is often complicated by his extreme idealism. Throughout the work she injects her own frank opinions regarding the long legacy of mistreatment of the Sioux and other Native Americans by the U.S. government. Comparing the AIM objectives with those of the civil-rights struggles by African Americans, Crow Dog remarked "They want in. We Indians want out!" She also reflects on the misogyny present in contemporary relations between Native American men and women. Lakota Woman was favorably reviewed by critics.Voice Literary Supplement
reviewer Elizabeth Devereaux described it as "a tale of impoverishment and
enrichment." Writing for the Washington Post Book World, critic Gretchen M.
Bataille lauded the autobiography for presenting the author's "growing awareness of
who she is as a Sioux woman and as a political force for change for her people."
Penny Skillman of Belles Lettres observed that "Crow Dog tells such an
entertaining story . . . that it is easy at times to overlook the fact that the tale is
about the Native American struggle to stave off genocide." FURTHER READINGS ABOUT THE AUTHOR:PERIODICALS
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