About The Book

Mary Brave Bird grew up fatherless in a one-room cabin, without running water or electricity, on a South Dakota reservation. Rebelling against the aimless drinking, punishing missionary school, narrow strictures for women, and violence and hopelessness of reservation life, she joined the new movement of tribal pride sweeping Native American communities in the sixties and seventies and eventually married Leonard Crow Dog, the movement’s chief medicine man, who revived the sacred but outlawed Ghost Dance.

Lakota Woman is a unique document unparalleled in American Indian literature, a story of death, of determination against all odds, and of the cruelties perpetrated against American Indians during the last several decades. It is also a deeply moving account of a woman’s triumphant struggle to survive in a hostile world.

Praise

“A powerful autobiography . . . feisty and determined, warm and even funny, sometimes given to outbursts of rage or sorrow or enthusiasm, always unpretentious and straightforward.” —Chicago Tribune

“Inspirational.” —The Midwest Book Review

“Lakota Woman is a view from the inside.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“A gritty, convincing document of one woman’s struggle to overcome poverty and oppression in order to live in dignity as an American Indian.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Stunningly honest. . . . The courage, nobility, morality, and humor that fill the pages of this book should be required reading.” —David Amram

“The moving story of a Native American woman who fought her way out of despair and bitterness to find the righteous ways of her ancestors.” —William M. Kunstler

“A piercing look into the ancient yet modern mind of a Sioux woman.” —Oliver Stone

Awards

Winner of The American Book Award