Winona LaDuke

LaDuke's novelization of 140 years of her family's history is a heavy lift at first before things settle down and she begins to hopscotch over events among the Anishinaabe peoples of northwestern Minnesota.

The reader is hit, in the early passages, with a mind-bending list of characters and text heavy with content in the Ojibwe language. It’s a conscious and purposeful choice by the author to establish the worldview and culture about which she is writing, but most monolinguists will stumble show more through it a few sentences at a time, pausing every few words to mentally pronounce an agglomeration of syllables and striving afterward to re-catch the flow and intent of the story. Some may give up altogether at that point, but those who persevere will be rewarded.

The language smooths out somewhat as the story moves into the clashes between Native tribes and U.S. government forces in the 1800s and the episodic structure moves from pivot point to pivot point in the region’s history.

Some of the material will be familiar to readers who have followed the fortunes of most Native peoples – the clashes between tribal culture and the encroachment of European-based immigrants, the loss of land as the notion of Indian reservations took hold, the removal of Native children to boarding schools, the frequent misappropriations and internal betrayals, the diaspora as families moved to urban areas in search of a better life, and the resurgence of Native rights movements in the latter part of the 20th century. LaDuke always chooses to look at these issues through the lens of the personal experiences of her characters, whether fictional, fictionalized, or historical.

She winds up the journey on a hopeful note as part of the story comes full circle, admitting that “there are many stories here. And, there is much to learn for the future. For all the pain and heartache we have felt, there has been and will be, an equal amount of joy. That is how everything works. There is always a struggle to maintain the balance.” show less

In this beautifully-written saga of a Minnesota Ojibwe family, author and activist Winona LaDuke chronicles their lives on the White Earth Reservation over the course of generations, from early conflicts with white encroachment and theft of land, resources and culture, to exuberant celebrations of identity, to contemporary challenges and victories.

Although fiction, the trials and injustices contained within this book are almost certainly based on actual events, and to be honest it likely show more wouldn't be difficult to convince me every word was true. There were times I was fervently hoping some parts were untrue, while simultaneously wishing others were. I'm inspired to learn more about how best to support land recovery projects currently underway in my state, and I agree with other readers that this would be a good candidate for required high school reading, especially in Minnesota. As a Minnesotan, I felt this was an important book for me to have read. I was left feeling heartbreak, shame and sadness for all that has been lost, but also a little bit hopeful that — maybe — some wrongs can perhaps be righted. show less

For some reason I thought this was going to be a biography, so I was a little confused by the progress of the story. There also seemed to be a lot of similarity of characters and events with the writings of Louise Erdrich, which also confused me --Pillagers as a common family name, Philomena as a housekeeper for a priest, a priest who rewrites history by moving headstones. While I haven't gone back in Erdrich's books to verify my perception that there is commonality, I've decided that both show more women use their tribe's history as inspiration for their novels.
Rather than a progressive narrative, LaDuke intermingles a compressed history from the 1860's when the "land stealers" came with later events when the people acted to take back their land and reclaim their culture. Altho portions do focus on the different women who shared the name Last Standing Woman, the reader is left to discover what the relevance of past events is to current lives.
I'm afraid I haven't made the book sound that interesting. But even if you're not sure what's going on, all the stories are interesting, pull you in, and give you a view of native perceptions of their culture and heritage. Women can be strong active leaders. LaDuke possesses the Native American passion for poking fun at themselves. show less

One of the hardest books I have ever read. LaDuke does not hesitate to rub our noses in the abuses perpetrated by European invaders over the last several centuries. I had hoped for more positive reports on what native communities are accomplishing, but there were only a few paragraphs on that for most chapters. The one thing I'll likely remember is a quote from Debra Harry "every day [millions of dollars of ]grants are being made ...on our behalf, for research that looks at ...the genetic show more basis for conditions that we suffer from, and it's completely a misappropriation of funding because if you consider our health conditions today, we live in contaminated environments, we are eating unhealthy food, we don't have access to the natural lifestyles and the foods that we've always eaten, that have sustained our lives, and so we have horrible health conditions. ...So what I'm saying is, our health conditions are a result of the environment and the economic, political, legal situations that we're in. They're not caused by our genetic, biological makeup. ...There is a reductionist view of the world through scientific eyes. You would see far more benefit in cleaning up the water, in cleaning up contaminated environments, and making sure people have access to just standard health care, ...organic gardening, all of those things that sustain healthy lives. That's where we're going to see benefits." show less