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Chapter 6
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Lakota Woman, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Activism and Resistance
Assimilation, Tradition, and Identity
Unity, Inclusion, and Equality
Racism and Sexism
Summary
Analysis
Mary stresses that AIM was a spiritual movement, with traditional Native American beliefs playing a central role. Because their religions had been banned and threatened by forced conversions, holding onto traditional beliefs was a way for Native Americans to protect their identity and culture.
Mary argues that practicing and celebrating one’s indigenous culture is a political act of resistance, as it ensures the survival of cultures that white society has tried to eliminate. She also says that it is only through participating in cultural traditions that Native Americans can connect with their indigenous identity.
Themes
While active in AIM, Mary, along with many Native Americans, turned back to Native American traditions. She adds that “Jesus would have been all right,” only white society had twisted his teachings to serve them. Native American religions, however, “had not been coopted” by white people, which added to their appeal.
Again, Mary argues that practicing Native American religious traditions helps Native Americans feel more connected to their identity as indigenous people. Turning away from Christianity, a religion that white society has imposed upon Native Americans, is a way to resist the cultural genocide against Native American religions. Mary even adds that the teachings of Jesus weren’t the problem so much as the fact that white society used Christianity as a weapon to wipe out Native American ways of life.
Themes
To learn more about spiritual traditions, Mary sought out “full-bloods,” as she considered her “half-breed” relatives as corrupted by the selfishness of white society—she says that “half-breeds” are the kind of people willing to sell their land to white people for a profit. While Mary’s Catholic mother regretted Mary’s desire to drop the Christian faith, Mary went to her Grandpa Dick Fool Bull, an old man who practiced traditional Lakota rituals. He was the one who took Mary to her first peyote meeting.
At her first peyote meeting, Mary took a lot of the medicine. Upon taking peyote, she felt in the power—hearing the voices of dead relatives and sensing messages from the staff, drum, and feathers. With the herb, she united with the earth, as that is where the herb comes from. To Mary, “peyote was people, was alive, was a remembrance of things long forgotten.”
Themes
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Two weeks later, Mary had a dream that she believes the peyote and its spiritual power caused. She dreamed of white soldiers attacking a Native American camp, killing and raping the Native Americans. Mary then saw an old woman, who was singing an ancient song while carrying a heavy pack. The white soldiers attacked and killed her. After the dream, Mary felt depressed for weeks. Over and over, she wondered why her people suffered so much, but she never found an answer.
Themes
Mary believes that she only fully understood the meaning and significance of peyote after she married Leonard Crow Dog. Leonard is a peyote priest, as well as a Sun Dancer, a yuwipi, and a Lakota medicine man. While some people criticize him for practicing so many different beliefs and ceremonies, he believes that all traditional Native American religions are “part of the same creative force.” The Great Spirit, Wakan Tanka, takes many forms.
Themes
Mary asserts that visions are of paramount importance in all indigenous religions, from North America to the Arctic Circle. Visions are obtained in a variety of ceremonies, from fasting and staring at the sun during a Sun Dance to using mushrooms or herbs.
Themes
Peyote is once such herb that Native Americans use for spiritual purposes. Peyote doesn’t grow north of the Rio Grande, so many believe that the tribes on the Plains first got peyote from Mexico. What is known is that, when the Kiowa and Comanche people established the Native American Church in the 1870s, peyote was used to pray. Mary inserts that the plains tribes first received peyote at the most critical time, as they were suffering from disease and starvation at the hands of white government and settlers.
Themes
While it is legal for Native Americans to buy and use peyote for their religious ceremonies, many people exploit the Native American Church’s use of peyote by selling the herb at heavily inflated prices.
Themes
The songs of peyote meetings incorporate the voices of the items used: the pebbles in the rattle, the magpie and scissortail birds whose feathers make up the fan, and the water bird for the water drum. Although women were originally banned from singing or praying with the staff (the staff is a masculine item), women now sing during the ceremonies. To Mary, Leonard is the most exceptional peyote singer, as he knows hundreds of different songs that he has collected from various tribes—he has even made up his own.
Themes
Government agents and missionaries persecuted the first followers of the Native American Church because they complicated white society’s efforts to “whitemaniz[e]” the Native Americans. Leonard Crow Dog’s father, Henry, was one of the victims of this religious persecution. After white priests discovered that Henry was hosting a peyote ceremony, government officials drove Henry from his home in the middle of a blizzard, which resulted in the death of his two-year-old son. But persecution didn’t cause Henry and other Native American Church followers to turn away from their religion. In fact, it did quite the opposite—they held on even tighter.
Themes
After marrying Leonard, Mary made several trips with him to purchase or harvest peyote from the south. During these trips, Mary and Leonard often stayed with southern tribes, such as the Pueblos. Mary thanks these cross-cultural exchanges for broadening her perspective and even undoing some prejudices she had against southern tribes, whom she had thought of as too peaceful. When staying with Pueblo families, she appreciated how they adapted to the changing society and federal government, all while practicing their traditional farming and craftsmanship.
Themes
Mary was also interested in how, in Pueblo families, women had a significant role: they owned their houses, and their children typically took their mother’s last name. Mary also recognizes that, unlike the Lakota people, the Pueblo people had not been forced onto contained reservations. All the same, the Pueblo people also have to advocate for their land rights and protect it from developers.
Themes
While it is now legal for members of the Native American Church to harvest peyote, it was not always this way. One significant court case happened when a sheriff tried to arrest everyone participating in a peyote meeting. When the case went to trial, Leonard—who had been at the meeting—argued that the sheriff had no jurisdiction on the reservation, as only tribal police can make arrests. He even argued that the sheriff didn’t commit any crimes in taking peyote, as he was doing so as part of a religious ceremony that is open for all to participate. The Native American Church won the court case.
Themes
Recently, Mary and Leonard have harvested peyote, rather than purchasing it from a dealer. Not only do they avoid the inflated prices that way, but harvesting adds more meaning to the collection of the medicine. This is true despite—or perhaps because of—the scratches that one gets when trying to collect peyote, which is a cactus. Generally, they are sure to only harvest the tops of the plant, leaving the root so that it will continue to grow.
Themes
After one harvest, Mary and her companions were driving their car—which was filled with peyote—from Mexico to Texas when someone exclaimed that they needed to get rid of all the visible peyote, lest they get arrested at the border. Instead of throwing it out of the car, Mary and another woman ate all the extra peyote, getting exceedingly high in a way that one doesn’t during a proper ceremony. Later, Mary discovered that she and her companion ate all that peyote for nothing—Leonard had all the proper paperwork to get them across the border.
Themes
