Lakota Woman

Lakota Woman

by

Mary Crow Dog

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Themes and Colors
Activism and Resistance Theme Icon
Assimilation, Tradition, and Identity Theme Icon
Unity, Inclusion, and Equality Theme Icon
Racism and Sexism Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Lakota Woman, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Unity, Inclusion, and Equality Theme Icon

The American Indian Movement (AIM) is a central focus of Mary Crow Dog’s memoir Lakota Woman. Although the AIM started as a localized movement that protested against the poverty and police brutality that inner-city Native Americans experienced, it grew to encompass the issues that indigenous people across North America faced. This shift in the movement’s scope reflected its stance on indigenous unity: the movement began to advocate for the rights of all indigenous people, not only those of a few tribes. Throughout her memoir, Mary illustrates how AIM owed its successes to this inclusiveness. In the political events that Mary depicts—from the Trail of Broken Treaties to the Occupation of Wounded Knee—AIM activists from a multitude of tribes joined together and stood against “White America” as a unified force. But this unity goes beyond political events: the Native Americans in Mary’s memoir also participate in cross-cultural ceremonies. And, as Mary puts it, it is from “traveling and meeting many tribes [that] we learned a lot.” Through historical legends and personal stories, she shows how intertribal exchange of cultural knowledge and traditions plays an important role in the preservation and development of Native American cultures. And with this, Mary illustrates that unity is imperative for all Native Americans in the ongoing fight for equal rights and cultural preservation.

Through the use of historical and contemporary examples, Mary demonstrates how division between Native Americans harms the indigenous community as a whole. Mary touches on how Native American tribes often fought against one another, both prior to and during westward expansion, when white people moved west across North America and settled on indigenous peoples’ lands. During this time, tribes occasionally joined forces with white armies to fight other tribes. The tribes presumably worked with the U.S. for some gain, but this didn’t pan out, as the U.S. government continued to enact policies that stripped all indigenous tribes of their rights. The implication is that working with the U.S. government to oppose other tribes hurts all Native Americans in the long run, as the government’s goal is to suppress all indigenous people’s autonomy and influence. Mary also illustrates how individuals can harm their communities by collaborating with white settlers in an effort to personally benefit from colonization. She describes how “half-bloods”— she defines a “half-blood” as any Native American who “acts and thinks like a white man”—sold their land to try to make money for themselves, even though this hastened white society’s westward expansion. Once again, it is the U.S. government—and not the cooperating Native Americans—that benefits.

On the other hand, Mary shows how unity within and between indigenous nations benefits all Native Americans in their fight for civil rights. In fact, Mary believes AIM’s influence owes itself to the combined power of urban Native Americans and isolated, reservation-based Native Americans who, by exchanging ideas and experiences, made AIM “a force nationwide.” The Trail of Broken Treaties, one of AIM’s most famous demonstrations, was considered a success primarily because it exemplified this unity. Tribes from all around the U.S. joined together in a caravan across the country to protest the government’s treatment of Native Americans. Although government officials dismissed their political demands, “morally it had been a great victory,” as the indigenous community “faced White America collectively, not as individual tribes.” They effectively communicated that Native Americans were setting aside their differences to unite against the common enemy—the U.S. government and “the white man’s system.” The precedent for intertribal unity that activists set during the Trail of Broken Treaties was continued at the Occupation at Wounded Knee, where “Indians from Denver, New Mexico, and L.A. trickled in” to join the Lakota and AIM activists in holding Wounded Knee against U.S. government agents. The demonstration—which lasted for 71 days—was successful in raising awareness of the U.S. government’s brutal treatment of indigenous peoples.

But intertribal unity isn’t just important for political purposes—it also has a significant cultural impact, as it helps both preserve and enrich Native American cultures. The American Indian Movement was a cultural movement as much as it was a political one, as the cross-cultural exchange that took place between tribes and generations played a significant role in the revival of indigenous traditions and religious beliefs. At the time that the memoir takes place (the 1960s and 70s), many indigenous nations were “losing their culture and their language” because of governmental policies, like mandatory attendance of missionary schools and bans on traditional ceremonies. To preserve indigenous cultures, Native Americans visited spiritual leaders and traditionalists—sometimes from other tribes—to learn about their indigenous heritage. Mary notes that it was a “strange thing” to see people participating in rituals that were never practiced by their own tribes, but she recognizes that this “was their way of saying, ‘I am an Indian again.’” Personally, Mary feels that intertribal differences melt away when participating in religious ceremonies with people of other indigenous nations. So, not only does cross-cultural exchange help preserve indigenous cultures among Native Americans, but it also fosters intertribal unity and cooperation. Mary provides several historical examples to demonstrate how Native Americans have a history of sharing religious ceremonies: for instance, both peyote ceremonies and the Ghost Dance religion were passed to the Lakota by way of other tribes. In both cases, Mary describes these religious elements as arriving “when [the Lakota] needed [them] most,” which emphasizes how the exchange of religious ideas helped enrich various tribes.

Mary goes a step further and argues that the fight for equal rights is the most successful when people of all races, beliefs, and cultures work together. By recounting her and her husband, Leonard Crow Dog’s, legal battle to free him from unjust imprisonment, Mary shows that his release was secured through the combined support of various religious and political organizations. In this way, she demonstrates that uniting together is what helps communities succeed in fighting for equality.

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Unity, Inclusion, and Equality Quotes in Lakota Woman

Below you will find the important quotes in Lakota Woman related to the theme of Unity, Inclusion, and Equality.
Chapter 2 Quotes

The whites destroyed the tiyospaye, not accidentally, but as a matter of policy. The close-knit clan, set in its old ways, was a stumbling block in the path of the missionary and government agent, its traditions and customs a barrier to what the white man called “progress” and “civilizations.” And so the government tore the tiyospaye apart and forced the Sioux into the kind of relationship now called the “nuclear family”—forced upon each couple their individually owned allotment of land […] So the great brainwashing began, those who did not like to have their brains washed being pushed farther and farther into the back country into isolation and starvation. The civilizers did a good job on us, especially among the half-bloods, using the stick-and-carrot method, until now there is neither the tiyospaye nor a white-style nuclear family left, just Indian kids without parents.

Related Characters: Mary Crow Dog (speaker)
Page Number: 14
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

In the beginning AIM was mainly confined to St. Paul and Minneapolis. The early AIM people were mostly ghetto Indians, often from tribes which had lost much of their language, traditions, and ceremonies. It was when they came to us on the Sioux reservations that they began to learn about the old ways. We had to learn from them, too. We Sioux had lived very isolated […] AIM opened a window for us through which the wind of the 1960s and early ‘70s could blow, and it was no gentle breeze but a hurricane that whirled us around. It was after the traditional reservation Indians and the ghetto kids had gotten together that AIM became a force nationwide. It was flint striking flint, lighting a spark which grew into a flame at which we could warm ourselves after a long, long winter.

Related Characters: Mary Crow Dog (speaker)
Page Number: 76
Explanation and Analysis:

In the end a compromise was reached. The government said they could not go on negotiating during Election Week, but they would appoint two high administration officials to seriously consider our twenty demands. Our expenses to get home would be paid. Nobody would be prosecuted. Of course, our twenty points were never gone into afterward. From the practical point of view, nothing had been achieved. As usual we had bickered among ourselves. But morally it had been a great victory. We had faced White America collectively, not as individual tribes. We had stood up to the government and gone through our baptism of fire.

Related Characters: Mary Crow Dog (speaker)
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

The half-breeds, the iyeskas, I thought, never really cared for anybody but themselves, having learned that “wholesome selfishness” alone brought the blessings of civilization. The full-bloods have a heart […] They are willing to share whatever happiness they have. They sit on their land which has a sacred meaning for them, even if it brings them no income. The iyeskas have no land because they sold theirs long ago. Whenever some white businessmen come to the res trying to make a deal to dig for coal or uranium, the iyeskas always say, “Let’s do it. Let’s get that money. Buy a new car and a color TV.” The full-bloods say nothing. They just sit on their little patches of land and don’t budge. It is because of them that there are still some Indians left.

Related Characters: Mary Crow Dog (speaker)
Page Number: 93-94
Explanation and Analysis:

I have visited many tribes. They have different cultures and speak different languages. They may even have different rituals when partaking of this medicine. They may be jealous of each other […] But once they meet inside the peyote tipi, all differences are forgotten. Then they are no longer Navajos, or Poncas, Apaches, or Sioux, but just Indians. They learn each others’ songs and find out that they are really the same. Peyote is making many tribes into just one tribe. And it is the same with the Sun Dance which also serves to unite the different Indian nations.

Related Characters: Mary Crow Dog (speaker)
Page Number: 101
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

So there was a lot of sneaking through the perimeter, a lot of coming and going. Indians from Denver, New Mexico, and L.A. trickled in, a dozen or half-dozen at a time. A group of Iroquois from New York joined us for a while […] Among the groups walking in were some Northwest Coast people, Pullayups and Nisquallies, led by Sid Mills who had fought so long for native fishing rights in Washington State. These were among our toughest fighters.

Related Characters: Mary Crow Dog (speaker)
Page Number: 134-135
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

Life was so hard for our people—starving, fenced in, without horses or weapons. The message brought them hope. And so they began to dance and sing, to bring back the buffalo, to bring back the old world of the Indians which wasičun had destroyed, the world they had loved so much and for whose return they were praying.

Related Characters: Mary Crow Dog (speaker)
Page Number: 149
Explanation and Analysis:

Leonard always thought that the dancers of 1890 had misunderstood Wovoka and his message. They should not have expected to bring the dead back to life, but to bring back their ancient beliefs by practicing Indian religion. For Leonard, dancing in a circle holding hands was bringing back the sacred hoop—to feel, holding on to the hand of your brother and sister, the rebirth of Indian unity, feel it with your flesh, through your skin. He also thought that reviving the Ghost Dance would be making a link to our past, to the grandfathers and grandmothers of long ago.

Related Characters: Mary Crow Dog (speaker), Leonard Crow Dog, Wovoka
Page Number: 153
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

Annie Mae still traveled a lot. Wherever Indians fought for their rights, Annie Mae was there. She helped the Menominee warriors take over a monastery. She told me that she was packing a gun. She said, “If any of my brothers are in a position where they’re being shot at, or being killed, I go there to fight with them. I’d rather die than stand by and see them destroyed.”

Related Characters: Mary Crow Dog (speaker), Annie Mae Aquash (speaker)
Page Number: 192
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

In May 1974, Old Henry and Leonard put on a Ghost Dance […] It was supposed to be a ritual for Sioux only, but somehow, through the “moccasin telegraph” which always spreads news among Indians in a mysterious way, everybody seemed to know about it, and many native people from as far away as Alaska, Canada, Mexico, and Arizona suddenly appeared in order to participate.

Related Characters: Mary Crow Dog (speaker), Leonard Crow Dog, Henry Crow Dog
Page Number: 212
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

[Leonard Crow Dog] could not understand why the government was after him. He did not consider himself a radical […] He thought himself strictly a religious leader, a medicine man. But that was exactly why he was dangerous. The young city Indians talking about revolution and waving guns find no echo among the full-bloods in the back country. But they will listen to a medicine man, telling them in their own language: “Don’t sell your land, don’t sell Grandmother Earth to the strip-mining outfits and the uranium companies. Don’t sell your water.” This kind of advice is a threat to the system and gets you into the penitentiary.

Related Characters: Mary Crow Dog (speaker), Leonard Crow Dog (speaker)
Page Number: 216
Explanation and Analysis:

With all that information pouring in upon Merhige, the judge began feeling twinges of conscience. He called us to his court in Richmond. A long trestle table in front of his bench was piled two feet high with petitions on behalf of Crow Dog. The judge pointed to this mass of papers, saying with a grin, “This is just the tip of the iceberg. We don’t have enough space in this courtroom to bring them all out. We have letters here from Nigeria, Java, Greece, Japan, Sweden, Peru, and Austria. I just wonder how folks so far away can know more about this case than we do.” Then he said in a low, matter-of-fact voice: “I resentence Crow Dog to time served. I order his instant release.”

Related Characters: Mary Crow Dog (speaker), Judge Robert Merhige (speaker), Leonard Crow Dog
Page Number: 239
Explanation and Analysis: