By Marla N. Powers

Based on interviews and existence histories gathered over greater than twenty-five years of research at the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, Marla N. Powers conveys what it skill to be an Oglala lady. regardless of the parable of the Euramerican that sees Oglala ladies as not as good as males, and the Lakota delusion that turns out them as greater, actually, Powers argues, the jobs of female and male turn out to be complementary. in truth, she claims, Oglala ladies were higher in a position to adapt to the dominant white tradition and supply a lot of the steadiness and continuity of recent tribal existence. This wealthy ethnographic portrait considers the full context of Oglala life—religion, economics, medication, politics, previous age—and is superior by way of various smooth and old photographs.


"It is a cheerful occasion whilst a great scholarly paintings is rendered available to the final reader, specially so whilst not one of the complexity of the subject material is sacrificed. Oglala Women is an extended late revisionary ethnography of local American culture."—Penny Skillman, San Francisco Chronicle Review

"Marla N. Powers's wonderful examine brought me to Oglala ladies 'portrayed from the views of Indians,' to ladies who didn't pity themselves and need no pity from others. . . . A courageous, thorough, and stimulating book."—Melody Graulich, Women's assessment of Books

"Powers's new e-book is an difficult weaving . . . and her synthesis brings all of those items right into a well-integrated and insightful entire, one that sheds new gentle at the value of ladies and the way they've got tailored to the conditions of the final century."—Elizabeth S. Grobsmith, Nebraska History

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Sample text

About child rearing he writes: Bearing children was an attribute which pragmatically expressed the Sioux acceptance of life. There was no confusion about the role of women, for being a mother and rearing a family was the ultimate achievement. As a matter of fact, there seems to have been no other acceptable pattern for feminine existence. Women might become dreamers to practice certain curings, and rites associated with child rearing and tipi-building but these in no way appear to have precluded the role of motherhood.

The chief then dipped some sweet grass into a buffalo horn filled with water and gave it to the woman to drink. " "My relatives, brothers and sisters: Wakantanka has looked down and smiles upon us this day because we have met as belonging to one family. The best thing in a family is good feeling toward every member. I am proud to become part of your family-a sister to you all. The sun is your grandfather, and he is the same to me. Your tribe has the distinction of always being very faithful to promises, and of possessing great respect and reverence toward sacred things.

8 She walked in a circle clockwise, as the sun travels in the sky. The women seeing her beauty began to exclaim in admiration. " She then sat at the place of honor and laid the pipe against the specially made rack. The chief then rose and addressed the woman as sister and 46 The Past welcomed her to the camp. He acknowledged that Wakantanka had sent her to the people and that she had come to their rescue just when they were in great need. "Sister, we are glad you have come to us and trust that whatever message you have brought we may be able to abide by it.

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