Lakota Woman: Racism and Gender

All of the native american tribes have suffered. I always knew that they had been put on reservations but didn't know of the racism they faced even in the mid 20th century. Though Mary's life has started out relatively peaceful with being taken care of by her grandparents. She is abandoned by her father and her second father and her mother has to work away from her family. She develops a close sense of family and how important it is to stick together. When she is taken by the nuns to the school she loses her important family value and is forced to face the awful racism that comes with being in a missionary school.

It begs the question, as I have never faced such racism, as to who are we as americans to destroy an entire culture and not even think twice about the consequences for the people involved. I thought the mindset to make every culture like our own had died out before the onset of the hippie revolution and the civil rights movement.

This book, as with all other readings for this class has shown me details into something that I have always heard of but never understood a first hand account. I have heard of the suffering, I have seen documentaries but this novel in it's account shows the unique and tragic plight of a people losing there culture.