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Lakota Woman #2
Ohitika Woman
The dramatic, brutally honest, and ultimately triumphant sequel to the bestselling American Book Award winner Lakota Woman, this book continues Mary Brave Bird's courageous story of life as a Native American in a white-dominated society.
274 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
111 people are currently reading
946 people want to read
About the author
Mary Brave Bird
5 books16 followersMary Brave Bird (who also wrote under the name Mary Crow Dog) was a Sicangu Lakota writer and activist.
She was born Mary Ellen Moore-Richard in 1954 on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota, she was a member of the Sicangu Oyate, also known as the Burnt Thighs Nation or Brulé Band of Lakota. She was raised primarily by her grandparents while her mother studied in nursing school and was working.
Brave Bird was the author of two memoirs, Lakota Woman (1990) and Ohitika Woman (1993). Richard Erdoes, a long-time friend, helped edit the books. Lakota Woman was published under the name Mary Crow Dog and won the 1991 American Book Award. It describes her life until 1977. Ohitika Woman, published under the name Mary Brave Bird, continues her life story.
Her books describe the conditions of the Lakota Indian and her experience growing up on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, as well as conditions in the neighboring Pine Ridge Indian Reservation under the leadership of tribal chairman Richard Wilson. She also covers aspects of the role of the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and the treatment of the Native Americans and their children in the mid-1900s. Her work focuses on themes of gender, identity, and race
She was born Mary Ellen Moore-Richard in 1954 on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota, she was a member of the Sicangu Oyate, also known as the Burnt Thighs Nation or Brulé Band of Lakota. She was raised primarily by her grandparents while her mother studied in nursing school and was working.
Brave Bird was the author of two memoirs, Lakota Woman (1990) and Ohitika Woman (1993). Richard Erdoes, a long-time friend, helped edit the books. Lakota Woman was published under the name Mary Crow Dog and won the 1991 American Book Award. It describes her life until 1977. Ohitika Woman, published under the name Mary Brave Bird, continues her life story.
Her books describe the conditions of the Lakota Indian and her experience growing up on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, as well as conditions in the neighboring Pine Ridge Indian Reservation under the leadership of tribal chairman Richard Wilson. She also covers aspects of the role of the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and the treatment of the Native Americans and their children in the mid-1900s. Her work focuses on themes of gender, identity, and race
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
September 24, 2016
A passionate conversation
Reading this book is like having a long conversation with a tribal person. There is tons of history here. Mary is extremely knowledgeable and experienced—in the good and the bad. She devotes long descriptions to her alcohol addiction and her last relapse, which nearly killed her. An illustration of the social part of drinking and alcohol excess is in these words. A picture is painted of the current plight of Sioux, and other, Indians. Very graphic, very real. And yet, in her spirit, Mary holds all her relations—all people—in her heart. This truly is a book about relationships: traditional husbands and wives, medicine men and the people, women and men, culture and the personal, white and red, and much more. A worthy read!
Reading this book is like having a long conversation with a tribal person. There is tons of history here. Mary is extremely knowledgeable and experienced—in the good and the bad. She devotes long descriptions to her alcohol addiction and her last relapse, which nearly killed her. An illustration of the social part of drinking and alcohol excess is in these words. A picture is painted of the current plight of Sioux, and other, Indians. Very graphic, very real. And yet, in her spirit, Mary holds all her relations—all people—in her heart. This truly is a book about relationships: traditional husbands and wives, medicine men and the people, women and men, culture and the personal, white and red, and much more. A worthy read!
January 17, 2009
To me, not as good as Lakota Woman, but this sequel is a great book to answer any questions remaining after reading Lakota Woman.
November 17, 2008
Sequel to Lakota Woman -- how her life has changed and how she has grown and more recent Native American life.
July 9, 2018
This and Lakota Woman were so educational. I learned so much that i had never known about regarding native americans and their religious based legal struggles.
March 6, 2018
(Kindle)
The second book by Mary Brave Bird and Richard Erdoes, following Lakota Woman.
The novel reads like a series of afternoon conversations with Mary Brave Bird. She recounts important moments in her life and in Native American history.
This passionate, honest first-hand account of growing up between two worlds (Native American and White), Mary was at Wounded Knee was active in the AIM movement. She recounts life on the reservation, living with first husband, a spiritual leader for her tribe and travels around North America and interacting with other Native American Tribes.
From Native American religious practices, including sweat lodges and sun dances, Mary Brave Bird wants to set the record straight. She has no patience with white people who appropriate their rituals and sell the experiences for money.
Throughout the story, she is also honest and frank about her own experiences with alcohol and drugs. These parts of her story were the hardest to read. The abject poverty, the ignorance and entitlement of white people who continue to take and take and take from native americans, the domestic violence, treatment of women and attempts by white americans to suppress native american culture and religion are difficult to read.
The editing of her narrative could have used some tightening up. There are repetitious areas, but if you step back and accept that Mary Brave Bird is at your kitchen table and you are just talking-the narrative flows easier.
Recommended.
The second book by Mary Brave Bird and Richard Erdoes, following Lakota Woman.
The novel reads like a series of afternoon conversations with Mary Brave Bird. She recounts important moments in her life and in Native American history.
This passionate, honest first-hand account of growing up between two worlds (Native American and White), Mary was at Wounded Knee was active in the AIM movement. She recounts life on the reservation, living with first husband, a spiritual leader for her tribe and travels around North America and interacting with other Native American Tribes.
From Native American religious practices, including sweat lodges and sun dances, Mary Brave Bird wants to set the record straight. She has no patience with white people who appropriate their rituals and sell the experiences for money.
Throughout the story, she is also honest and frank about her own experiences with alcohol and drugs. These parts of her story were the hardest to read. The abject poverty, the ignorance and entitlement of white people who continue to take and take and take from native americans, the domestic violence, treatment of women and attempts by white americans to suppress native american culture and religion are difficult to read.
The editing of her narrative could have used some tightening up. There are repetitious areas, but if you step back and accept that Mary Brave Bird is at your kitchen table and you are just talking-the narrative flows easier.
Recommended.
May 30, 2017
'Ohitika Woman' reads like an epilogue to Mary Crow Dog's 'Lakota Woman' and really could have been just added to the original work. The main events of AIM (American Indian Movement) of the 1970s which had leapt back into the national psyche with the 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties and the 1973 Indian Occupation at Wounded Knee of which Mary Brave Bird was a participant, actually giving birth to her son during a firefight with the FBI at that infamous location dating back to the original massacre of Indians at Wounded Knee in 1890. Later she writes about her marriage to Leonard Crow Dog, the spiritual leader of AIM. She describes her involvement in the Native American Church all take place in the first book and are just rehashed here. 'Ohitika Woman' updates us Mary's divorce from Leonard, his refusal to accept it and subsequent harassment followed with estranged reconcilement to eventual complete separation and her meeting Rudy, her current husband. Some more detail is provided about various Sioux ceremonies and cultural sensibilities. Much time is devoted to Mary's struggle with alcohol and how it ruins her life over and over and over again. The book gives you a deeper understanding of her personal demons and her attempts to fix them but does not really develop her with necessity beyond the original memoir, 'Lakota Woman.'
August 19, 2017
2017 Reading Challenge - A book where the main character is a different ethnicity than you
This is the second installment in the memoirs of Mary Brave Bird. It picks up about fifteen years later. Mary Brave Bird has become the mother of five children and a grandmother. She still feels a strong tie to her political life and family through AIM (American Indian Movement), but at the same time acknowledges that AIM is less active. So many members were imprisoned, killed, died or just burn out.
Much of this book focuses on her religion, the Native American Church, and her spiritual experience with peyote. She also explores many of the challenges facing modern day Native communities and centers in on the experiences of Native American women, specifically. One chapter provides much needed documentation of many of the politically active Native women that were/are so influential in Mary Brave Bird's life as well as the larger Native American communities across the country. This book gives voice to women's stories often overlooked in mainstream feminism and grounds modern day Civil Rights challenges such as Standing Rock within the larger historical narrative.
This is the second installment in the memoirs of Mary Brave Bird. It picks up about fifteen years later. Mary Brave Bird has become the mother of five children and a grandmother. She still feels a strong tie to her political life and family through AIM (American Indian Movement), but at the same time acknowledges that AIM is less active. So many members were imprisoned, killed, died or just burn out.
Much of this book focuses on her religion, the Native American Church, and her spiritual experience with peyote. She also explores many of the challenges facing modern day Native communities and centers in on the experiences of Native American women, specifically. One chapter provides much needed documentation of many of the politically active Native women that were/are so influential in Mary Brave Bird's life as well as the larger Native American communities across the country. This book gives voice to women's stories often overlooked in mainstream feminism and grounds modern day Civil Rights challenges such as Standing Rock within the larger historical narrative.
March 7, 2016
Should have just read Lakota Woman. This one repeats a lot of those stories and she tends to try and play the blame it on everyone else game. No one made you drink the alcohol or sleep/marry with the men you did. She is also at consent conflict to her hate of the hard work to live the old ways and her love for the comfort of the new ways. She wants both worlds and be able to pick and choice which ones to embrace and fight for and others let go of. Yep I had lots of issues with this book. Writing is not a easy flow easy, very choppy.
September 13, 2014
I didn't mean to actually read the whole thing. I'm researching Native American/First Nations history in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and had only intended to skim the book to get a sense of how things have evolved into modern times. But, I got caught up in Mary Brave Bird's story and ended up reading of the book. I think that's the best compliment I can give. I didn't give it 5 stars because at time it felt a bit pedantic.
January 26, 2012
I just finished reading Ohitika Woman by Mary Brave Bird. It was something to read.... down and dirty at times... but honest too.... its by the same author as Lakota Woman... though her name then was Mary Crow Dog. Its just one woman's story of the struggles of the Native Americans... but its a powerful one.
May 11, 2010
I did not find this book as insighful as her first one. Whereas her first book captured a movement, this one captured more of Mary Brave Bird's own personal narrative. Mary Brave Bird does write important words from a feminist Native American perspective that is always enjoyable to read.
October 10, 2018
Interesting ceremonies
I had a struggle getting through this book. She didn’t write in a sequence, but jumped from one time to another and then back. The spelling was often incorrect. I respect her stating her position, but there is another side to this story as well.
I had a struggle getting through this book. She didn’t write in a sequence, but jumped from one time to another and then back. The spelling was often incorrect. I respect her stating her position, but there is another side to this story as well.
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August 7, 2011This is the story of Mary Crow Dog (still waiting to find out why her name is now Brave Bird) 15 years after Lakota Woman. I love it so far.
January 6, 2013
A very honest look into the rich life of Mary Brave Bird. Find out what you've been missing on the 6 o'clock news !
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November 23, 2015Very interesting book about Mary Brave Bird's journey.
Read
July 28, 2016January 2011
Want to read
January 3, 2017$3.99
Read
February 12, 2017Excellent
January 19, 2022
Mary Brave Bird (Crow Dog) and Richard Erdoes wrote this 1993 sequel to Lakota Woman, giving an older Mary's perspective on her life, the people she's encountered and the many challenges facing Indians. It lacks the rawness and intensity of Lakota Woman, which was rebellious young Mary's sometimes shocking story. This book contains many more details about Lakota ceremonies, peyote, the Native American Church and government mistreatment of Indians.
It was not the least bit surprising to me that Mary's life continued to be something of a train wreck as she struggled with alcoholism and nearly killed herself driving drunk. By the time she did the interviews that resulted in this book, she had a new husband and a new baby (the fifth of her six children.) She also had become more of a feminist, reconciled with her mother and even acknowledged that Indian boarding schools had changed for the better.
As a former journalist, I was particularly interested in Richard Erdoes' role in Mary's life and in telling her story. The first book was based on many hours of taped conversations while she (and her baby) lived with Erdoes and his wife in New York. They offered their home because Mary's husband at the time, Leonard Crow Dog, was in prison nearby and the Erdoes' were part of the efforts to obtain his release. It took a decade to get the book published; it was rejected initially as too radical. For this book, Mary moved in with them again in Santa Fe. In between, they apparently served as her emergency fund. (Richard died in 2008 and Mary in 2013.) Erdoes also wrote a book with Leonard Crow Dog, who died in 2021.
It was not the least bit surprising to me that Mary's life continued to be something of a train wreck as she struggled with alcoholism and nearly killed herself driving drunk. By the time she did the interviews that resulted in this book, she had a new husband and a new baby (the fifth of her six children.) She also had become more of a feminist, reconciled with her mother and even acknowledged that Indian boarding schools had changed for the better.
As a former journalist, I was particularly interested in Richard Erdoes' role in Mary's life and in telling her story. The first book was based on many hours of taped conversations while she (and her baby) lived with Erdoes and his wife in New York. They offered their home because Mary's husband at the time, Leonard Crow Dog, was in prison nearby and the Erdoes' were part of the efforts to obtain his release. It took a decade to get the book published; it was rejected initially as too radical. For this book, Mary moved in with them again in Santa Fe. In between, they apparently served as her emergency fund. (Richard died in 2008 and Mary in 2013.) Erdoes also wrote a book with Leonard Crow Dog, who died in 2021.
April 15, 2023
Great glimpse into the Native American Culture and reservation life. I did not realize life was so difficult on the res. Unfortunately, I accept what Mary has shared as true because I do not know any Native American people. I hope that things will improve in the community. Looking forward to reading more books on this culture.
August 10, 2019
Paints a picture of Indian traditions.
Mary Crow Dogs continues the story of Mary of her life. I thought it was a well written story about trying to live traditionally yet also in our society today.
Mary Crow Dogs continues the story of Mary of her life. I thought it was a well written story about trying to live traditionally yet also in our society today.
December 8, 2019
The first 400 and some odd pages are stories of her drunken mishaps and moving from shelters. Such a sad story and my heart feels for her but not a very clear message was shared other than the last few chapters expressing her pride in her heritage.
April 28, 2021
An Indian Life Revealed
In this time of racial awakening it is good to look deeper into American history and how white supremacy has destroyed people and their cultures. The American Indian is often forgotten and this book tells that story vividly.
In this time of racial awakening it is good to look deeper into American history and how white supremacy has destroyed people and their cultures. The American Indian is often forgotten and this book tells that story vividly.
September 30, 2019
The follow-up to Lakota Woman.
July 20, 2021
What a great sequel to her first book. This is the book to read to learn about modern native life and philosophy.
April 6, 2022
Interesting read and honest account of Mary Brave Bird's life.
April 8, 2017
I love the strength of the words in this autobiographical piece. It is straight and raw. To survive the genocidal tactics that she has and still show humor and grace is power. Every woman should read this book. It's one of the most powerful books I've ever read and very humbling. Aho!
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October 10, 2018was harder to read
not so interesting
didnt feel like finishing it
not a red thread
not so interesting
didnt feel like finishing it
not a red thread
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews