Compassionate Woman: The Life and Legacy of Patricia Locke

by John Kolstoe

Compassionate Woman is the biography of a woman of Lakota and Chippewa heritage who was the winner of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 1991 for her work to save tribal languages that were becoming extinct throughout the United States. This fascinating biography of Patricia Locke, who was given the name Compassionate Woman, gives us a glimpse into the life of someone dedicated to restoring justice and helping those in need. Her life of service began in Anchorage, Alaska, when she founded a community center aimed at assisting Native Americans, Eskimos, and Aleuts—who had moved to the city from villages—to cope with some of the problems they encountered. She then went on to work for the Western Interstate Counsel for Higher Education, where she focused much of her energy on establishing colleges on reservations. She was particularly concerned with improving education for American Indians and worked hard toward advancing education on reservations so that Native American culture and language could be woven into the curriculum. She also spent many years as a freelance writer, instructor at various universities, and activist on behalf of the poor and oppressed. In addition to the MacArthur Fellowship, Locke was the first American Indian to serve as a senior officer on the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahai's of the United States, and she was posthumously inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

Genres: Biography, Baha I

226 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2011

Reviews

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to an amazing and important person.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

What had the opportunity to be a great biography merely on its subject matter of an interesting American Indian activist is marred by the writing. It meanders aimlessly often without a timeline or out of chronological order; and relies extensively on long quotes from Locke's friends and family as filler. Quotes that often quite honestly add little to the narrative because they are the kind of bland trite phrases you might say when introducing someone at a conference, which could describe just about anyone but don't really help you understand the person in question.

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

From a professional perspective, this book seems quite lacking in editorial attention but personally, I am still very glad to have read it. "She never thought of recognition as a goal or even a milestone. Righting wrongs; improving lives; emancipating the oppressed - these we're the challenges that fueled her activity, not a desire for recognition."

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm so happy to have learned about Patricia Locke because, I hate to say, I was unfamiliar with her life and work.