Wise Women: From Pocahontas to Sarah Winnemucca, Remarkable Stories of Native American Trailblazers

by Erin H. Turner

The story of Pocahontas saving John Smith is justly famous, as is the cross-country journey of Sacajawea with the Corps of Discovery, and Sarah Winnemucca earned fame by being a champion of her people as the old ways of life were disappearing. But there are lesser known stories of the Native American women who shaped their cultures and changed the course of American history. Illustrated with archival photographs, and encompassing twenty states―from Florida to Washington, Alaska to Maine―and many different tribes, this book brings together these amazing stories.

Genres: History, Biography, Womens, Indigenous, Nonfiction

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[SL · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is full of incredible women who ought to have their stories told more often and much wider. However, the writing in this is very dry. What it does do is whet the appetite for going deeper into some of these stories. Each tale is briefly told (again... dry... so dry). It will be fun to go into more depth on some of them through further readings.

[Jbondandrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading about the Wise Women. Though its a pity Christianity seemed to feature so highly. Though it was interesting to learn about the Aleut when the Russians were in Alaska.

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A full year. I enjoyed these stories so much that I read one here and there for over a year. I would take it with me on every trip. I’ll have to visit the places these women lived. As I read and get older, I lament that these are not the pictures of women that were painted for me growing up. I hope to give that gift of knowledge to my children. I also hope in general we are better aware of our their stories.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

The intentions of this book were great, but I felt like the quality and execution of the research and the way these women were written about was uneven.

Also, there were one too many references to the “savage” culture of the Indians for my taste.

That being said, these are women we should know more about and I appreciated the opportunity to learn a little.

[Stella Raasch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting stories. I rated this book as a 4 because the poor punctuation throughout makes it a little difficult to read. And, sometimes there is a lot of jumping around (the timeline) within each chapter, which is confusing.

[Tonya Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a slow read but not too bad.

[Jayalakshmi Jayaraman · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was quite a humbling experience to read about the suffering and strength of the women featured in this book. A must read for everyone!

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Referring to Powahatan and his tribe as savage is NOT the way to write a a book about Native Americans. That said, this was a good compendium of Native American women I haven't known about, and learning about the traditions and how they dealt with the incursion of white people to their lands is fascinating. I just wanted to put the book down when I read that. How do you even have the gall to write that?

[Yasmin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly enjoyable read, however, I still managed to come away feeling that there was something of a rosy tinted glasses look at these women. It was also a pity that there could not have been just a little bit more about each woman. But a good introductory look at these relatively unknown women of history and their stories.

[Mary Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book caught my eye when I was in my library a couple of weeks ago. It was on display. I so enjoyed it. Fascinating.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like reading about Polingaysi Qoyawayma.