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The Lost Wife
Drawn partly from a true story, a searing, totally immersive novel about a devastating Native American revolt, and a woman caught in the middle of the conflict.
In the summer of 1855, Sarah Brinton abandons her husband and child to make the long and difficult journey to Minnesota, where she will meet a childhood friend. Arriving at a small frontier post on the edge of the prairie, she discovers that her friend has died of cholera. Without work or money or friends, she quickly finds a husband who will become the resident physician at an Indian agency on the Yellow Medicine River. As one of the earliest settlers in the area, Sarah anticipates unease and hardship, but instead finds acceptance and kinship with the Sioux women who live on the nearby reservation. She learns to speak their language, nourishing a companionship with them which far exceeds that which she shares with her strange and distant husband.
An endless flow of White settlers are clearing the forests and claiming land. The government has yet to pay the Sioux the annuities awarded them each July for the sale of the land, and starvation and disease begin to decimate the Sioux community. What inevitably and tragically follows is the Sioux Uprising of 1862. While seeking safety at a nearby fort, Sarah and her two young children are abducted by Sioux warriors. They are unexpectedly kept safe by one of the men, who protects them until their rescue six weeks later by federal troops. Because of her sympathy for the Sioux, Sarah has become an outcast, falsely accused of marriage with her Native American captor. Vilified by the whites and despised by her husband, she is lost to both worlds.
Intimate, raw, compelling, and brilliantly subversive, Susanna Moore explores the history of Native American suffering and the rapacious settlement of the Western frontier.
In the summer of 1855, Sarah Brinton abandons her husband and child to make the long and difficult journey to Minnesota, where she will meet a childhood friend. Arriving at a small frontier post on the edge of the prairie, she discovers that her friend has died of cholera. Without work or money or friends, she quickly finds a husband who will become the resident physician at an Indian agency on the Yellow Medicine River. As one of the earliest settlers in the area, Sarah anticipates unease and hardship, but instead finds acceptance and kinship with the Sioux women who live on the nearby reservation. She learns to speak their language, nourishing a companionship with them which far exceeds that which she shares with her strange and distant husband.
An endless flow of White settlers are clearing the forests and claiming land. The government has yet to pay the Sioux the annuities awarded them each July for the sale of the land, and starvation and disease begin to decimate the Sioux community. What inevitably and tragically follows is the Sioux Uprising of 1862. While seeking safety at a nearby fort, Sarah and her two young children are abducted by Sioux warriors. They are unexpectedly kept safe by one of the men, who protects them until their rescue six weeks later by federal troops. Because of her sympathy for the Sioux, Sarah has become an outcast, falsely accused of marriage with her Native American captor. Vilified by the whites and despised by her husband, she is lost to both worlds.
Intimate, raw, compelling, and brilliantly subversive, Susanna Moore explores the history of Native American suffering and the rapacious settlement of the Western frontier.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published April 4, 2023
311 people are currently reading
7354 people want to read
About the author
Susanna Moore
36 books181 followersSusanna Moore is the author of the novels One Last Look, In the Cut, The Whiteness of Bones, Sleeping Beauties, and My Old Sweetheart, which won the Ernest Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for First Fiction, and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her nonfiction travel book, I Myself Have Seen It, was published by the National Geographic Society in 2003. She lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 392 reviews
September 4, 2023
It was a fascinating time to read about ,the mid 1800’s in a fascinating place - the west . A story based on true events and based on a woman who lived through some awful times to say the least, growing up with a single mother who makes a prostitute of her , leaving an abusive husband , remaking a life and then surviving the Sioux Uprising in 1862. A learning experience and a moving one. This is important for sure, but the matter of fact writing style didn’t drawn me in and I had a hard time connecting emotionally. Still worth reading for the educational value as well as depiction of a strong and resilient woman .
I received a copy of this book from Knopf through Edelweiss
I received a copy of this book from Knopf through Edelweiss
May 14, 2023
Historical fiction about the gilded age and western settler colonialism and the civil war??? Yeah I’m gonna eat it up
May 17, 2023
A fictionalized version of, the author tells us in a brief note at the end of the book, a true incident that took place during the bloody 1862 Dakota Uprising in the Minnesota territory. Sarah Browne flees Providence and her abusive husband in 1855, to join the girl who’d been her closest friend while they were raised in a brutal institution for the indigent. Upon reaching her destination out West, she finds herself alone and penniless, and soon marries a doctor. Skip ahead 7 years, and the couple, along with their two young children, are living at the remote Indian Agency, where he is the resident physician. She makes few friends among the supercilious local white women but feels friendship and is simpatico with many of the local Sioux.
After years of being cheated of the money and food they’re entitled to under treaty, unable to feed themselves in traditional ways, having been driven from the Prairies by waves of farming settlers, the Sioux are starving, with many women and children dying of hunger. False promises continue to be made, people continue to starve, and the final straw comes when the callous local Indian agent remarks that if they’re that hungry they should just eat grass. Predictably, the proud Sioux warriors gather and begin a campaign of raids to wipe out local settlements and whites. Sarah and her children are taken captive and, though their lives are sometimes threatened, they are protected by some of the Sioux she knew from the Agency, and whom she respects and cares for. After several months in captivity, they are eventually taken into custody by the large military contingent that was sent out to exact bloody retribution on the Sioux. We know how this will end. As Sarah observes shortly after the hostilities commence, “It matters little what crimes have been committed against the Dakota; this uprising will always be thought more horrific than anything the whites have done to them.”
Much of the story’s tension and power lies in the depiction of the netherworld Sarah is cast into. She is not fully accepted by the Sioux, no matter her respect and affection for them, and after her rescue is reviled by the white community for her open sympathy for the Sioux, witnessed by other women captives, who ensure with great contempt that her story is fully revealed.
Vividly imagined and told in devastating, raw detail.
After years of being cheated of the money and food they’re entitled to under treaty, unable to feed themselves in traditional ways, having been driven from the Prairies by waves of farming settlers, the Sioux are starving, with many women and children dying of hunger. False promises continue to be made, people continue to starve, and the final straw comes when the callous local Indian agent remarks that if they’re that hungry they should just eat grass. Predictably, the proud Sioux warriors gather and begin a campaign of raids to wipe out local settlements and whites. Sarah and her children are taken captive and, though their lives are sometimes threatened, they are protected by some of the Sioux she knew from the Agency, and whom she respects and cares for. After several months in captivity, they are eventually taken into custody by the large military contingent that was sent out to exact bloody retribution on the Sioux. We know how this will end. As Sarah observes shortly after the hostilities commence, “It matters little what crimes have been committed against the Dakota; this uprising will always be thought more horrific than anything the whites have done to them.”
Much of the story’s tension and power lies in the depiction of the netherworld Sarah is cast into. She is not fully accepted by the Sioux, no matter her respect and affection for them, and after her rescue is reviled by the white community for her open sympathy for the Sioux, witnessed by other women captives, who ensure with great contempt that her story is fully revealed.
Vividly imagined and told in devastating, raw detail.
June 7, 2023
Moore’s hard-hitting novel is based in part on the memoir Six Weeks in the Sioux Tepees: A Narrative of Indian Captivity. In Moore’s version, Sarah, 25, leaves her baby behind when she flees her abusive husband, and once in Minnesota Territory marries John Brinton, who becomes a doctor on a Sioux reservation. By 1862, Sarah is friendly with the Native women. Although the Civil War is unfolding, the greater threat here is of revolt by the starving Indigenous residents. There is much of anthropological and historical interest, but Sarah’s flat storytelling, which may represent a pastiche of period style, means threatening or climactic scenes lose some of their potential gravity. (More of a 3.5, really.)
See my full review at BookBrowse. (See also my related article on the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.)
See my full review at BookBrowse. (See also my related article on the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.)
December 31, 2023
3.5
Thank you to @prhaudio for the complimentry audiobook.
I loved the time period and location of the mid 1800’s on the American frontier of this book, it had great promise.
Sarah leaves her husband and child to go meet her childhood friend out West (first of all, who does this back then?) Sarah then gets involved and in the middle of conflicts with Native Americans and the white peoples.
What didn’t land right for me was the speed of events and the jumping around. It almost felt like this was a bullet diary sharing all of the major highlights with little of the mundane that connects life. It was good, yet I didn’t feel connected or compassion for the characters.
Thank you to @prhaudio for the complimentry audiobook.
I loved the time period and location of the mid 1800’s on the American frontier of this book, it had great promise.
Sarah leaves her husband and child to go meet her childhood friend out West (first of all, who does this back then?) Sarah then gets involved and in the middle of conflicts with Native Americans and the white peoples.
What didn’t land right for me was the speed of events and the jumping around. It almost felt like this was a bullet diary sharing all of the major highlights with little of the mundane that connects life. It was good, yet I didn’t feel connected or compassion for the characters.
May 29, 2023
This is a short novel about the Sioux Uprising in 1862 and a white woman caught in the middle of it. Which world does she live in, when she doesn’t really fit into either? The style of the book reminded me of Paulette Jile’s writing.
May 22, 2023
The Lost Wife is inspired and based around the true events surrounding Sarah Wakefield and her two children when they were abducted by Mdewakanton warriors during the Sioux uprising of 1862. This was during one of the largest mass executions of the Sioux that Lincoln allowed to happen. Wakefield did have her own written account of her experiences but Moore uses it to tell an in depth, poignant and emotional take on what happened.
Moore explores the exploitation of the Sioux and colonialism in a way that is brutal and honest. The main character of Sarah Brinton escapes from a violent past to a world where she makes friends with the white settlers and the Native Americans in an area of Minnesota. Her point of view is straight talking, she doesn’t hold back in her observations of what happened during this turbulent time.
Survival and oppression are key themes to this story. It is an uncomfortable read, but an intimate and powerful take on a period of history that is shameful and horrific. For only a short book, the writing evokes such strong emotions in a way that will have you invested to the very end.
Moore explores the exploitation of the Sioux and colonialism in a way that is brutal and honest. The main character of Sarah Brinton escapes from a violent past to a world where she makes friends with the white settlers and the Native Americans in an area of Minnesota. Her point of view is straight talking, she doesn’t hold back in her observations of what happened during this turbulent time.
Survival and oppression are key themes to this story. It is an uncomfortable read, but an intimate and powerful take on a period of history that is shameful and horrific. For only a short book, the writing evokes such strong emotions in a way that will have you invested to the very end.
June 14, 2023
interesting but the writing was so flat
September 12, 2024
Read this in 2 days. It’s short, but the perfect length. I loved the flashbacks to Sarah’s time with Maddie because it let you suspect what their relationship was without saying it outright. The trek to Missouri was soo interesting (and terrible) especially because I’ve never read anything that mentioned traveling on the Erie Canal.
Sarah was incredibly strong physically, mentally, and emotionally until the very last page.
The Dakota nation and all Native Americans had their land stolen by white settlers. “Shame” doesn’t even begin to describe how to feel.
I could see this book being a show or movie. The descriptions were so vivid.
Sarah was incredibly strong physically, mentally, and emotionally until the very last page.
The Dakota nation and all Native Americans had their land stolen by white settlers. “Shame” doesn’t even begin to describe how to feel.
I could see this book being a show or movie. The descriptions were so vivid.
June 4, 2023
Just a brilliant book- the story (based on a true account) of a woman and her children caught in the Dakota uprising in Minnesota and taken in by Native Americans. You wonder why this sort of story isn’t everywhere, and the ubiquitous ‘Western’ is- as it’s not only true but incredibly compelling. Probably because it means we have to say ‘another dark chapter of American history’ which is what we have to say about every chapter of American history post colonisation.
October 26, 2023
Never connected with the main character. Strange writing style- very flat
June 14, 2025
DNF @45%
June 11, 2023
A few years ago, I read IN THE CUT, by Susanna Moore and her writing captivated me. I was eager to read THE LOST WIFE, which had a different plot than In The Cut. While the subject matter was different, the engaging writing remained and I enjoyed this one.
In the summer of 1855, Sarah Brinton decides to leave an abusive husband and her child behind to make a better life for herself. She remarries and has two children and is enjoying her life, finally. Then, during the Sioux Uprising of 1862, Sarah and her two children are captured by Sioux warriors. One of the warriors ensures their safety until their rescue by federal troops weeks later. Reviled by the whites because she is sympathetic to the Sioux, but never fully accepted by the Sioux, Sarah feels lost and torn.
The writing is reflective of the time period in which the story is set and is structured more akin to a journal than a standard-form novel. I enjoyed it, but it felt a bit more disjointed than In The Cut. Overall, Moore's ability to build tension and evoke emotion is present and I appreciated that this story drew attention to problematic history that is often overlooked in fiction.
In the summer of 1855, Sarah Brinton decides to leave an abusive husband and her child behind to make a better life for herself. She remarries and has two children and is enjoying her life, finally. Then, during the Sioux Uprising of 1862, Sarah and her two children are captured by Sioux warriors. One of the warriors ensures their safety until their rescue by federal troops weeks later. Reviled by the whites because she is sympathetic to the Sioux, but never fully accepted by the Sioux, Sarah feels lost and torn.
The writing is reflective of the time period in which the story is set and is structured more akin to a journal than a standard-form novel. I enjoyed it, but it felt a bit more disjointed than In The Cut. Overall, Moore's ability to build tension and evoke emotion is present and I appreciated that this story drew attention to problematic history that is often overlooked in fiction.
April 14, 2023
Heartbreaking Story, But Flat Writing Style
I don’t recall ever reading a novel which was written in such a flat writing style. The novel itself is about a young immigrant, prostituted by her own mother, who leaves an abusive husband and is caught up in the decimation of Indian tribes by white settlers and troops in the mid-19th century. It is an intense and action-packed story line. However, the writing style is ‘flat’, with little emotion. So, it’d be like writing: ‘The sun was blazing in the sky today. There were two mutilated bodies on the ground. I looked for something to have for lunch.’ Perhaps the author used this as a technique to contrast the bizarre events and carnage, but it just didn’t work, in my opinion.
I don’t recall ever reading a novel which was written in such a flat writing style. The novel itself is about a young immigrant, prostituted by her own mother, who leaves an abusive husband and is caught up in the decimation of Indian tribes by white settlers and troops in the mid-19th century. It is an intense and action-packed story line. However, the writing style is ‘flat’, with little emotion. So, it’d be like writing: ‘The sun was blazing in the sky today. There were two mutilated bodies on the ground. I looked for something to have for lunch.’ Perhaps the author used this as a technique to contrast the bizarre events and carnage, but it just didn’t work, in my opinion.
May 5, 2023
It is 1855 and Sarah is struggling. She abandons her abusive husband and leaves her child to make a better life for herself. She quickly remarries to a physician and has two children. Her husband is the doctor at an Indian Agency on the Yellow Medicine River. As one of the earliest settlers to the area Sarah makes friends with the local Sioux woman and slowly and carefully learns their language. When the uprising of the Sioux in 1862, Sarah and her two children are taken captive by Sioux warriors. Surprisingly they are kept safe and are rescued by federal troops after several weeks.
Wow. This book has left me stunned. It was so interesting and powerful. I loved the format – it was a nice break from the traditional. It was done in more of a journal type format. With that being said the book did lack some flow of a traditional type of book, as it was rather choppy jumping around. I will say it worked for me, but I have read some reviews and others didn’t like that. I enjoyed Sarah’s character, and you really got a sense of what it was like during this time. She sacrificed so much for her survival, and she had so much strength. I wasn’t a fan of how it ended, it felt like it came out of left field for me, and I struggled. I was a big fan that this was drawn from a true story, that added so much to my enjoyment.
Overall, I think this is worth the read. I am rounding to 4 stars for this one.
Thank you so much to @aaknopf for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.
Wow. This book has left me stunned. It was so interesting and powerful. I loved the format – it was a nice break from the traditional. It was done in more of a journal type format. With that being said the book did lack some flow of a traditional type of book, as it was rather choppy jumping around. I will say it worked for me, but I have read some reviews and others didn’t like that. I enjoyed Sarah’s character, and you really got a sense of what it was like during this time. She sacrificed so much for her survival, and she had so much strength. I wasn’t a fan of how it ended, it felt like it came out of left field for me, and I struggled. I was a big fan that this was drawn from a true story, that added so much to my enjoyment.
Overall, I think this is worth the read. I am rounding to 4 stars for this one.
Thank you so much to @aaknopf for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.
April 5, 2024
This was good, in it's own way.
[Very] short, direct, concise story, told through the eyes of the "lost wife" and her alone. A very one-sided story. So many things happen, an entire uprising, in just under two hundred pages. Significant historical events that could warrant it's own lengthy tome were whittled down to background goings-on. The shortness made it feel rushed, a little difficult to connect wholeheartedly to characters.
Regardless, this got four stars (pretty high for me). The story was good. The writing was really good. I could see myself loving this if it was triple the length.
[Very] short, direct, concise story, told through the eyes of the "lost wife" and her alone. A very one-sided story. So many things happen, an entire uprising, in just under two hundred pages. Significant historical events that could warrant it's own lengthy tome were whittled down to background goings-on. The shortness made it feel rushed, a little difficult to connect wholeheartedly to characters.
Regardless, this got four stars (pretty high for me). The story was good. The writing was really good. I could see myself loving this if it was triple the length.
September 22, 2023
I have no idea if I liked this one or not, if the writing was good or bad, or if any of it made any sense.
The writing probably falls into the “trash” category by default because there were very frequent changes between past and present tense when writing about the same time period; I have no clue what the point of that was. It also wasn’t descriptive at all, which is a shame because I could never really picture what life among the Sioux looked like. “I did this, he did that, they did this, I did that”, that was basically the whole book. And it was sooo hard to get a read on main character Sarah, I was baffled by what she might be thinking most of the time.
All that being said… I think I still liked it?! Huh?
It’s probably just because I miss reading historical fiction that much…
The writing probably falls into the “trash” category by default because there were very frequent changes between past and present tense when writing about the same time period; I have no clue what the point of that was. It also wasn’t descriptive at all, which is a shame because I could never really picture what life among the Sioux looked like. “I did this, he did that, they did this, I did that”, that was basically the whole book. And it was sooo hard to get a read on main character Sarah, I was baffled by what she might be thinking most of the time.
All that being said… I think I still liked it?! Huh?
It’s probably just because I miss reading historical fiction that much…
February 28, 2024
I tried and managed 20% but it is one of those long, rambling stories that cram everything into each chapter as much as possible. I did enjoy the old woman telling the preacher she'd rather not be preached as she was prone to seizures. :D But otherwise this just wasn't working for me. Interesting, sad, and just bland writing. 3.5 ⭐
Trigger warnings: implied rape, starvation, child abuse, spousal abuse, implied torture, and child abandonment
Trigger warnings: implied rape, starvation, child abuse, spousal abuse, implied torture, and child abandonment
June 28, 2023
I found it hard to connect with the main character, though recognize that the style of writing fit her. This is an interesting portrayal of someone going west to escape abuse and entering a world where relations between whites and Native Americans were reaching a boiling point.
January 15, 2024
4 ⭐
Partly based on a true story this is a story about the war between Native Americans and the Whites.
Adore any books about this part of history and love extending my knowledge on the subject.
An interesting, educational and at times uncomfortable read.
Would recommend 💕
Partly based on a true story this is a story about the war between Native Americans and the Whites.
Adore any books about this part of history and love extending my knowledge on the subject.
An interesting, educational and at times uncomfortable read.
Would recommend 💕
August 12, 2023
Strong, unapologetic woman heads west into 1860s America with grit as her most valuable possession. Clean writing with no handwringing heroines.
February 20, 2025
So much going on for this woman! She flees her husband and child and ends up conflicted with who she can trust and where she is safe. She marries again before finding herself with the Dakota women. The violence is described in detail for various encounters. She wants to keep her children safe. She respects the Dakota people but is also white so she is not fully accepted by all. A very difficult existence for sure and I guess based on a true story. Quick read/listen that took me over a month with other distractions…
August 17, 2023
Loved this book. Historical Fiction at its best---- 1862 Sioux Uprising in the Minnesota territory.
November 18, 2024
as usual, white men ruin everything
March 26, 2024
This novel sent me back to James W. Loewen’s ‘Lies My Teacher Told Me’, in particular Chapter 4, ‘Red Eyes’. Lies and Eyes – in part at least what this top flight novel is about, in which the narrator, Sarah Butts, abandons her abusive husband and her young daughter and sets out from Kingstown near Boston for Shakopee in Minnesota where her friend Maddie will be waiting for her.
The year is 1855. Maddie, however, has died, and Sarah has to make her way in life as best she can. She finds Yale-educated Dr John Brinton (a monorchid – not often one has the chance to use that word) an easy catch, and the narrative leaps forward to 1862 by which time the Brintons and their children, James and Anne, are established in the Indian agency in Yellow Medicine, in Minnesota. The rest of the novel describes what happens to Sarah during the Indian – and I use the word because it is the one Sarah uses – uprising. This uprising is a protest-of-last-resort against their not receiving their ‘annuity’ from the US government, the non-fulfilment of which has led to widespread starvation.
This desperate act is clearly a result of three things: the White Man continually breaking his promises, the money due to the Indians being diverted into paying for the Civil War, and the White Man’s attitude of othering towards the Indians. This is summarised, with a bluntness that is rare in this understated narrative, in a letter from a General Pope to General Sibley, the officer in charge of suppressing the Indians. Sarah quotes thus:
“There will be no peace in this region by virtue of treaties and Indian faith. It is my purpose utterly to exterminate the Sioux if I have the power to do so and even if it requires a campaign lasting the whole of next year. Destroy everything belonging to them and force them out to the plains, unless, as I suggest, you can capture them. They are to be treated as maniacs or wild beasts, and by no means as people with whom treaties or compromises can be made.”
This is shortly followed, on the same page in fact, by this:
“The men who were not arrested at Camp Release were ordered by General Sibley to assemble at a warehouse at Fort Snelling, where they would at last receive their annuities. At the fort, they were told to form a line apart from the women and children and to leave their rifles and knives in barrels by the door. Clerks sat at tables with paper and pens to take their names. As they disappeared inside, they were shackled and forced into carts waiting for them behind the warehouse… None of the men have been tried.”
So are White Men “people with whom treaties or compromises can be made”? Thus the treachery and beastliness of the White Man is made plain, and Moore skilfully crafts her writing with often quite small remarks to support her major concerns such as this. For example, the clerk in a store in Shakopee – itself a name derived by the Whites from Chief Sakpe of the Mdewakanton Dakota people – following the end of the hostilities between the Dakota Indians and the White Man declares to Sarah “More room for us now.”
Well, that’s one point of view, one way of seeing history. Sarah’s narrative is pretty good at setting it against her own experience, which is much more sympathetic to the Indian. She is something of an outsider anyway, having been brought up by a mother who ‘was not fond of work’ and with whom Sarah went to Dexter Asylum for the ‘indigent and insane’ where she met Maddie. Together they were as wild as they could get away with, but they both liked to read and had a spirit of independence. Sarah is open to new experiences and, like her mother who is loose with her favours both by inclination and necessity, knows she is likely to have to make what she can of life as an ‘uprooted’ person. Thus, when she is captured by the Indians she chooses to dress in deerskins and become Chaska’s wife, partly because she is grateful to him for saving her life, and partly because she finds him more attractive than Dr Brinton – sympathetic and sexually capable. She also defends him when he in turn is captured and tried with victors’ justice – and prejudice. The court’s refusal to consider him innocent of the charge of murdering Manse Hawkins simply because he is an Indian makes its point clearly.
Not that the Indian war chief, Little Crow, and his braves are blameless of atrocities. The horrors they perpetrate upon the Whites are amply illustrated. But then they, the Whites, are not the ones being forcibly removed from their land by a treacherous and disease-carrying force of settlers. There are more than a few echoes of the notions of lebensraum here, if I dare be so bold as to use that word.
There is, in Moore’s style, a simplicity that comes from two sources: from its adopting the voice of a woman keen simply to give her account of her life, and from an author’s trust in the power of a good story to do most of her work for her. You don’t need an elaborate authorial commentary, or passages discussing the psychological effect of trauma upon the protagonists: it’s all there to be created by the reader’s imagination. Certainly there are moments where Sarah’s voice feels that it’s the author making sure her point is taken. For example, there is the incident of the pail. Fetching water one day when she is a captive of the Indians, Sarah decides to wash her feet in it, then throws out the water and refills the pail. Someone sees her and she is chastised for defiling the pail in this way. The pail is never used again. Rather than comment on how stupid the Indians are, she says ‘Now it is I who am uncivilized.’ But even here, Moore is able to disguise her own comment pretty convincingly by allowing us to read the remark as a moment of discovery for Sarah – that notions of civilization are relative. Not much, for example, can be said to be civilized about the way Sarah’s white female fellow-captives behave towards her during and after their captivity. The civilities of Christian charity easily fall away under duress, and civilization requires more than the ‘good manners’ Dr Brinton observes as he keeps at bay the kindness of ‘affection [and] even pity’ towards his Indian-soiled wife.
As you can see, I have already gone into A Level teacher mode, and indeed I often judge a book’s quality by how much, while reading it, I am stirred to annotate it. I felt that all the time with this novel that I wanted to jot stuff down about it. But rather than explore its qualities further, I’ll call it a day. Suffice it to say that it is perfectly possible to read this novel as a tremendously pacy, readable story of a woman making her way in a world in which White Man America is discovering that ‘its myth of innocence and abundance is a kind of delirium’.
The year is 1855. Maddie, however, has died, and Sarah has to make her way in life as best she can. She finds Yale-educated Dr John Brinton (a monorchid – not often one has the chance to use that word) an easy catch, and the narrative leaps forward to 1862 by which time the Brintons and their children, James and Anne, are established in the Indian agency in Yellow Medicine, in Minnesota. The rest of the novel describes what happens to Sarah during the Indian – and I use the word because it is the one Sarah uses – uprising. This uprising is a protest-of-last-resort against their not receiving their ‘annuity’ from the US government, the non-fulfilment of which has led to widespread starvation.
This desperate act is clearly a result of three things: the White Man continually breaking his promises, the money due to the Indians being diverted into paying for the Civil War, and the White Man’s attitude of othering towards the Indians. This is summarised, with a bluntness that is rare in this understated narrative, in a letter from a General Pope to General Sibley, the officer in charge of suppressing the Indians. Sarah quotes thus:
“There will be no peace in this region by virtue of treaties and Indian faith. It is my purpose utterly to exterminate the Sioux if I have the power to do so and even if it requires a campaign lasting the whole of next year. Destroy everything belonging to them and force them out to the plains, unless, as I suggest, you can capture them. They are to be treated as maniacs or wild beasts, and by no means as people with whom treaties or compromises can be made.”
This is shortly followed, on the same page in fact, by this:
“The men who were not arrested at Camp Release were ordered by General Sibley to assemble at a warehouse at Fort Snelling, where they would at last receive their annuities. At the fort, they were told to form a line apart from the women and children and to leave their rifles and knives in barrels by the door. Clerks sat at tables with paper and pens to take their names. As they disappeared inside, they were shackled and forced into carts waiting for them behind the warehouse… None of the men have been tried.”
So are White Men “people with whom treaties or compromises can be made”? Thus the treachery and beastliness of the White Man is made plain, and Moore skilfully crafts her writing with often quite small remarks to support her major concerns such as this. For example, the clerk in a store in Shakopee – itself a name derived by the Whites from Chief Sakpe of the Mdewakanton Dakota people – following the end of the hostilities between the Dakota Indians and the White Man declares to Sarah “More room for us now.”
Well, that’s one point of view, one way of seeing history. Sarah’s narrative is pretty good at setting it against her own experience, which is much more sympathetic to the Indian. She is something of an outsider anyway, having been brought up by a mother who ‘was not fond of work’ and with whom Sarah went to Dexter Asylum for the ‘indigent and insane’ where she met Maddie. Together they were as wild as they could get away with, but they both liked to read and had a spirit of independence. Sarah is open to new experiences and, like her mother who is loose with her favours both by inclination and necessity, knows she is likely to have to make what she can of life as an ‘uprooted’ person. Thus, when she is captured by the Indians she chooses to dress in deerskins and become Chaska’s wife, partly because she is grateful to him for saving her life, and partly because she finds him more attractive than Dr Brinton – sympathetic and sexually capable. She also defends him when he in turn is captured and tried with victors’ justice – and prejudice. The court’s refusal to consider him innocent of the charge of murdering Manse Hawkins simply because he is an Indian makes its point clearly.
Not that the Indian war chief, Little Crow, and his braves are blameless of atrocities. The horrors they perpetrate upon the Whites are amply illustrated. But then they, the Whites, are not the ones being forcibly removed from their land by a treacherous and disease-carrying force of settlers. There are more than a few echoes of the notions of lebensraum here, if I dare be so bold as to use that word.
There is, in Moore’s style, a simplicity that comes from two sources: from its adopting the voice of a woman keen simply to give her account of her life, and from an author’s trust in the power of a good story to do most of her work for her. You don’t need an elaborate authorial commentary, or passages discussing the psychological effect of trauma upon the protagonists: it’s all there to be created by the reader’s imagination. Certainly there are moments where Sarah’s voice feels that it’s the author making sure her point is taken. For example, there is the incident of the pail. Fetching water one day when she is a captive of the Indians, Sarah decides to wash her feet in it, then throws out the water and refills the pail. Someone sees her and she is chastised for defiling the pail in this way. The pail is never used again. Rather than comment on how stupid the Indians are, she says ‘Now it is I who am uncivilized.’ But even here, Moore is able to disguise her own comment pretty convincingly by allowing us to read the remark as a moment of discovery for Sarah – that notions of civilization are relative. Not much, for example, can be said to be civilized about the way Sarah’s white female fellow-captives behave towards her during and after their captivity. The civilities of Christian charity easily fall away under duress, and civilization requires more than the ‘good manners’ Dr Brinton observes as he keeps at bay the kindness of ‘affection [and] even pity’ towards his Indian-soiled wife.
As you can see, I have already gone into A Level teacher mode, and indeed I often judge a book’s quality by how much, while reading it, I am stirred to annotate it. I felt that all the time with this novel that I wanted to jot stuff down about it. But rather than explore its qualities further, I’ll call it a day. Suffice it to say that it is perfectly possible to read this novel as a tremendously pacy, readable story of a woman making her way in a world in which White Man America is discovering that ‘its myth of innocence and abundance is a kind of delirium’.
June 4, 2023
I found this book fascinating for its story and setting - a white woman, married with children, who gets abducted by the Dakota Sioux and is shunned when she is released, mainly because of her sympathy for some of her captors. A lot of what happens in this story is horrific and reflects badly on both sides - the Federal government soldiers and the native Americans warriors. Some readers haven’t liked the “flat” journalistic/diary style of the writing, but I found it compelling. There were times I wanted more, though, especially at the end.
April 30, 2023
The book is short, written in short sections, in a matter of fact way, which I found a very effective method to present the events contained in the book. The story is based upon a true story of a white couple at the Indian agency during the Sioux Uprising of 1862, and is told from the woman’s point of view. This is historical fiction at its finest, and I highly recommend it.
June 15, 2023
Not my cup of tea. Gruesome in spots and the ending was very abrupt. The author says at the end that it was based on a true story written by a woman who had experienced this same life. I had the impression she just changed the name and rewrote that story.
July 9, 2023
Ugh so long and sad.
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