Assignment task: Discussion of Chapters 1-3 in Lakota Woman
The first three chapters paint a picture of life on the Rosebud Reservation, offering the difficulties of being a Burned Thigh Sioux. What do you see as a part of these difficulties?
Here are some questions to help you get started thinking about these chapters analytically:
Chapter 1:
Q1. What tragedies have befallen Mary Crow Dog in her life?
Q2. How does she show pride in her tribe?
Q3. What characterized the tribe before the whites came along? (i.e. - how did they survive? What were notable attributes?)
Q4. Briefly describe the story of Mary's birth and what happened to her mother afterward?
Q5. What is the tone the author uses to describe her life in this chapter? How does this tone help or hurt the reading of the difficult experiences of Mary's life?
Chapter 2:
Q1. What is the tiyospaye? Why was it important to the Sioux?
Q2. How did the whites impose the "nuclear family"?
Q3. What happened between Mary and her father at her uncle's funeral?
Q4. Why was Mary unaware of being poor when she was a child?
Q5. When and how did she realize she was poor?
Q6. Why wouldn't her grandmother teach her how to speak Sioux?
Q7. What was one thing she had that the 'whites' her age did not? What is the significance of her pride in this? How was it part of her culture?
Chapter 3:
Q1. Please come up with 2 questions for this chapter, using the others as a guide