The Roan Stallion by Alfreda Beartrack Algeo

It is the summer of 1930 and Alfred is on his way to work at the Looking Rock Ranch, southwest of Reliance. Alfred tames horses for the ranch owner, Mr. Looking Rock. At Beaver Creek, Alfred decides to stop at a favourite spot and that's when he spots a blue roan stallion which he identifies as a Medicine Hat horse, sacred to his Lakota people. Alfred is so distracted by the beautiful horse that he doesn't notice the approaching tornado and he and the horse are caught up in it but survive their ordeal. 

Since his father left to find work in the big city over two years ago, Alfred, his younger brother Elmer, and his mother have been living with his grandparents on their farm. But his grandfather is getting older and finding the farm harder to work. Alfred has a secret plan: to win the relay race at the White River Frontier Days and with the prize money, purchase a tractor for his grandfather.  He needs one more horse for his relay team, and the blue roan just might be that horse!

Instead of continuing on to the ranch, Alfred returns home, only to find his beloved yellow lab, Chepa has died. Devastated, Alfred places Chepa on his horse, Anpo and sets out to bury his dog. But while preparing the grave, Chepa opens his eyes and Alfred realizes that his dog has eaten his mother's dough, causing him to pass out. He returns home, thankful that Chepa is alive.

A week later and it is branding day at the ranch. Alfred decides to stay overnight at the ranch  in the bunkhouse so he can start work early the next day. At the ranch he meets Mr. Looking Rock's nephew, Johnny Krugerbery. Johnny takes an immediate dislike to Alfred and threatens him in the bunkhouse. However, the round-up and branding goes without incident.

As the summer moves on, Alfred learns some important information about his father. He also begins training the blue roan to become part of his relay team. But when Johnny attempts to take over his uncle's ranch, Alfred and his friends are not only in danger of missing the relay race, but their lives as well.

Discussion

The Roan Stallion continues the story of Alfred Swallow and his family. Beartrack-Algeo engages her readers immediately with a series of events involving Alfred. On his way to a nearby ranch, Alfred encounters an unusual horse, a blue roan stallion which he identifies as a Medicine Hat horse, he gets caught in a tornado and almost loses his beloved dog Chepa. Beartrack-Algeo moves the story along quickly, having Alfred prepare for the relay race but also get caught up in the events going on at the Looking Rock ranch.

Readers may find this story a bit disjointed. For example, at the end of Chapter 4 Medicine Hat, Alfred's grandfather mentions that Alfred needs to "load your sacred pipe and go to your elder, Peter Flying Crow, to help you interpret your encounter with the sky spirit and the Medicine Hat horse." However, the next chapter skips over this entirely, fast-forwarding to a week later when Alfred is to work at the Looking Rock range. It would have been interesting to read about Alfred meeting Peter Flying Crow and what his interpretation of Alfred's experiences was.  Chapter 6 Big Day which focuses on the branding at the ranch, also does the same, ending with Alfred's decision to sleep over at the bunkhouse another night to see possibly what Johnny Krugerbery might be up to. However the next chapter leads off, several weeks into the future with Alfred talking about his training of the roan stallion. Did Alfred learn anything about what Johnny was up to? 

In The Roan Stallion, Alfred learns more about his father, whom he is eventually reunited with at the end of the novel. Beartrack-Algeo continues to develop Alfred as a character; he is boy determined to do the right thing and live a life of honor, in the tradition of his people, the Lakota. Alfred shows respect to his elders, to the animals and nature around him. He's also not afraid to confront evil when he and his friends take on Johnny and his gang. But at the heart of this story is Alfred, who seeing the difficulty his grandfather is having in working the farm, is moved to act: his goal is to win the relay race prize money so he can buy his grandfather a new tractor. 

Once again, the author also uses the character of Alfred's grandfather to show the impact of the white man on the Lakota way of life. When they are preparing for the relay race, Alfred remembers the day he helped Grandfather build fences for their pasture and how the idea of sectioning off the land and building fences is foreign to the Lakota.
"In the old days there no fences and no land ownership, and the buffalo were plenty. Now we find ourselves fenced in like prisoners on reservations. The government issues a card telling us we are Indians, as if we don't know who we are. We are the People, the allies. They ask us to show them this card in order to get food to feed our starving babies. They ask us to show them this card if we want permission to leave our fenced-in reservation. They want to know where we are going and when we will return. Maybe they approve the request, maybe not. Inside the fenced-in reservations, they gave us small parcels. Giving us our own land back? The land were my people hunted our buffalo and cared for our babies? I don't understand. They expect us to be farmers, to grow crops from the poor seeds they give us, but the crops often die. They expect us to be ranchers and fight over the land they gave us. but the sick cattle they send to replace the buffalo they killed often die. They expect us to build fences on the land they gave us, so here we are, Grandson...building fences."

The Roan Stallion is a short, heart-warming story set at the beginning of the Great Depression. It has plenty of action, and believable characters who highlight some important virtues such as charity, consideration, industriousness and determination. This short novel also informs young readers about the Lakota people who shared the prairies with the vast herds of buffalo and how their lives were changed forever by the coming of the white settlers. A third installment of this series is much anticipated!

Book Details:

The Roan Stallion by Alfreda Beartrack-Algeo
Summertown, Tennessee: 7th Generation Book Publishing Company     2023
121 pp.

The Land Grab: The Legend of Big Heart by Alfreda Beartrack-Algeo

The Land Grab is the first in a trilogy about Alfred Swallow and his Lakota family's life as Lakota people attempting to save what's left of their traditional way of life and their beliefs. In this short story, Alfred and his grandfather struggle to prevent corrupt government agents from stealing their land.

It is 1929 and eleven-year-old Alfred Swallow lives with his grandparents, Thomas and Lucille Plenty Buffalo, his nine--year brother Elmer, and his mother. They live on the Kul Wicasa Lakota Reservation in Iron Nation, South Dakota. Prior to this, Alfred and his family lived in a house two miles west of his grandparents. Alfred's father had moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming to find work and send money home. But months later they had to move in with Alfred's grandparents. Despite this Alfred and his family are living according to their traditional values.

For the first day of spring, Alfred along with his brother Elmer and their grandfather, walk to the Missouri River for a water ceremony. Grandfather tells Alfred that soon it will be time to dream his spirit name, the name that will protect him. Alfred has already had such dreams but he doesn't tell Grandfather. Alfred's face is painted with sacred red-earth clay, his scalp lock bearing a golden eagle feather and he's wearing a pair of hard-soled quilled deerskin moccasins. Playing an elk-skin drum, Alfred sings the four directions song while his grandfather prays to the Great Spirit, Creator.

On Easter Sunday, after attending services at the Messiah Episcopal Church, Alfred decides to go to Medicine Creek to catch some fish for dinner. Accompanying him is his yellow Labrador, Chepa. He also brings his canvas tote bag containing water, dried deer pemmican and his sketch book and charcoal sticks. As he begins to draw an old gray cedar tree, Alfred hears Chepa bark. The black stone he picked up at the Missouri River seems to grow warm and vibrate.

Alfred notices a gray wolf next to the cedar tree, bearing her teeth and growling. He can hear her wolf pups likely near the cedar tree. Then with Chepa charging the wolves, the alpha wolf attacks Alfred, biting him in the thigh. He manages to strike the alpha wolf with a piece of driftwood, making him retreat. A large golden eagle comes to Alfred's rescue, dropping tree limbs in front of him. He is able to make a dogwood travois and walks home with a badly wounded Chepa on the travois before collapsing. Alfred awakens a week later, weak but recovering, to find his grandmother has stitched his wounds.

Alfred's best friend, Orson High Elk comes to visit and helps him repair the chicken coop after it had been raided by a fox. As they finish, the two boys watch as a black Model T pulls into the driveway. It is Mr. Jim O'Neil, superintendent for the Lower Brule Agency. Superintendent O'Neil offers Grandfather "fifty-six cents an acre for your six hundred and forty acres along the river bottom." Grandfather adamantly refuses O'Neil's offer, telling him that six hundred and twenty of those acres belong to Alfred and Elmer as allotted acres. He also tells O'Neil that what he is doing is illegal, that the price is unfair and too low, and that tilling the soil during a drought and planting non-Indigenous crops like Russian olives is not wise. He orders O'Neil off his property. Furious, O'Neil warns Grandfather that he will use the power he has to forcibly take his land.

Alfred races into the house after O'Neil leaves, questioning Grandfather if they will lose their land. Grandfather is upset but tells Alfred he needs time to consider what has happened. As O'Neil continues to threaten Grandfather, Alfred becomes determined to help save their land. But doing so places both Alfred and his grandfather in grave danger.

Discussion

The Land Grab is based on the life of Alfreda Beartrack's father, Alfred Zeigler's experiences growing up with her great-grandfather, Thomas Plenty Buffalo during the late 1920's. 

The Lakota, like many other Indian nations, did not have the same view of land as the Europeans who came to settle in North America. They saw the land as having no formal boundaries and was something to be used and shared by all. However, when U.S. government agents arrived in the area in 1804, they began to force the various Indigenous nations and tribes into treaties and agreements, the purpose of which was to set boundaries where they could live and in many cases to simply remove them from the land altogether. Further land grabs were designed to disband the nations and tribes and force them into assimilation with the white European culture. One way of doing this was the Indian General Allotment Act of 1887 in which individual heads of households were allotted land in increments of one hundred sixty acres. Smaller allotments were given to other members of a family. The land not allotted to Indian people was sold off by the government to non-Indians. 

In The Land Grab, the corrupt superintendent for the Lower Brule Agency, attempts to cheat Alfred's family out of their land. Thomas Plenty Buffalo learns that land documents are being tampered with, that several people are involved including some in the Office of Indian Affairs, in order to force Tribal members off their land allotments. Thomas Plenty Buffalo sees his land set on fire and is assaulted and kidnapped! With the help of a relative, Alfred's great-aunt, Pearl, and their fierce determination not to be scared off their land, Alfred and his family are able to save their land.

Alfreda Beartrack Algeo has written an engaging story that highlights the connection of the Lakota to their land, features some of their traditional beliefs and practices, and the strong inter-generational bond that existed within Lakota families. For example, upon hearing that the superintendent intends to plant non-native plants during a period of drought, Alfred's grandfather, states that this is not wise and that he will be maintaining the native grasses. When Alfred mentions to his grandfather that he plans to not only shoot the large old turkey but also take another one, his grandfather explains, "One turkey is enough. Remember, we should only take what we need and no more. When we need another turkey it will be there for us."  In fighting to protect his allotment, Thomas Plenty Buffalo is teaching Alfred the importance of integrity and justice. He does this within the law, rather than acting rashly.

Despite Alfred's father seemingly having abandoned his family, Alfred continues to think the best of his father, believing that he will someday return. He has a close bond with his grandparents and other family members. After helping his grandfather save their land and farm from a fire set by O'Neil and Miller, Alfred tells him, "Grandfather, you are my protector and my teacher. I love you deeply and honor you greatly. I will work hard and help you all I can. I hope you have a good night." Alfred shows his deep respect and love of his grandfather, a theme repeatedly demonstrated by the young boy whenever he interacts with the adults in his life. 

Alfred's character is revealed through his actions. He shows courage and compassion when he saves the life of Junior White Hail, the boy who has been mercilessly bullying him at school.  In doing so, he earns Junior's loyalty and friendship and comes to understand why Junior has been bullying him. He shows ingenuity and quick-thinking when he goes to see his Great-Aunt Pearl about the land documents he finds, knowing she can best help his family.

The Land Grab is an easy, quick, high-interest read that will appeal to reluctant readers, especially boys. Beartrack-Algeo's story is action driven, with believable characters who highlight many important virtues such as industriousness, honesty, filial respect, and kindness. Unfortunately, with the exception of Deputy Sheriff John Riggs who accepts the evidence Thomas Plenty Buffalo provides, all the white characters are portrayed as corrupt.

Alfreda Beartrack-Algeo is a member of the Lower Brule Lakota Nation, Kul Wicasa Oyate, Lower Brule, South Dakota. She is a storyteller and artist who currently resides in Colorado.

Book Details:

The Land Grab: The Legend of Big Heart by Alfreda Beartrack-Algeo
Summertown, TN: 7th Generation Book Publishing Company     2022
119 pp.

A Boy Called Slow by Joseph Bruchac

Joseph Bruchac's A Boy Called Slow tells the story of how the legendary Lakota warrior, Sitting Bull came to be named.

A baby boy was born in the winter of 1831 to the family of Lakota warrior named Returns Again. This family was part of the Hunkpapa band of the Lakota Sioux tribe. Children were usually named according to a dominant trait or the way they behaved.

Returns Again's son was given the name Slow because everything he did took a long time. It was a name the boy did not like. A Lakota boy could change his name only by doing a brave deed. And so that is just what Slow decided to do!

Discussion

Accomplished Native American author Joseph Bruchac has written a simple picture book that introduces children to the early life of Lakota Sioux warrior Sitting Bull.

Sitting Bull was the son of the warrior Returns-Again. He was born in 1831. During his lifetime he would live to see the loss of his traditional lands and the destruction of  his people's way of life because of the westward expansion of white settlers.

Although he eventually became a great warrior, as a young child Sitting Bull seemed to lack the necessary attributes of one. He took forever to do anything and so earned the name Slow. However, this changed as he grew older. He killed his first buffalo at the age of ten, and led a raid on a rival tribe at the age of fourteen. This earned him the new Lakota name of Tatanka-Iyotanka or Buffalo Bull Who Sits Down.

It was when American white settlers began moving into the traditional lands of the Indigenous peoples that Sitting Bull began to act to protect his people and their way of life. The American and Canadian governments had enacted policies designed to strip the Indigenous peoples in both countries of their land, their food source which was the buffalo and their culture, so that the land could be re-settled by white European immigrants. Sitting Bull became the leader of the resistance to this settler expansion and cultural genocide. He led his people in several key battles including the Battle of Killdeer Mountain in 1863, and in an attack on Fort Rice in 1865. By 1868, Sitting Bull was the leader of the Lakota nation.

Tensions between the Sioux Nation and white settlers dramatically increased when gold was discovered in the early 1870's in the Black Hills of South Dakota. These lands were traditional Sioux lands, granted to them by a treaty with the American government.  Unfortunately, the government refused to honour the treaty and instead insisted the Sioux move to reservations. The Sioux nation under Sitting Bull's leadership refused these terms and decided to fight the Americans. Sitting Bull fought against the U.S. troops and in what was his most famous battle, on June 25, 1876 defeating General George Armstrong Custer. Over two hundred soldiers died along with Custer. Fearing retaliation, many Sioux began moving north into Canada, first into Saskatchewan and then into the Northwest Territories. Sitting Bull came to Canada in 1877.

However, Canada like the United States, did not act honourably in dealing with Sitting Bull. The Canadian government refused Custer sanctuary and food, while the Americans set fires along the U.S.-Canada border, preventing the buffalo from moving north. Facing starvation and with no land to live on, the Sioux began returning to the United States, as did Sitting Bull who moved to the Standing Rock Reserve in North Dakota.  Sitting Bull  continued to urge his people to not relinquish their traditional lands.

In 1889 Native Americans again began to resist the takeover of their traditional lands. When Sitting Bull became involved, the American government, considering him important to the Native Americans' continued resistance, attempted to arrest him at his home. Sitting Bull was killed during the ensuing gunfight.

While Bruchac's picture book only focuses on the Sitting Bull's very early life, it can be used as an introduction to Sitting Bull and the actions of both the United States and Canadian governments towards Indigenous peoples in North America, including the systematic attempt to destroy their culture and way of life. What is missing from this picture book is a simple biography at the back with pictures of Sitting Bull, Custer, buffalo and other relevant topics.

Nevertheless, Sitting Bull's early life is told not just through Bruchac's simple text but also with the beautiful artwork of Rocco Baviera who travelled to the land of the Sioux, the Dakotas. Baviera was able to meet Sitting Bull's great-great-grandson, Isaac Dog Eagle. His paintings have captured the majesty of the Native American culture and the pivotal events of Sitting Bull's childhood.
Highly recommended.


Sitting Bull image: https://www.biography.com/political-figure/sitting-bull

Book Details:

A Boy Called Slow by Joseph Bruchac
New York: Philomel Books     1994

Runs With Courage by Joan M. Wolf

Runs With Courage is a novel about a young Lakota girl who is taken from her family on the reservation and sent to a missionary school to be "civilized" with the intent of assimilating her into 19th century white America. Ten-year-old Four Winds lives on a the Great Sioux Reservation with her parents and younger brother Bear.

The following historical backstory will help readers understand the setting of Runs With Courage. The Lakota people migrated from the Great Lakes area to the Great Plains in the 17th century. They had been primarily hunters and gatherers but soon began to hunt buffalo, becoming nomadic and living in teepees. They also acquired horses during this time and the horse changed their culture completely.They came to rely on the buffalo completely and their conflict with other tribes revolved around raiding other tribes for their horses. They developed the practice of "counting coup" which is mentioned in Wolf's novel, where honour was obtained by touching the enemy without causing harm.
Their way of life continued mostly untouched by the arrival of the settlers until the mid-1800's. Until this time the US government considered the west to be of little economic value and the land fit only for "Indians." This changed with the discovery of gold and other minerals on the West coast and as settlers and speculators passed through Lakota territory they came in conflict with the various tribes. The US government built forts throughout the west to protect travelers. One of those forts was Fort Laramie.

The United States Army built Fort Laramie on Lakota lands without their permission. The treaty brought together eight tribes who had been at war and also the United States government in an attempt to resolve the conflicts. The government used a different form of mediation than what the Indian tribes were familiar with and attempted to give each tribe a territory. Territorial claims between the tribes were set out and the United States government agreed not to claim any of this land. The treaty also guaranteed safe passage through this land along the Oregon Trail and allowed for roads and forts to be built.

By North Dakota government.

However, the treaty which protected Lakota territory from settlement, was not honoured by the US government. The Lakota people, many of whom did not even know about the treaty, continued to raid other tribes and attempted to defend their land from settlers. Attacks on settlers were met with force by the US army. A new treaty,  the Fort Laramie Treaty 1868 (Sioux Treaty of 1868),  was negotiated between the US government and the Lakota in which white settlement in the Black Hills, considered sacred by the Lakota, was banned forever. The treaty also granted the Lakota people hunting rights in South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska and Montana until the buffalo were gone. The US government believed the one way to remove the Lakota permanently was to destroy the buffalo, on whom the Lakota completely relied.

However when gold was discovered in the Black Hills, (an 1874 expedition led by General George Custer) prospectors began trespassing on land and the government did not uphold its part of the treaty. The Lakota attacked miners and these attacks were met with resistance by the US army. This resulted in the Great Sioux War of 1876-77 in which the Lakota, after winning several battles,  were eventually defeated by a reinforced US Army. Their sacred Black Hills land was annexed by the US government and the Lakota were forced onto reservations, prevented from hunting buffalo and made dependent on government rations.

A part of the Fort Laramie treaty of 1868 stipulated that the Lakota should be "civilized" and that their children should be sent to "mission" schools. Eventually the Great Sioux Reservation was broken up into smaller reservations and the Lakota were forced to sign away millions of acres of land.

Runs With Courage begins in 1880, a few years after the Great Sioux War when the Lakota have been settled onto the reservation and are becoming dependent on government rations. Four Winds and her family had lived in the forest near He Sapa (the Black Hills) before they were forced to move onto the Great Sioux Reservation. The novel opens with ten-year-old Four Winds and her little brother Bear witnessing the arrival of a wagon of two white people, a man and a woman. Four Winds questions her parents and uncle about them that night at dinner. Her uncle reminds her that the whites are people like them but they are not honourable because they do not keep their promises. Almost a month later, Four Winds' uncle tells her that they live in the white man's world and must learn about them. For this reason she will be sent away to live with the white men and attend their school for girls only. Four Winds is deeply upset but she agrees to go when she realizes she has no other option.

Four Winds' mother gives her a small wotawe and Bear gives her a small carved rabbit before she leaves. Four Winds arrives at the All Saints Missionary School late that evening and is taken upstairs to a room where there are other Lakota girls preparing for bed. Four Winds has never seen a bed before and the clothing she is given is strange and scratchy. A girl named Walks Tall tells Four Winds that it will get easier.

The next morning, Four Winds soft deerskin dress which still "held the scent of prairie" and her mother's wotawe and Bear's rabbit carving are taken away and her hair is cut. She is given the name of Sarah and doesn't understand why adults punish children by hitting them. Four Winds learns that she cannot speak Lakota or she will be punished, and she is not allowed to dance for joy because that is behaving like a savage. Four Winds who has been starving on the reservation, eats too much bread at breakfast and feels unwell afterwards. While she is in her room recovering, she discovers a Lakota boy burning her clothing and cries herself to sleep.

Despite all the strangeness Four Winds is determined to be strong and brave. But daily she is confronted with things that make no sense to her and she feels overwhelmed. Can she still be Lakota and survive in the white man's world?

Discussion

Runs With Courage provides younger readers some idea of what it was like for the children of native Americans and their families during the late 1800's and early 1900's as the push to settle the west occurred. Initially the United States government was not interested in settling the west and deemed the land there as having little economic value. However the discovery of gold and other minerals changed that view and although

As with First Nations people in Canada, Native Americans were forced into missionary schools and later residential schools with the intent of erasing their culture and replacing it with the white man's culture. Wolf has fashioned a Native American character who tries to resist the white man's attempts to change her. Four Winds is both courageous and resilient. Although she doesn't want to leave her extended family she obeys her elders. But her initial experience at All Saints Missionary School and the white culture forced on her prove overwhelming.

At first Four Winds resistance is vocal and filled with anger as she strikes out against the teachers and her fellow students. When she berates them for co-operating with the white teachers, Moon Awake asks her "Since coming to this school, have you been hungry?" Four Winds realizes that she has not been hungry since she came to the school but she feels this was not her family's reason for sending her.

Four Winds initially believes that she has been sent to the white man's school to be a bridge between her people and the white culture. But she is confronted by William the boy who burned her clothing, who tells her that the Great White Father is the name given to the American presidents and that these people are not honourable. Four Winds now believes the white men do not want a bridge to her people. This suspicion is further confirmed when Four Winds is sent to the office to get a pair of scissors and she sees a plaque that states, "Kill the Indian, Save the Man". Understanding what this means leads Four Winds to break the plaque, be whipped by Pastor Huber as punishment, and run away to her tiospaye.

Four Winds makes the decision to return to the school after her mother reveals the truth about her being sent to the school; "They told us we must send you or they would withhold our rations.' I felt numb.My being at the school had never been about bridges. It had been about food and nothing else.  That was how I had helped my tiospaye. I had saved them from starvation." Wolf shows in this scene the shame Four Winds' Uncle and Father have at not being able to provide for their tiospaye as a result of being forced onto the reservation and being unable to hunt their main food source, the buffalo.

It is Four Winds' friendship with the only other character in the novel to resist assimilation into white culture that helps her cope. William, whose real name is Catches Fire came to the school after his entire tiospaye was murdered by white soldiers. His resistance to assimilation into the white culture is more covert.   Everyone believes him to be slow but William is quite intelligent and he uses this mistaken perception as a way to "count coup", "a supreme act of bravery to touch an enemy in battle without killing him." He saves the sacred things that each student brought with them to the school. He moves slowly to hinder the white teachers at the school. In the barn, William has created his own sort of tipi with sleeping skins. Late at night, he dances, an activity that has been forbidden and considered savage.

Watching William dance, Four Winds finds that her "angry spirit has been soothed." She decides to give her fellow students back their sacred things at Christmas in a secret meeting. And ultimately she figures out a way to get herself back to her people - by becoming a teacher to them and being a bridge between the two cultures.

Runs With Courage ends on an upbeat tone with Four Winds who has been renamed "Runs With Courage" by her tiospaye, living happily on the reservation with her family. Although Wolf portrays many of the hurtful ways the white teachers treated indigenous children, their experiences seem tame in comparison to what really happened in most missionary and residential schools. The children are well fed, and although the school is cold in the winter, there is none of the neglect or rampant sickness that was common in these schools. The novel effectively demonstrates how the Lakota parents were manipulated to send their children to the schools and how their children were eager to do what the white teachers wanted. The alternative was starvation. Four Winds comes to fully understand this when she sees the change in little Laughing Deer who arrives at the school. Laughing Deer quickly learns to speak English and say the Christian prayers even though she doesn't understand what she is saying nor the beliefs behind the prayers. Miss Beatrice shows her off to the senators who come to visit the school, "When she was able to speak English, she spoke in complete sentences. I think it is a true testament to the ways we are trying to civilize these people."

Wolf attempts to create a balance in her novel with both good and bad characters; Miss Beatrice is a kind teacher who lets the Lakota children dance and she tries to comfort Four Winds while Pinch Finger (Miss Agnes) is harsh and Pastor Huber believes they are savages and heathens. Unfortunately, most of the secondary characters are two dimensional, perhaps so the focus can remain on the main character.

One of the more interesting chapters in the novel deals with Four Winds' reaction when she sees herself and her classmates in a photograph taken of the school. Four Winds cannot comprehend what she is seeing. "But the girls in the picture were white girls." When Pinch Finger points out Four Winds in the photograph, she is filled with disbelief. "I shook my head. That was not me. I could not have mistaken myself for a white girl." Later on she tells Catches Fire, "I saw a white girl standing with many other white girls. But they were us. It was me! I thought I was a white girl!" Four Winds feels like she is losing her identity and won't be unable to hold on to who she is. But Catches Fire tells her "They cannot have our spirit. It is like the hunting game I showed you. Sometimes you can't see everything." He is telling her that inside she remains a Lakota.

Overall Runs With Courage is a simple novel that gives younger readers a basic understanding of issues involved in the residential/missionary schools in relation to the Lakota aboriginals. It also sets the stage for further inquiry into the history that led to the Lakotas being forced onto the Great Sioux Reservation.

For more detailed information on the History and Culture of the Standing Rock Oyate.


Book Details:

Runs With Courage by Joan M. Wolfe
Ann Arbor, Michigan:  Sleeping Bear Press     2016
211 pp.