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soccermom's review
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
teresagiglio's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This is an extremely complicated, but important, book.
I'm giving it four stars because it caused me to do a lot of research and learn things about Native American history that I had not known, specifically about the overlap between the Muscogee and the Confederacy. And that is squarely where this author, Sophia Alice Callahan, rests.
I would not recommend this book for Native Americans. This author was of mixed heritage, and in an extremely conflicted way that she appears to have struggled greatly with herself inside the text. I have known a lot of Native people in my days, and none of them have ever used the sort of language she uses in the very first pages of this book. I would not recommend this for anyone who has been traumatized by the boarding schools.
Despite Callahan's awful language, she clearly does very much love her own Native heritage very much, even though she seems to ascribe to the "kill the Indian, save the man" mindset. All of that is stunning to me, in light of how fresh the forced migration was at the time of writing, and how personal the impact was on that author, who I believed was forced to bury a grandfather in a dusty grave on the roadside.
I'm shocked by Callahan's apologism, especially her gladness of the Christian schools in this novel. I've known a lot of Native people in my days. None of them ever had a good word to say about a Christian school. But in this book, all the Christian schools are by the invitation of the Native community and much appreciated. In my experience it was more like kidnapping and ethnic cleansing, according to survivors.
Ultimately this is believed to be the first book published by a Native woman. So despite the peculiarity of her perspective, it is important to know what she had to say. Because while she has some positions that I can't quite fathom, she also relays some information that I very much do appreciate.
For example, Callahan seamlessly weaves into her "novel of manners" about an Alabama white Christian schoolteacher who goes out to Indian Country, the tale of a woman who survives Wounded Knee and rescues multiple infants as well. There's no mistaking who the bad guys are here: the white people.
Despite her racist language up front, Callahan brings it all home in the narrative before it's all said and done. That's why I can give this novel four stars. She does it in more ways than just that one woman's story, too. I believe that the reader of this book is intended to be her white Confederate women back in Alabama, the original homeland of her Muscogee people. She lured them in with the sort of language they used up front, got them all sucked into the kind of book they read about a lady like themselves. Then socked them with the reality check about what they were really doing out there, to the real people who lived in the tipis.
Callahan, a skilled novelist who only produced one novel before dying in her 20s, did a great job under very tough circumstances. This is a very well-written novel that will only take a few hours to read. And the plot is very well-constructed. The characters are fully developed. The whole thing is quite masterfully done.
However it's emotionally horrifying on multiple levels. I recommend reviewing scholarly literature on the forced migration, the ethnic cleansing, of Native Americans to Oklahoma, and how Oklahoma eventually became a state. The allotment process is discussed in this book, and the various ways that the Native people were pressured, all the things that were thrown at them that they couldn't possibly understand or know how to navigate.
Lastly, I recommend reading this book along with Braiding Sweetgrass. The two books complement each other well. Braiding Sweetgrass is another book about a woman reconciling her mixed heritage, but in a very different time and place. She also discusses the pecans, and the allotments, how all of that impacted her family, in a way that will, I believe, truly transform your understanding of Wynema.
I'm giving it four stars because it caused me to do a lot of research and learn things about Native American history that I had not known, specifically about the overlap between the Muscogee and the Confederacy. And that is squarely where this author, Sophia Alice Callahan, rests.
I would not recommend this book for Native Americans. This author was of mixed heritage, and in an extremely conflicted way that she appears to have struggled greatly with herself inside the text. I have known a lot of Native people in my days, and none of them have ever used the sort of language she uses in the very first pages of this book. I would not recommend this for anyone who has been traumatized by the boarding schools.
Despite Callahan's awful language, she clearly does very much love her own Native heritage very much, even though she seems to ascribe to the "kill the Indian, save the man" mindset. All of that is stunning to me, in light of how fresh the forced migration was at the time of writing, and how personal the impact was on that author, who I believed was forced to bury a grandfather in a dusty grave on the roadside.
I'm shocked by Callahan's apologism, especially her gladness of the Christian schools in this novel. I've known a lot of Native people in my days. None of them ever had a good word to say about a Christian school. But in this book, all the Christian schools are by the invitation of the Native community and much appreciated. In my experience it was more like kidnapping and ethnic cleansing, according to survivors.
Ultimately this is believed to be the first book published by a Native woman. So despite the peculiarity of her perspective, it is important to know what she had to say. Because while she has some positions that I can't quite fathom, she also relays some information that I very much do appreciate.
For example, Callahan seamlessly weaves into her "novel of manners" about an Alabama white Christian schoolteacher who goes out to Indian Country, the tale of a woman who survives Wounded Knee and rescues multiple infants as well. There's no mistaking who the bad guys are here: the white people.
Despite her racist language up front, Callahan brings it all home in the narrative before it's all said and done. That's why I can give this novel four stars. She does it in more ways than just that one woman's story, too. I believe that the reader of this book is intended to be her white Confederate women back in Alabama, the original homeland of her Muscogee people. She lured them in with the sort of language they used up front, got them all sucked into the kind of book they read about a lady like themselves. Then socked them with the reality check about what they were really doing out there, to the real people who lived in the tipis.
Callahan, a skilled novelist who only produced one novel before dying in her 20s, did a great job under very tough circumstances. This is a very well-written novel that will only take a few hours to read. And the plot is very well-constructed. The characters are fully developed. The whole thing is quite masterfully done.
However it's emotionally horrifying on multiple levels. I recommend reviewing scholarly literature on the forced migration, the ethnic cleansing, of Native Americans to Oklahoma, and how Oklahoma eventually became a state. The allotment process is discussed in this book, and the various ways that the Native people were pressured, all the things that were thrown at them that they couldn't possibly understand or know how to navigate.
Lastly, I recommend reading this book along with Braiding Sweetgrass. The two books complement each other well. Braiding Sweetgrass is another book about a woman reconciling her mixed heritage, but in a very different time and place. She also discusses the pecans, and the allotments, how all of that impacted her family, in a way that will, I believe, truly transform your understanding of Wynema.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Racism, Violence, War, Animal death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Murder, Racial slurs, and Religious bigotry
eva_melone's review against another edition
3.0
I read this while waiting to board my train! It is the first ever book to be published by a woman of Native American descent, and it spoke so smartly about whitewashed perspectives of native traditions. It was fast-paced, detailed account of the Wounded Knee massacre from a heart-wrenching perspective. This book, although not deeply complex in its writing, paints a clear image of the pressure upon natives to assimilate into white culture. Wynema was a truly special girl who grew into an extraordinary woman.
hschoneberger's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide
Moderate: War and Racial slurs
Minor: Colonisation and Gore
wonderingreader's review against another edition
3.0
I read this book for a Native American Literature class I am taking this fall. I thought this managed to hold an interesting, important plot while also weaving in large chunks of history that not many people may know about.
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