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A review by rachelsilvy
Savage Conversations by LeAnne Howe
5.0
Abraham Lincoln is worshiped from a traditional U.S. historical perspective. This is yet another part of the rewritten history utilized to benefit white U.S. Americans' perspective of themselves and their enjoyment of the white savior narrative.
Several historically accurate events largely forgotten by non-indigenous peoples are joined in this play script, especially that "thirty-eight Dakota men [were] hanged in a mass killing the day after Christmas in 1862. Mary's husband [Abraham Lincoln] signed the order for their execution" (ix). After their bodies were cut down and buried, their bodies were exhumed and used as medical cadavers. In a fictional rendering of Mary Todd Lincoln's historically documented hallucinations "of nightly visits from a violent 'Indian,' who he said scalped her, cut bones from her cheeks, and made slits in her eyelids, sewing them open [...]," she must contend with the spirit of one of the men who died in what is still known as the largest execution in U.S. history (ix).
There are only three characters in this play: Mary Todd Lincoln, Savage Indian, and The Rope. Readers and viewers are challenged to reassess the historical impact of characters we cherish in our U.S. history fairy tale, such as when the character Savage Indian exclaims, "I've risen and searched / The empty scaffolding in Mankato, / Heard the faint cries of the Dakhótas on the wind, / Impossible to count as stardust... / Mr. Lincoln and all his generals thought they could end / Our race. / Where is he now?" (Howe 101). It is our job to study a fully-accurate history. The question "Where is he now?" rings true, for it is clear that the version of Abraham Lincoln who persists to this day is not the true Abraham Lincoln.
Several historically accurate events largely forgotten by non-indigenous peoples are joined in this play script, especially that "thirty-eight Dakota men [were] hanged in a mass killing the day after Christmas in 1862. Mary's husband [Abraham Lincoln] signed the order for their execution" (ix). After their bodies were cut down and buried, their bodies were exhumed and used as medical cadavers. In a fictional rendering of Mary Todd Lincoln's historically documented hallucinations "of nightly visits from a violent 'Indian,' who he said scalped her, cut bones from her cheeks, and made slits in her eyelids, sewing them open [...]," she must contend with the spirit of one of the men who died in what is still known as the largest execution in U.S. history (ix).
There are only three characters in this play: Mary Todd Lincoln, Savage Indian, and The Rope. Readers and viewers are challenged to reassess the historical impact of characters we cherish in our U.S. history fairy tale, such as when the character Savage Indian exclaims, "I've risen and searched / The empty scaffolding in Mankato, / Heard the faint cries of the Dakhótas on the wind, / Impossible to count as stardust... / Mr. Lincoln and all his generals thought they could end / Our race. / Where is he now?" (Howe 101). It is our job to study a fully-accurate history. The question "Where is he now?" rings true, for it is clear that the version of Abraham Lincoln who persists to this day is not the true Abraham Lincoln.