Mardell Hogan Plainfeather, co-author of 'The Woman Who Loved Mankind: Lillian bullshows Hogan

The oldest living Crow at the dawn of the twenty-first century, Lillian Bullshows Hogan (1905–2003) grew up on the Crow reservation in rural Montana. The Woman Who Loved Mankind is a collection of the stories that make up her long and remarkable life, as well as the stories of her parents, part of the last generation of Crow born to nomadic ways.

As a child Hogan had a miniature teepee, a fast horse, and a medicine necklace of green beads. She learned traditional arts and food gathering from her mother and experienced the bitterness of Indian boarding school. She grew up to be a complex, hard-working Native woman who drove a car, maintained a bank account, and read the local English paper, but spoke Crow as her first language. She practiced beadwork, tanned hides, honored clan relatives in generous giveaways, and often visited the last of the old chiefs and berdaches with her family. She married in the traditional Crow way and was a proud member of the Tobacco and Sacred Pipe societies, but was also a devoted Christian who helped establish the Church of God on her reservation.

Warm, funny, heartbreaking, and filled with information on Crow life, Hogan’s story was told to her daughter, Mardell Hogan Plainfeather, and to Barbara Loeb, a scholar and longtime friend of the family who recorded her words, staying true to Hogan’s expressive speaking rhythms with its echoes of traditional Crow storytelling.

Find out more about Mardell Hogan Plainfeather and Barbara Loeb, and listen to the program, on the radio or online.

• Thursday, March 21 at 7:30 p.m. on Montana Public Radio
• Thursday, March 21 at 6:30 p.m. on Yellowstone Public Radio
• Sunday, March 24 at 3 p.m. on KSJD 
• Sunday, March 24 at 6 p.m. on Spokane Public Radio
• MTPR podcast

Hope Captured, a reader response by Jenni Warren

We all have a residual place inside ourselves that encourages us to cling onto ideals we sometimes refer to as hope. Hope for what tomorrow may bring, hope for forgiveness of a fault, and hope to find enough courage to not give up on hope. Sharma Shields captures the meaning and purpose of hope in her short fiction, “The Last Snow Angel Boy.”

The best stories written tend to spark a light of familiarity in the reader. Stories conjure up feelings of understanding and create “a-ha” moments in the reader that provide them the opportunity to envision their own story working out in front of them on the page. “The Last Snow Angel Boy” was written with a poetic quality that makes it possible, if not easy, for Shield’s readers to plug into the story she has created.

Stories remind us about how we want to live our lives. They remind us of the ideal, the way in which we desire to appear. In “The Last Snow Angel Boy,” Marion and his wife are coping with the reality of their son entering rehab for the fourth time. Marion’s wife found her sanctuary in, a rather large collection of a miniature twinkling snow village that allows her to physically touch and mold the “happiest place on earth.” To Marion, the village represents an unattainable life that with all its glowing lights and painted-on expressions makes a mockery out of the life that is now his reality.

Ironically, such as life itself, the small glimmer of hope that Marion receives is found in the expression of Snow Angel Boy’s face, the face of a “collector’s dream.” As Marion makes an offering of the highly-valued ceramic boy to his son, Snow Angel Boy no longer represents an annoying ideal but rather a symbol of Marion’s hope and love for his valuable son. Sharma Shields demonstrates through Marion that there is significance in tangible hope, the simple kind of hope we can thankfully sustain.
 
I encourage hopeful readers, as well as stubborn pessimists, to read “The Last Snow Angel Boy.” Shields presentation of discovering unexpected hope in unexpected places is sure to resonate with readers searching for meaning and harmony in their own, very real, stories.

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Jenni Warren is currently a student at The University of Montana, Missoula. She will finish her degree in Communication and Psychology this winter and hopes to remain in Montana. A Pacific Northwest native at heart, Jenni developed a passion to explore the beauty of the outdoors. Her passion has inspired her creativity and fuels her “bucket list.” She hopes to one day (but not limited to) sip coffee in Europe, roast marshmallows on a beach in Costa Rica, and search for the ultimate tapas bar in Spain. 

Children's Book Reviews: 'Buffalo Bird Girl' and 'Black Elk's Vision' - by S. D. Nelson

Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story by S.D. Nelson
Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2012

Black Elk's Vision: A Lakota Story by S.D. Nelson
Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2010

Abrams Books for Young Readers has recently published Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story retold by S. D. Nelson. This first person account of the childhood of a woman named Waheenee follows the same format as S.D. Nelson's Black Elk's Vision: A Lakota Story, which was published by Abrams in 2010.

Both books are accounts of the lives of Native Americans in the late 19th to early 20th centuries just before the Euro-American invasion. They are gorgeously illustrated by Nelson and include many archival photos of tribal people from the period in which the story is set as well as images of reconstructions of Native American artifacts and dwellings. Each story is told from the perspective of a real historical figure and describes what life was like for them when they were growing up on the Great Plains.

Buffalo Bird Girl's narrative describes how her tribe's dwellings and tools were made, what type of food they ate and how they acquired and prepared it, and how her people felt a spiritual connection to all living things. She tells of how the Hidatsa traded with friendly tribes and white fur traders, and fought against their enemies (interestingly, the Hidatsa and Lakota were warring tribes).

Buffalo Bird Girl considered herself to be “a happy, contented Indian girl,” and remembers her childhood as the happiest time of her life. She talks of making dolls and playing games with other girls (while the boys shot arrows, wrestled, and raced horses). The girls and women harnessed dogs to haul firewood, dried corn and other vegetables to last throughout the winter, and colored their cheeks with ochre and buffalo fat for dances and celebrations.

Black Elk's story focuses on a vision he had during a childhood illness which leads to his leadership role in his tribe as the U.S. Government moves in to the Great Plains killing buffallo and fighting the Lakota and Cheyenne nations. Custer's encounter with Crazy Horse is described in heartbreaking detail. In 1886, Black Elk and Sitting Bull join Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show and perform as Indians in New York and London.

Both stories contain at least one violent war scene, which include shootings and scalpings. And both end with the encroachment of Euro-Americans on the native lifestyle. Black Elk's story also includes some disturbing photos of U.S. Soldiers burying Indian corpses in a common grave after the Battle of Wounded Knee and concludes with the Lakota being moved to the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Following the first-person accounts, each book contains a fairly lengthy Author's Note and a Timeline which provides more historical information about the cultures portrayed in the stories. S.D. Nelson is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux/Lakota tribe of the Dakotas and grew up in a family that maintained many traditional ways, so several of his own childhood experiences mirrored those described in the stories.

The first-person account makes history more accessible for young readers, although I wonder about the target audience for these books. Some of the content is too mature for elementary school students, but the picture book format will likely put off young adults. The books might appeal to advanced middle school students, or to teachers who could choose to read selections to younger students. They would also be appropriate for adult early-readers since the historical accounts and documents will appeal to people of all ages.
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S.D. Nelson is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe of the Dakotas. He is the author of a number of children's books. His artwork also appears on book jackets, greeting cards, and CD covers, and his paintings are held in private and public collections. He lives in Flagstaff, Arizona. Visit him online at www.sdnelson.net.
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Renée Vaillancourt McGrath has worked at Montana Public Radio as a program host since 2002. Her background is in librarianship and she currently works as a freelance editor and website designer and developer. Check out more of her book reviews at reneesreads.com.