Crow Mary by Kathleen Grissom

 

Title: Crow Mary

Author:  Kathleen Grissom

Narrated by:  Carolina Hoyas

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 10 hours and 46 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster Audio.  Thank you @simonandschuster #BookClubFavorites for the free books!

What book, movie, or show do you enjoy that features a person standing up for themselves and others?

Goes First is a young Indigenous woman in the Crow tribe in 1872.  She is sixteen and in love  with a young man destined to be the future chief.  She loves her life with her tribe, but often thinks about the violent death of her Grandma when she was a young girl.  Her Grandmother’s brother becomes a Grandfather to her.  Her life takes a change when her fiancée is killed.  Her father, the chief, tells her that a white trader, Farwell, would like her as a wife and it would help out their tribe.  Goes First marries Farwell and her name changes to Crow Mary.  She tries to straddle both the White and Native worlds as they fall slowly in love. 

Their idyllic world is shattered when they witness the Cypress Hills Massacre of 1873.  Crow Mary saves the lives of four Indigenous women who are being held captive.  Farwell reports the massacre and tries to get the people responsible to pay for the crime, but the public sentiment turns against him.  This event changes the course of their lives forever.  How will their family survive as the world they live in changes forever?

There is a great foreword at the beginning of the novel from a descendant of Crow Mary whom the author worked with to make sure that this story was culturally sensitive to her story and the story of the Crow people.  There is also a great author’s note at the end that describes how the author came across this story.  She visited a fort and an interpreter acted out the story of Crow Mary which immediately intrigued the author.  It is a fascinating story that I had never heard before.  I am so glad that Grissom found this true story of an intriguing woman and brought it forward for the world to learn about.

The story made me really think about alcohol and how its effects could really destroy lives.  This story also made me realize why prohibition may have been enacted.  It was disturbing how alcohol was poisoned and used to keep the Indigenous people under control and wasting all of their money on it rather than needed supplies.

It was sad how an entire way of life for the Crow people was annihilated over time.  The discussion of the boarding schools and how children were just kidnapped from their parents was heartbreaking.  The culture of the Crow and other tribes was different than the European way of living, but it had its own beauty, traditions, and culture. 

Carolina Hoyas was a great narrator for this novel.  I felt like she was the voice of Crow Mary and I enjoyed learning her story.  This was my first Kathleen Grissom novel, but I do have a copy of The Kitchen House that I need to read.

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

 Happy Indigenous People Day!  I taught environmental engineering technology for six years at a local college that happens to be on Indigenous land.  I had many students from several tribes, and it was very eye opening to me to learn about the cultures of modern-day Indigenous tribes as well as past treatment that I had no idea about.  These stories need to be heard and be a part of our present day culture. 

 Daunis Fontaine is an eighteen-year-old girl living in Sault St. Marie Michigan trying to determine her next steps in life.  Daunis is half Ojibwe and is trying to find where she belongs in her two worlds. She was a powerful high school hockey player and is set to go to the University of Michigan to major in premed.  After her uncle’s death and grandmother’s hospitalization, Daunis decides to stay near her family and friends and attend Lake Superior State University in town.  After a mysterious death, Daunis uses her knowledge of both science and Native American medicine to try to solve the mystery that is plaguing her community.

 I love, love, loved this novel.  It straddles many different genres and is hard to describe succinctly.  It is a great thriller story with trying to figure out the mystery.  It is a great coming of age story as Daunis tries to figure out what she wants in life and how decisions of her family in the past affect her in the present.  It is a great young adult novel as she tries to figure out what is important in life, love, and family.

 Firekeeper’s Daughter is an #OwnVoices tale and is written by Angeline Boulley who is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.  I loved the immersion in the Ojibwe community, its language, history, traditions, troubles, etc.  There are so many tribes around the United States and their stories are hard to find.  I loved that this novel had a very strong Ojibwe woman that is part of her modern tribe.

 I loved the setting in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  The hockey, pasties, locations, etc. were wonderful.  I last visited Sault Ste. Marie in 2001, just a few years before this story was set in 2004.  I attended Michigan Tech in the U.P. and now live in Northeastern Wisconsin.  The culture captured in this novel represents a large part of northern Michigan and Wisconsin.  I love finally having a book that shows that cleaning the snow off of a girl’s car is a declaration of love.  Michigan Tech was mentioned a few times as well, although I was wishing for a road trip to Houghton, I did get one to Green Bay.

 This novel does contain drugs, murder, violence against indigenous women, and sexual assault.

 Favorite Quotes:

“It’s hard when someone says they love you, but they need to contain and control the things that make you you.”

 “Love honors your spirit.  Not just the other person’s but your own spirit too.”

 “Hockey brings my community together.  Native and non-Native.  All ages.  All neighborhoods.  Here is Chi Mukwa, a community recreation building funded by the Sugar Island Ojibwe Tribe, everyone stands united for our team.”

 “No guy should have that kind of power over you.  No matter who his is or how much everyone adores him.  Or how much you might still want him.”

 “I set out to write Firekeeper’s Daughter, because there are simply too few stories told by and about Native Americans, especially from a contemporary point of view.  We exist and have dynamic experiences beyond history books or stories set long ago.” – from the Author’s Note.

 Overall, Firekeeper’s Daughter is a not to be missed thriller with a great strong Native American heroine.

 Book Source:  Purchased from Meijer.

From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle

 

From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle

Title:  From the Ashes

Author: Jesse Thistle

Read by:  Jesse Thistle

Publisher: Simon & Shuster Audio

Length: Approximately 9 hours and 55 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Shuster Audio.  Thank-you! 

 What book by or about Indigenous people have you read or is on your "to read" list?

 At the start of June, I read the sad news story of the remains of 215 Indigenous children that were found at a boarding school in Canada. It inspired me to read From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle. I first learned about these boarding schools as an adult teaching at a local college. A couple of my students told me about how they had existed in Wisconsin and had wiped out much of their tribal culture. I was horrified.

 From the Ashes is author Jesse Thistle's memoir of what it was like going up Indigenous, but not knowing about his culture. He had a very hard life and always felt displaced. The police took custody of him and his two older brothers one day when his dad didn't return home. Jesse was three years old. His paternal Grandparents raised him until he disobeyed their rules and was found with drugs. He was kicked out and homeless.

 Jesse spiraled into years of drugs, homelessness, and bad decisions. It was hard to read about. He finally was able to turn it around and pull himself back up into a good life filled with love. He reconnected with his mother and learned the history of his people. He earned a college degree and married the woman he loved. He is now an expert on homelessness in Indigenous cultures. It was very inspiring, and I would love to read more from Jesse Thistle.

 I listened to the audiobook which was narrated by the author Jesse Thistle. I always love when an audiobook is narrated by the actual author, especially a memoir.

 Overall, From the Ashes was a very inspiring and heartfelt read.