Lakot Woman Essay - 926 Words

Lakot Woman In the book Lakota Woman, Mary Crow Dog writes of the many struggles that she faced in everyday life as an American Indian woman. The Lack of running water or electricity, the poverty and oppression found on and around the Indian reservation, are just a few examples of the problems that she had to deal with on a continuing basis. She describes in detail the violence and hopelessness that her people encountered at the hands of the white man as well as the â€Å"hang around the fort Indians†. Mary Crow Dog tells of horrors she had to endure while attending the missionary school and of facing the discrimination found outside the reservation. Growing up, one of the hardest trials faced by Mary Crow Dog was not only that of being a†¦show more content†¦In Lakota Woman, Mary Crow Dog devotes a portion of a few chapters to this subject. In one such chapter she states, â€Å"I started drinking because it was the natural way of life†¦I think I grew up with th e idea that everybody was doing it†¦I started drinking when I was ten.† All of this is rather ironic when you consider the fact that liquor is forbidden on the reservation, and drinking it is illegal. As if life on the reservation was not hard enough, there came a time in a child’s life when he/she was taken away from their families and sent to a boarding school. The Annual report of the Department of Interior, 1901 wrote: â€Å"†¦Gathered from the cabin, the wickiup, and the tepee, partly by cajolery and partly by threats; partly by bribery and partly by force, they are induced to leave their kindred to enter these schools and take upon themselves the outward appearance of civilized life.† These schools were filled with impersonality instead of the close human contact these children were used to. Mary Crow Dog attended the mission school at St. Francis, just as her Grandmother, mother and sisters did. In these boarding schools, the girls and boys are separated from one another. Beatings were commonplace, and sexual molestation from the priests was not unheard of, in fact these boarding schools were ran much like a penitentiary. Racism both inside and outside of the reservation