Susan Power (1) (1961–)
Author of The Grass Dancer
For other authors named Susan Power, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Susan Power is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Her first novel, The Grass Dancer, received the PEN/Hemingway award for best new fiction. She lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Image credit: Taken from article: https://barelysouthreview.com/an-interview-with-susan-power-interview-2/
Works by Susan Power
Red Moccasins 2 copies
Associated Works
The Workshop: Seven Decades of the Iowa Writers Workshop - 43 Stories, Recollections, & Essays on Iowa's Place in… (1999) — Contributor — 187 copies
Reinventing the Enemy's Language: Contemporary Native Women's Writings of North America (1997) — Contributor — 166 copies
Grand Mothers: Poems, Reminiscences, and Short Stories About the Keepers of Our Traditions (1994) — Contributor — 79 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1961
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
Dakota - Birthplace
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Education
- Harvard University
Harvard Law School
Members
Reviews
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 7
- Also by
- 11
- Members
- 915
- Popularity
- #28,031
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 29
- ISBNs
- 49
- Languages
- 8
– library
This is the story of three generations of a family of Lakhota and Dakhota women and the dolls they loved. Like the story of The Velveteen Rabbit, each doll has been so loved that they have become real, with opinions and wisdom to share with their girls.
Each of the three generations of woman is the victim of trauma – imposed by whites physically exterminating Natives through massacres and culturally exterminating them through Reservations and Indian boarding schools. In turn, the children of those victimized are often traumatized by family members who have survived these disasters, but are changed that they can no longer nurture their families as they turn to alcohol and anger to survive.
We first meet Sissy and her doll Ethel, a black Thumbelina doll. Sissy’s father has chosen the black doll for her as she is closer in hair and complexion to Sissy than the blonde haired white Thumbelinas and no native version exists. Sissy’s mother is an activist, but her anger terrifies her daughter. Sissy's mother was torn from her family and sent to an Indian boarding school. Her mother’s mother saw massacres. There is a fourth woman who doesn’t identify herself, merely a voiceless ghost covered by the horrific marks of her death
I’ve read novels and non-fiction accounts of the forced submissions and massacres of the Indians wars, as the whites contorted the natives into smaller and smaller boxes. But when I’ve read of an incident like the Wounded Knee Massacre, while I am totally saddened, I had never considered the inter-generational trauma caused by such events – and then the cumulative trauma endured by the next generation as the assimilation/annihilation continues. The incidents are never over, but continue on and on to this day as sacred places and respect are removed from these people.
Telling these stories through the cross-cultural little girls’ love for their dolls has opened my eyes. 4 stars… (more)