Module 2: Western: Lakota

Wisler, G. C. (1989/2014). Lakota. Lanham, MD: M. Evans. 978-1-59077-263-8. 

Amazon. (2017). Lakota. Retrieved
from https://images-na.ssl-images-
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Summary:

Lakota is the life story of Mastincala (Rabbit), a member of the Sicangu Lakota (Teton Sioux). As a boy, Mastincala’s father is killed in a fight with the wasicun (white soldiers), so he grows up with his uncle Hinhan Hota (Gray Owl) teaching him the ways of the Lakota: how to find the Tatanka (buffalo) and kill them, use every bit of them, how to scout, how to steal ponies from the Crow tribe, how to be a warrior, how to travel across the plains and Big Horn Mountains as the year progresses, how to commune with Wakan Tanka (the Great Mystery), and so on. Other important people in Mastincala’s life are Louis De Doux, his ¾ white and ¼ Native American friend who becomes a brother-friend (kola) and is named Hinkpila (Short Hair), and He Hopa (Four Horns), the community’s medicine man who teaches Mastincala about curing medicines and chants.

Lakota follows Mastincala as he becomes a man and is re-named Tacante (Buffalo Heart, the Heart of the People), the name Mastincala’s father had. Tacante and his friends --including Sunkawakan Witkotkoke (Crazy Horse)-- participate in skirmishes with various wasicun troops from Little Big Horn in Montana/Wyoming to the Black Hills in South Dakota to Custer’s Last Stand. Sometimes the wasicuns were victorious and, at other battles, the Lakota were the winners. But life was difficult: in treaties, the white men promised to leave a certain land to the Native Americans, but would then allow pioneers, wagon trains, soldiers, forts, and/or gold rushers to infiltrate. This angered the Lakota and other Native Americans. All of these Euro-Americans chased away the buffalo and game, starving the Indians and their children-- include Tacante’s own wife and three small sons.

The winter after Custer’s Last Stand, during which Tacante lost his fifth and final kola, was especially hard. Few groupings of Lakota had not submitted to agency (reservation) life. Hinkpila convinces Tacante to surrender for his sons’ sakes. Tacante, Crazy Horse, and the remaining warriors submit to peace, but the way of life that their ancestors had practiced for generations was dead, even if their bodies were not.

As a Genre Example:

Lakota is not the typical Western: there are no cowboys, cattle drives, nostalgia for the Old West, or a mythic hero. Nor is there the lyrical waxing of the landscape. Instead, Lakota falls into the subgenre Western with Native American point of view according to the Saricks text or the Custer’s Last Stand subgenre according to the Module notes. It is set in the years after the Civil War, and the Lakota do try to overcome the wiscun and wagon trains with strategy before violence (they often liked to make the pioneers from wagon trains strip, burn their wagons and pilfer their supplies and make them return to the nearest fort with nothing). The resolution is not as “riding-off-into-the-sunset” because it can’t be. Obviously, the Native Americans do not win and are forced onto reservations where they are stripped of their stories, history, culture, and identities. But, Mastincala/Tacante does live until the end of the story, as do his wife and three sons, so it’s not a completely unhappy ending.

Evaluation:

I did not like Lakota. It was very boring, and I did a countdown the last 80 pages. Because Lakota is told in third person, there is very little emotional connection to Mastincala/Tacante or the Lakota people in general. I felt sorry for them when they talk of how the wagon trains are scaring off all of their food supplies, but the gnawing of hunger as emptiness rattles through a grown man’s stomach and the fierceness of the Dakota winter wind that rips through parkas as easily as buffalo hides is absent. Wisler does a lot of telling instead of showing (except for the graphic description of what happens at a sun dance; I could have done without knowing that!). I was also annoyed by the lack of a map and glossary. I understand that Lakota is not a textbook, but I kept going to Google to see exactly where the Big Horn Mountains, Fort Laramie, etc. are located. And there are lots of Lakota terms, which is great ethos to the story, but I didn’t understand them, so, again, to Google I went. Either Wisler needed to build in better denotations in his text or include a glossary at the end that I could easily flip to to better understand important concepts that were thrown about with such casualness as “making straight A’s” or “trending on Twitter” are used in 21^st vernacular. Mastincala/Tacante is rarely vulnerable and there is very little dynamic growth. The few sentences or paragraphs that attempt to be emotive are lacking in getting to the heart-rending pain and despair that happens when a little brother or kola is killed or the protectiveness and tender affection that swells in a new father’s chest when a baby is first held against one’s thumping heart. From the “fly on the wall” point of view that Wisler installs, the Lakota as humans, as people, as individuals is not well established; instead they are two-dimensional, little better than caricatures--which, based on Wisler’s dedication “In grateful appreciation, Lakota is dedicated to Victor, Lionel, and my other friends at Sinte Gleska College and among the Sicangu Lakota people” was not his aim. Because of the slow pacing and lack of emotive connection to the characters and story as a whole, I would not recommend Lakota to readers.

Reader's Advisory:

I chose Lakota because I have family members who are Sioux (my grandparents adopted a brother and sister who are Sioux back in the late ‘60’s/early ‘70’s), and I am always intrigued to learn more about where they come from. Additionally, I’m fairly familiar with South Dakota since that is where my grandparents live, so I figured I would know some of the towns/landmarks described. Bearing this in mind, Lakota could be enjoyed by a reader who is really curious about the history of the Lakota --because of family connections, visiting Crazy Horse and the Black Hills or the Big Horn Mountains, etc. As such, readers looking for information on the Sioux and who like Travel or History books might enjoy Lakota.