Genre:
Crime/Native American
Description:
James
M Frey – Dorothy Black Crow’s writing mentor – describes the
book thus: “The
Handless Maiden
is not like any mystery you have ever read in your life. It takes
place in 1977 on the Lakota Pine Ridge Reservation in the Badlands of
South Dakota. Here, the memory of the massacre at Wounded Knee in
December, 1890 still burns hot in the tribal memory. Here the ghosts
of long dead ancestors are still seen walking in the moonlight. Here
there are sweat lodge ceremonies that produce astounding visions. And
here, 300 FBI agents have been sent to put down a rebellion by a few
dozen young Lakota Warriors and they aren’t about to waste their
time reading you your rights. Now Tate Turning Hawk, a young woman
recently married to a young medicine man and new to the reservation,
is led by a ghost she does not believe in to the body of her friend
Joanna Joe, brutally murdered and her hands chopped off. The local
police and the FBI could [sic] care less. Joanna Joe was a trouble
maker. It’s up to Tate and her medicine man husband, Alex, to bring
justice. They go after the killers the Lakota way, the spiritual
way…”
Author:
Dorothy
Black Crow lived with the Lakota in South Dakota in the Seventies and
Eighties and now lives in the Pacific Northwest, closely involved
with Native Americans there. She is “An
award-winning poet, fiction writer and former professor of literature
at Oglala Lakota College and the University of Michigan, [she]
explores the reality of life on the Pine Ridge Reservation, from her
own experience as a woman married to a Lakota Sundance leader, as
well as from an outsider's perspective. She writes with a blend of
understanding, experience and knowledge.” (Goodreads). On her own
website she says, “I write
to honor the elders who have gone on so that the young ones will know
about the good and bad times. I write about Native American social
justice, honor and respect.”
To
learn more about Ms. Black Crow you are welcome to visit her website.
Appraisal:
I
was drawn to this book as soon as I saw the title, because of the
link to the German fairy story by those aptly named ‘Brothers
Grimm’ and the collection by
the British poet Vicki Feaver with the same title. When I looked at
the ‘blurb’ and discovered it was, in fact, a crime story set on
a Reservation in South Dakota I was even more intrigued, as the study
of Native American history was part of my British university course
many years ago (some seven years after Bury
My Heart at Wounded Knee was
first published) and I have never lost my fascination for that way of
life. The use of fairy tales, myths and legends can enrich the
fiction we write (and read) now. Where would we be without the
stories which anchor us to our own past? Cut loose as wandering
ghosts, perhaps …
This is a
very interesting book, full of information. If you are into Native
American culture and/or world belief systems you will enjoy it. It is
set in 1977, when relations between Native Americans on the ‘Res’
and the various agencies tasked with looking after them are very bad
indeed, especially so close to Wounded Knee (see the background in
the paragraph by James M Frey above). There is constant tension and
often violence. The Native Americans are offered no respect, and give
none. Their rights are ignored, as are many of their needs. However,
those for whom life remains ‘Traditional’ – living in log
cabins and tipis without running water or indoor plumbing – fare
better than those who embrace the White World’s easy life where the
numbing effect of alcohol is a constant temptation. I found it
poignant how often characters referred to the need for a place of
safety, whether spiritual or in some remote hideaway on the Res. And
even more poignant how often such places prove not to be safe at all.
The story
hits the ground running. There is a violent death very early on (not
a spoiler there – the ‘handless’ part of the title is a bit of
a clue) and newlyweds Alex and Tate Turning Hawk attempt to
investigate it. Tate has a foot in both the White World and the Red
having been fostered by a white family. She and her medicine man
husband Alex are forced apart by circumstances; each continues to try
and solve the mystery so as to allow the dead woman’s soul to find
peace. They think they know not to trust anyone, but sometimes one
must take help where it is offered.
It doesn’t
help Tate’s investigations that a woman’s life on the Res in the
Seventies was circumscribed by concepts of ‘Honor’ and
‘Reputation’ to the point where she can barely speak with a man
not her husband without giving rise to rumors, amplified by the
‘Moccasin Telegraph’, which blow through the Res, gathering force
as they go. If you are a woman reading this book, it may make you
quite frustrated. Bear in mind that it is set in 1977, that the
author has been a Native American wife, and that her Tate character
kicks against the restrictions that are put in her path from
beginning to end, sometimes not wisely but always with enthusiasm.
And Tate can hotwire a car: respect!
The point
of view is alternately from Tate’s and Alex’s points of view.
Through Tate, Black Crow is able to filter cultural and social mores
which are occasionally quite different to those of the White World,
thus helping non-Native American readers absorb and understand what
is going on and why. Through Alex she can show the value of the code
of conduct which Traditional Native Americans hold so important, and
the rituals which support that – and the importance to them of the
natural world, as here:
“No
sign of the sun or moon or stars or sky overhead or grass underfoot,
not even darkness, only a filtered grayness, hard and square and
dead. He couldn’t breathe.”
This is not
to say that the plot slows down for rituals, or explanations of the
Native American way of life – far from it. A brisk pace is
maintained throughout. And when Tate and Alex are separated, the
regularly alternating PoV helps the reader remember what is happening
in the other thread as we gallop along.
There are
places where, even so, not quite enough attention is paid to helping
the tyro reader with this way of life, which is quite different from
the lives most of us lead. However, go with the flow and you will
find that puzzling bits come clear as the book unfolds.
Thus I
recommend this book to you if you are a fan of crime fiction –
particularly with unusual settings – and/or are interested in the
life of Native Americans on the ‘Res’, especially in the
Seventies.
Format/Typo
Issues: There are minor
editing problems throughout,
but they are only a minor irritation. Their presence has, however,
cost the book a *.
Rating:
****
Reviewed
by: Judi Moore
Approximate
word count: 100-105,000 words
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