a Woman, Mary Crow Dog devotes a portion of a few chapters to this subject. In one such chapter she states, “I started drinking because it was the natural way of life…I think I grew up with the 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:“…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 runs rampant. The Native Americans were thought of as savages. They were killed at the hands of soldiers. Turned into farmhands, laborers and such by the missionaries. The police turned away when an American Indian was in trouble, only to arrest him when the odds turned in his favor. Being a Native American was not easy by any means, and being a Native American woman wasn’t any easier. The women have the added pressure of just being a female, which at times is hard enough even if you are white. Among the Native Americans, some ...
