Our recent discussion of multiculturalism brought this book to my mind. I first read it a few years ago, after reading some of Kathleen Eagle’s books, when I was trying to find more accurate information about Native Americans in the 19th Century. And I can honestly say that short of time traveling, this is probably as close to the real thing as we’re going to get.

Deloria was born in 1888 to a prominent Yankton Dakota family. Her father was an Episcopal minister and she was partly raised on the Standing Rock Reservation. She spoke both the Yankton and Lakota dialects and spent much time recording oral histories while working in anthropology and ethnology. She got it, as it were, straight from the mouths of those who had lived the life.

“Waterlily” is her story of life on the plains during the 19th century just as the white man was beginning to enter Lakota life. It’s told mainly from the point of view of the women and not the warriors or holy men. It’s not told as a remembrance but rather shows the life of one young woman from birth to young adulthood. And through her story, we get a window into the complex social structure that undergirds Lakota life as well as the more day to day mundane tasks that filled her life.

Waterlily is born then raised in the tight social circle of her family unit or tiyospaye. There she learns the correct social kinship which was required among a people living in such close physical proximity. Manners were everything and without everyone knowing his or her place in the greater scheme of things, life would have been untenable.

As I read about how loving grandparents gently corrected and instructed their grandchildren, I couldn’t help but contrast it to behavior I see in public now. There’s a funny scene in which Waterlily’s family listens in horrified amazement as a relative and his wife tell them about how they’ve seen white parents interacting with their children in a newly built fort. Striking a child? Yelling at them? Such things would never be done in the camp circle.

We see how important the rituals of daily life were, how one brought honor to himself and his kinsfolk by giveaways, how everyone in the extended family worked together to make life pleasant and how the delicate kinship avoidance rules could alleviate any and all in-law jokes.

The Sundance is described in such a way that we can grasp how important it was in bringing the people together to support men who had made vows in support of their family and community. Modern eyes might view it as distasteful but to the Lakota it was something to be honored.

Deloria avoids romanticizing anyone and presents Waterlily’s real father as something of a layabout before he acts like a total ass and divorces Blue Bird, her mother. But things work out for the family as shown by Blue Bird’s second husband and how he quietly supports his family. Lakota marriage is shown through Waterlily’s first marriage as well as her second which follows the beginnings of the scourge of diseases which were brought to the Plains people.

Though the book isn’t a romance per se, Waterlily does find love with someone. But it’s a quiet, dignified love which befits a people who didn’t wear their hearts on their sleeves and emote about their “feelings” eight times a day. The slower, leisurely presentation might bore readers who want Action! on every page but if you’re looking for a book about this long gone lifestyle from someone who presents it with love and careful attention to detail, check out “Waterlily.”

~Jayne

This book can be purchased at Amazon in used format. It is an out of print title.

• Publisher: Bison Books (August 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803247397
• ISBN-13: 978-0803265790

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Intent to Seduce by Cara Summers (Blaze 38)
2. REVIEW: Mystic Horseman by Kathleen Eagle
3. Cassie Edwards’ Books Bear Similar (okay Exact) Text to Previously Published Texts

Your books have been favorites of mine for years. When I got back into reading romance novels about 10 years ago, “The Night Remembers” was
one of the first books I read and from there I started to collect everything you’d written. Your latest book, “Mystic Horseman,” reminds me of the best of your books from the golden 1990s.

Last year we caught a glimpse of Dillon Black in “Ride a Painted Pony.” He’s a man with a hard history who’s done some crazy things but who adores his two children even if his marriage to their mother (the end of which caused some of those crazy things) broke up 10 years ago. Now he and Nick Red Shield have built up a nice little business running cattle and breeding Indian ponies. And not just any Indian ponies but the supposed descendants of the horses of Sitting Bull. Dillon hopes this summer he and his daughter Emily can expand on the program they started the previous year which brings horses and the Lakota youth, descendants themselves of one of the Great Plains horse tribes, back together.

Dillon’s ex-wife Monica hopes to be able to help with this expansion. A local TV celebrity due to her ‘decorating on a dime’ show, she pitches the camp to her friend Ella Champion, producer of the transformation reality show which basically invades a neighborhood and fixes something up to improve the lives of the community. What nobody expects is just how much the two week taping of the show will change everyone involved.

“Mystic Horseman” is parts of “Reason to Believe” crossed with “Sunrise Song,” “Bad Moon Rising,” and “This Time Forever.” It’s a full on return to the modern reality of life in Indian Country – both the good and the bad. People pitching in today to remember and honor the past and also work towards a future. The beauty of the land and the memory of the ancestors surrounds those working on the Mystic Warrior Horse Camp. Relationships intermingle – Dillon and Monica sort their past, they both struggle to help their teenage children advance through the landmines of youth, Dillon and Ella cautiously advance into romance, the TV crew squabble and begin to learn about Indians past and present and the Lakota add their time honored community spirit and subtle, cutting humor.

I raced through the book, soaking up 50 pages at a time, getting deeper and deeper into the story and more caught up in the characters. This is a book I know I’ll reread and one that I’m happy to give a top grade to.

~Jayne

available in mmp but no ebook that I can find. Bummer.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Ride a Painted Pony by Kathleen Eagle
2. REVIEW: Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn
3. REVIEW: A View from the River by Kathleen Eagle