Choteau Creek: A Sioux Reminiscence - Softcover

Dudley, Joseph Iron Eye

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803266111 ISBN 13: 9780803266117

Publisher: Bison Books, 1998

Synopsis

From the time he was three years old, in 1943, Joseph Iron Eye Dudley was raised by his grandparents on the Yankton Sioux Reservation. Their tiny weatherbeaten house, nestled in a bend of Choteau Creek on the rolling South Dakota prairie, is where he grew up, and this moving reminiscence recreates with warmth and candor a childhood poor in material goods but overflowing with spiritual wealth.

"Much has been written," says the author, "by and about Native American people who are active in political and social movements, and much has been said about the appalling conditions of reservation life. This book is about the common, quiet people who never make the headlines or find their names in print. They are the backbone of the reservations, the ones who pass on the values that make Native American what they are. This story of my grandparents reminds us that there is a spirit in people which enables them to rise above the potential devastation of poverty and racism into a life marked by humor and laughter, one that radiates love and kindness."

About this title

About the Author

Joseph Iron Eye Dudley (Iron Eye is his ancestral family name, which he has reclaimed) is a member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe and an ordained United Methodist minister. He frequently lectures and gives workshops on topics such as racism, intercultural relations, and Native American spirituality.

From Kirkus Reviews

A warm, poignant evocation by Methodist minister Dudley of a childhood spent on the Yankton Sioux Reservation, secure in the home of his grandparents, from whom he received a legacy of love as well as stories of his people and their world. Beginning in 1948, when at age eight he was separated from his brother and sister, Dudley recalls the first Christmas spent alone with his elderly grandparents in their battered three-room house. Impoverished though they were, the couple's affection for one another meant a generally harmonious household, with daily rituals including the grandfather bringing a morning cup of coffee to his wife in bed. Their relative isolation meant hardships as well, but they still were part of a community, so when both elders were hospitalized briefly, a friend came to stay with the child, and Dudley's grandmother was able to practice Christian charity in turn by visiting a young man on his deathbed. An Episcopalian for whom prayer at home required family participation, the elderly woman also recalled vividly for her grandson the last Ghost Dance held on the reservation, which she attended as a child. Her faith was her strength as cataracts obscured her vision, and, as he matured, that faith helped the author to understand the importance of religion in his own life. Even through difficult teenage years in which he had to care for his grandparents in their increasing infirmity while attending a distant high school, Dudley found that his grandparents' presence and stories offered a sustaining sense of continuity and belonging. Tender but honest--a memorable family portrait in which the everyday merges with distinctive elements of a Sioux heritage, with the delicate innocence of youth fully retained. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bison Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0803266111
• ISBN 13: 9780803266117
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 179