Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation

Norton Shorts

by Tiya Miles

Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by The Millions and Literary Hub

An award-winning historian shows how girls who found self-understanding in the natural world became women who changed America. Harriet Tubman, forced to labor outdoors on a Maryland plantation, learned from the land a terrain for escape. Louisa May Alcott ran wild, eluding gendered expectations in New England. The Indigenous women’s basketball team from Fort Shaw, Montana, recaptured a sense of pride in physical prowess as they trounced the white teams of the 1904 World’s Fair. Celebrating women like these who acted on their confidence outdoors, Wild Girls brings new context to misunderstood icons like Sacagawea and Pocahontas, and to underappreciated figures like Native American activist writer Zitkála-Šá, also known as Gertrude Bonnin, farmworkers’ champion Dolores Huerta, and labor and Civil Rights organizer Grace Lee Boggs. This beautiful, meditative work of history puts girls of all races―and the landscapes they loved―at center stage and reveals the impact of the outdoors on women’s independence, resourcefulness, and vision. For these trailblazing women of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, navigating the woods, following the stars, playing sports, and taking to the streets in peaceful protest were not only joyful pursuits, but also techniques to resist assimilation, racism, and sexism. Lyrically written and full of archival discoveries, Wild Girls evokes landscapes as richly as the girls who roamed in them―and argues for equal access to outdoor spaces for young women of every race and class today. 11 illustrations

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Nature, Feminism, Audiobook, American History, Womens

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 19, 2023

About the author

Tiya Miles is from Ohio, "the heart of it all," though now she spends summers in her husband's native Montana. She is the author of All That She Carried (which won a National Book Award for nonfiction and more), and of three prize-winning works of history on the intersections of African American and Native American experience. Her forthcoming book, Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People, will be out in June 2024, right on the heels of her short but sweet exploration of childhoods in nature: Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation (September 2024). Her debut dual time period (historical-contemporary) novel based on her early career research, The Cherokee Rose: A Novel of Gardens and Ghosts, was revised with new scenes and released as a paperback original by Random House in June 2023; check out the new version! She has also published a study of haunted plantations and manor homes in the South that reads like a travel narrative. (And she is as surprised as you are that two of her books focus on ghosts!) Her newest book, just out from W. W. Norton, is Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation. Tiya's favorite activities are reading good books while her three teenaged kids write stories together in the background, spending time in old houses, walking along forest trails, and drinking hot chocolate. She is currently working on a history, a novel, and essays about climate change and historic sites. Check out her Substack: Carrying Capacity, for news and updates! https://tiyamiles.substack.com/

Reviews

[Liz McCammon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway and am providing an honest review. 3 Stars I want to start by saying this book is well written and worth reading. But, that being said, if you are looking for a book to introduce you to a number of women who, through their experiences in nature, developed a strength of character to break barriers this isn’t it. Women have been excluded and still are limited in wild spaces. We have been taught to fear the trails - they are better suited to men. I honestly hoped for a book about Wild Girls who would go on to challenge our nation. I didn’t get that here.

This book would be better titled, “How White Men Systematically Suppressed Women 1820-1920+” There is literally more discussion about men and what they did than there is about the strengths of these beautiful women who lived during this time. It’s confusing to me that a book titled as such would give half a paragraph to Anna Julia Cooper who established outdoor women’s clubs and the M Street YMCA chapter of the Campfire Girls (62) - not to mention all of her later accomplishments.

The challenges that women faced during these years - especially women who defied the “norms”- were immeasurable and difficult to overcome. Conjecture on these struggles is not needed - the sheer number of “may have” and “perhaps” statements this book contains really frustrated me. It was as though the history being shared wasn’t bad enough. For example, pg. 73, when writing of Genevieve Healy the author states “and perhaps secret sources of pain that she did not share with her granddaughter.” What is the author alluding to? Is it based off of other history of the time? If so, share it.

There were also several instances where the author tried to connect history through similar means. As on Pg. 91 where Mary Fields and Josephine Langley had/may have had a connection due to a possible overlap in years of employment. This just seemed forced and not necessary. I also wondered why we were treated to a 1900 pic of basketball playing Jeannette Rankin (100), an extremely notable Montana woman who was the first female elected to congress in 1916 but had absolutely no reference to her in the book other than the caption. Why?

Again, this book is honestly well worth a read - it’s just, in my opinion, Wild Girls missed the mark of connecting the great outdoors as an influencing factor to some really exceptional women.

[Charlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Saw this on new arrivals shelf at the library; the topic (American women’s relationship with nature) and the author who I’ve read before caught my eye. I also liked that it is part of a new series, called Norton Shorts, nf books written by scholars but meant for the general public and limited to 200 pages.

Book started off great with a chapter on Harriett Tubman, reminding us that she grew up working outdoors (both on farm and with timber), that she saw the woods as providing safety and direction to runaways . . . Lots of connections I had not thought about.

But other chapters very uneven . . . A surprising number of pages of short book is about the girls basketball team at the Fort Shaw Indian Residential School. I get that basketball was a substitute for the physical outdoor stuff they would have done at home but still didn’t fit the theme, especially not enough to warrant being a big section in small book.

Very little about mid or late 20th century women although the few pages on Octavia Butler, one of my favorite authors, was interesting.

Good subject but just didn’t quite come together on that subject.

[Carrie Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

*4.5 rounded to 5*
As female who is finishing her PhD in science with a focus on ecology, I I could have easily read 400 pages by Tiya Miles on this topic. However, I realize that this was published in Norton's new "shorts" series which has a mission of sharing important stories in under 200 pages.

I love her writing and ability to give voice to those who are often marginalized. The book is well researched, and the use of archival evidence through pictures and journal quotes really contributes to the argument that these women were integral in shaping society. It was obvious that Tiya Miles was mindful about the women selected for the book, and she provided strong evidence for their "wildness" as well as societal impact. I also appreciated how she weaved the women in this book together noting similarities in their experiences with nature and societal expectations. My one disappointment was that it barely covered women of the 20th century past like 1920. Perhaps there could be a part 2? :)

Overall, I loved this short collection. The individual chapters could stand alone easily as course readings, but the whole book could also be easily integrated into a science, politics, or history course. I think this would allow for great student-led conversations too!

[Melissa Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was not what I was expecting. I was excited to read about women who have pioneered and/or worked in various outdoor professions. Unfortunately, this is not what the book is about.

A handful of various women are featured throughout the book. Most of the book focuses on the history surrounding the times of these women. I felt like there were long rambling paragraphs (sometimes pages) in between actually focusing on the supposedly featured woman. Then, as a side note, it would be mentioned that this woman liked to go on walks in the woods or was a tomboy.

If the author wanted to write a book about various women in history, she should have just done that. I am not sure why she tried to add an outdoors theme to link them. It was weak and a distraction.

I found most of it quite boring. I sped read the middle of the book and stopped reading before the end.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the first two books in a new series called Norton Shorts, by publisher W.W. Norton. They are calling it “Brilliance with Brevity”. Further description says “Written by leading-edge scholars, these eye-opening books deliver bold thinking and fresh perspectives in under two hundred pages.”

For this book, and one of the inaugural books for the series, I think it missed the mark. It was short, and I think that was part of the problem with the book. It was even under 150 pages, it needed more length.

The author Miles focused only on a few women and it needed more depth to hold up to that subtitle. I don't think the author proved her thesis. Also, even with these few women it was occasionally a stretch in placing the outdoors with the women, although not for all of them.

The main subjects were: Harriot Tubman, Louisa May Alcott, and Genevieve Healy, Jane Johnson Schoolcraft and Mamie Gavin Fields get a few pages, along with mentions of Sakakawea. Miles also writes extensively about a girls basketball team of Native Americans. It was highly unusual for the time. I do appreciate the author finding some women who may have made a mark during their time, that are not well known. However, I was still wanting more.

The book contained some photos, all in black and white, and the back had an extensive section of notes on sources and quotations. Which then brings the text to 120 pages, yes, very short.

[Fran · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed. I wanted more, more people, and a great expansion of ideas. The premise is interesting and relevant, but I found it lacking in hard hitting power.

[Emily]

Smith College mention 💪💪

[Teresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wild Girls missed the mark for me. I was excited by the topic of how the lessons learned in nature shaped some of history's influential women, but this is not what came through in the book. For me the book was best when discussing Harriet Tubman and Louisa May Alcott's outdoor lives, but I lost the plot when many other women were discussed for just a paragraph or two. I would still recommend this to people who like history books because it is such a short read, well-written, and parts of it are really interesting.

[Laura Hoffman Brauman · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Wild Girls, Tiya Miles looks at how experience in the outdoors - whether by choice or by force, influenced women who broke boundaries and influenced their communities and the nation. Some of the women featured in here were familiar to me - such as Harriet Tubman, Louisa May Alcott, and Octavia Butler. Others were women whose influence and backgrounds were unfamiliar to me. I appreciated the opportunity to learn about each of the women in here and Miles provided excellent and thorough context to the times and norms of their particular period in history. While certainly interesting, this does have a fairly academic tone (not surprising given the author is a professor at Harvard). I enjoyed Miles other work, All The Things She Carried and appreciated this opportunity to see more of the results of her scholarship.

[Katie Barefoot · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, but I feel it necessary to describe for future readers. I picked this up at a small, independent book shop and was taken by the description.

However what this work reads as is not how it is described. Make no mistake, this is a collection of academic essays compiled to create one short work with a reaching theme of “nature enjoyed by important historical women” to tie it all together. It is enjoyable, if not slightly tedious to get through, but at the end I had no moments of revelation, no lightbulbs that went off.

I do appreciate the level of research and thought that went in to the writing, and I hope to read more from this author in the future.

[Maggie Carr · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yikes. I was so excited to read this book but it felt more like a misnamed thesis. Maybe I just knew more than the average reader about most of the subjects mentioned and so what was pulled from each of their stories felt weighted to aim for a certain angle just for this book. I don't know. In my opinion just read a book on each person or team and leave this book for people cramming for Jeopardy or something.

[Cari · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Very insightful and intriguing. But felt like I was reading a long winded essay. I would recommend this though to any nature lover who wants to learn more about the marginalized people who pilgrimmed outdoor accessibility for women.

[Analie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I chose this book because I loved the connection of nature with women's stories. Such a great topic! It started off strong with Harriet Tubman, only to become muddled with vague supposings and ultimately land in a bog of words about oppression. I wish more women had been featured and more details about the plants and natural medicines that sustained escaping slaves and native women. Still an interesting read, though.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a big thesis but I think it manages to deliver a compelling and cohesive story! It pulls from the lives of native, enslaved, and white woman throughout US history and asks how the relation to the natural world fundamentally shaped these woman and the country.

[Kait Mellor · Rating 5 out of 5]

learned some new and very insightful stuff!!!!!

[Aaron Cerny · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book I’ve read in over a year 10/10

[Leslie Rawls · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating subject, well-researched, and a story well told. I enjoyed the book very much and have two complaints.

The first problem was also manifest in _All That She Carried_. In several places, sentences are just too long and convoluted. Separating the subject, verb, and object by several lines does not help the reader follow the author’s meaning. Several times in this book, I read a sentence three or four times before I grasped it. Once I went back and counted a wordy sentence’s length—twelve lines with multiple tangents built into one sentence. I’m a well-educated professional with a doctorate from a top university. Because persuasive writing is my profession, I have also attended loads of writing workshops almost every year for the last 30 years. Nearly all instructed on the value of keeping sentences focused and reasonably short. (Short sentences only is not a blanket rule, of course.) I wonder if a stronger editor might have helped by saying, “Let’s break this into three or four sentences instead of trying to fit every related thought into one sentence.”

My second complaint is the photo of Dolores Huerta, wearing a “woven” poncho. It’s not woven, it’s clearly crocheted. Might be picky to mention it and likely not Miles’s fault.

[Migdalia Jimenez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Expertly mixing nature, history and memoir, Tiya Miles tells the story of legends like Harriet Tubman, Dolores Huerta, Grace Lee Boggs and more- illuminating their individual stories, full of triumphs and tragedies, and centering their marginalized voices to tell the larger story of the United States.

Readers will enjoy learning more in depth about these absolute icons (and others that you may never have heard of), their times, their art, and their resistance to colonialism, slavery, and oppression- actions whose consequences have endured to this day.

This slim book packs a whole lot that will make your heart ache and also give you hope and appreciation for the resilience of women and nature and activism.

Thank you to Netgalley and W.W. Norton & Company for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first chapter of this book started off strong. I really liked the argument that women who spent time in nature were able to draw upon this knowledge to inform their daily lives and make changes in society happen. The story about the meteor shower in 1833 and how it was passed along in oral traditions among slaves was truly fascinating. I did feel, though, that later chapters were more of a slog to get through — maybe it’s because I know a lot more about the history of basketball at Indian schools as well as Louisa May Alcott’s biography. However, this book is short and proposes that we are better outside — and that’s a thesis I can get behind.

[Dori Sabourin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Great Outdoors

In Tiya Miles historical nonfiction book. “Wild Girls,” she theorizes that girls who spend time outside, rather than in traditional gender roles such as being a housewife, raising children and answering to the beck and call of the head of the house; have more freedom to explore their true selves.

Miles gives examples of girls and women who found their voice when allowed to roam in the great outdoors,

At the end of the book, the author gives a list of materials for further reading in alphabetical order.

[Michelle Raybourn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a great digestible piece of history with such an interesting thesis: the outdoors became a place of common ground of humanity and equality when women were consistently placed in domestic roles during the 1800’s and before. I was also encouraged to see the way that Christianity provided the fire in the hearts of many activists of the times as well.
This also just moved my heart towards the importance of nature being accessible to people of all backgrounds, especially with the recent pandemic in mind.

[Emma Santucci · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF :/

sadly this book, which conceptually i was very excited about, did not scratch the itch for me. it’s well written // researched but was difficult for me to lock into. maybe i’ve just been reading too much non-fiction?

i read the most popular review after deciding i didn’t feel like reading it anymore and found it to be super validating (not enough about the women and way too much about how they were being oppressed).

[Kara Fuson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a hard book to rate. I liked the premise and I learned a lot. The information shared about Harriet Tubman, Sacajawea and the Native American women was insightful. This book was a “short” so it was a lot of information in not a lot of pages (I did love the pictures that were included). My only critique was the flow/organization just felt off and how the author transitioned between women and time periods.

[Pat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too academic and too much of a forced stretch about women and the outdoors. I did like the bits of history, though. But I won't remember this one.

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wild Girls
By Tiya miles

Introduction is a poem by Lucille Clifton the earth is a living thing published in the book of life, describes in poetry the beauty of earth.

Preface
The ice bridges, looking at the Ohio River, from family memories of the river freeing solid to more substantial stories of the underground railroad. It shows how the freezing of the river led to freedom and tragedy, featured in Toni Morison’s book Beloved.

Way finders, the explorers that allowed the bid for freedom.
The limitations of race and Geography limit the areas we are welcome with the danger of the environment. The social dangers of alcohol and physical abuse limit the outside world of young girls. Others because of suspicion were prohibited.

The gist of the stories in this book shows how restrictions by society for white, black or native girls caused the strength and holistic physical activity.

chapter 1
STAR GAZERS

Araminta Minty Ross as a child was an adventurer who uses nature to provide a safe place from exploitation and abuse. Changing nature into a helper in her personal struggles. As an adult in her marriage she is known as Harriet Tubbman. She used her knowledge of ecology, and her personal observation to not only save herself, her family and over 80 slaves. Her story continues to be a source of inspiration for the author throughout the book.

The story of falling stars showed the nature of slavery. From the wonder of the event slaves mark their age. To the owners fearing the end of days showed the restricted knowledge of the diaspora of slave families.

Jane Clark had her story written in 1897 by Julia C. Ferris, a white teacher and local educational leader, the manuscript narrates portions of the life of Jane Clark, an enslaved woman who escaped to Auburn in 1859. Shows the reality of enslavement. She was protected as a child by a kind owner. Only to be sold to aid her white owners avoidance of military obligations.

Harriet Jacobs, the slave of Andrew Knox, was born in Edenton, North Carolina, in the fall of 1813. Until she was six years old Harriet was unaware that she was the property of Margaret Horniblow. She shows the danger of exploitation of slaves. Their labor and bodies were used by whims of fractious and violent masters. Harriet Jacobs struggled to avoid the sexual victimization that Dr. Norcom intended to be her fate.

Laura Smith Haviland, a quaker in her writing, shows the nature of growing up between the lines of freedom and slavery.

Chapter 2

Word Smiths

Louisa May Alcott, a wild child, used inspiration from her own life in her famous novels, Little women and its sequels. She struggled against female role models and ideals. This started part of the change to suffrage and women's rights. Placid but dangerous Frog pond is where she became an abolitionist.

Suffrage writers did attempt to remake the images of The stories of Pocahontas and Sacagawea changed the populist look at native female roles, from the Disney portrait of pocahontas and Sacagawea not as permission for exploitation but as women of strength and character. There are more later descriptions of the lives of these two women and the reality of their personal and emotional struggles.

Native american and other activists

Zitkála-Šá, also known as Gertrude Bonnin ,Native American musician, writer and activist who fought for women's suffrage and Indigenous voting rights in the early 20th century. As a Dakota writer, competed in state wide competitions. She won second prize. She showed the intelligence of avocation. She later wrote several works chronicling her struggles with cultural identity, and the pull between the majority culture in which she was educated, and the Dakota culture into which she was born and raised. The later chapter will show this as a contrast with other native american experiences.

Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee was born in Guangzhou (Canton), at only 16, advocating for Asian Americans to march in the 1912 suffrage parade.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a prominent journalist, activist, and researcher, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was an advocate for suffrage, and fought against lenching.

Anna Julia Haywood Cooper, her manifesto “A Voice from the South”, and first African American outdoor girl club, while being a professor she established campfire girls.

Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, also known as Bamewawagezhikaquay was a child of indigenous eastern woodland community. She was part Irish, but her exposure to the wilderness caused problems with her husband's political views. She loved the nature of her wilderness, and subtle political techniques. She wrote poetry of the land and environment. She used her poetry to show the knowledge of her homeland and nature poetry. Wrote her poetry in her native language. Lake superior is the juxtaposition of native character and poetry.

Mamie Garvin Fields personal account of southern upbringing,Lemon Swamp and Other Places: A Carolina Memoir. The story of her golden childhood was tempered by the treatment of her ancestors during the Civil War. Showed a beautiful secret room in the day time, and a boogeyman's pit at night. Showed the history of her family that haunted and politicized her.

Tony Morrison was the person to label these words smiths, writers are like flood waters that show the nature of the world, and its elemental forces.

Chapter 3
Game changers
Anna Julia Cooper, Give the girls a chance. In her book about the south. In 1892 a teacher and formerly enslaved child. Education could better the race and society. The limitations by labels cause more of the social inequity of the world.

Genevieve Healy, in 1888 the government pushed her tribe into reservations in Montana and wrote about the Native American school experience. Education of Native American children in forced schools caused many problems. The federal indian boarding schools, carceral institutions that removed children from their homes and forced the eradication of their culture. She is a member of the girl's basketball team at the Fort Shaw school in Montana.

Zitkála-Šá, red bird also known as a Dakota student at the Indian boarding school Gertrude Bonnin essay collection first published in 1921 American Indian stories. Wrote in naturalistic language in her poetry about the separation from her family and culture.

Josephine Langley, a ball player for her small fort boarding school, represented and challenged anthropological theory of race superiority. She trained her girls to more traditional forms of team work and physical strength.

Chapter 4
Bluemoon

Octavia Estelle Butler was an American science fiction author and a multiple recipient of the Hugo and Nebula awards. The first and only black writer of science fiction for much of her career sheWon McArthur genius grant . First and only for the McArthur fiction writer. Published 12 novels over time. Was the first African American Black speculative fiction and African futurism. Nasa named the site of a landing for Mars for rover perseverance. She had concern about the natural world, she was an environment and containment writer.

Dolores Huerta, Co-founder of the United Farm Workers Association, Dolores Clara Fernandez Huerta is one of the most influential labor activists of the 20th century and a leader of the Chicano civil rights movement.

Grace Lee Boggs was an American author, social activist, philosopher, and feminist. She is known for her years of political collaboration with C. L. R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya in the 1940s and 1950s.

[Jesek Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this short look into trailblazing American women's connection to the nature they grew up with. As someone whose love for playing in the mud (aka gardening and native plants) has only blossomed as an adult, I often feel like a kid running wild in yard. This book very well highlights how a young love of being outside can foster such creativity, confidence, empathy that surely contributes to your ability to confront challenges later in life.

That said, this book is a part of a short series. Don't expect it to dive too deep. It's better as a jumping off point to go learn more about the people mentioned. And my main critique, is how often phrases like "might have" are used. It's distracting speculation that's unnecessary. "So and so may have been hiding feelings about blah blah".... If it isn't confirmed, leave it out. The facts are strong enough on their own.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is very knowledgeable on the topic of these women, so much so that I felt like there was a lack of focus or through-line in the book because of how much the author wanted to include. While nature and the outdoors were mentioned and talked about, they almost took a back seat to what the women accomplished in their lives, with little connection being made. There were several times where I would get lost because a story of a particular girl would be interrupted to talk about someone totally different only to eventually come back to the first subject.

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. It’s like the research she’d done on other projects tied together into a conference paper topic…. And with a lot more research could have been fleshed out into a full book instead of this short. For what it is it is interesting and convinces me of the importance of the outdoor third spaces, and concern about the lack of them and who suffers the most. Feeling a need to get my kids out camping asap

[Sandee · Rating 3 out of 5]

With the subtitle of how the outdoors shaped women who challenged a nation, I expected more.
One chapter about how Indian children were sent to boarding schools and found basketball didn’t seem to have much to do with the outdoors.
And the section on Sacagawea talked more about the men of that world and how she ‘helped’ them.

[Julia Kerrigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone hop in the time machine, we’re going to the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair to watch the Fort Shaw Indian School Girls Basketball Team absolutely TROUNCE the (white) Missouri All Stars to become World Champions. I’ll take requests afterward but we’re starting there.