Savage Conversations

by LeAnne Howe

May 1875: Mary Todd Lincoln is addicted to opiates and tried in a Chicago court on charges of insanity. Entered into evidence is Ms. Lincoln’s claim that every night a Savage Indian enters her bedroom and slashes her face and scalp. She is swiftly committed to Bellevue Place Sanitarium. Her hauntings may be a reminder that in 1862, President Lincoln ordered the hanging of thirty-eight Dakotas in the largest mass execution in United States history. No one has ever linked the two events―until now. Savage Conversations is a daring account of a former first lady and the ghosts that tormented her for the contradictions and crimes on which this nation is founded.

Genres: Poetry, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Plays, Indigenous, Historical, Mental Health

144 pages, Paperback

First published February 5, 2019

About the author

LeAnne Howe is the author of three books, including Miko Kings: An Indian Baseball Story (Aunt Lute Books, 2007), and is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation. In 2006-2007 she was the John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi at Oxford. She was the screenwriter for Indian Country Diaries: Spiral of Fire, a 90-minute PBS documentary released in November 2006. Howe's first novel, Shell Shaker (Aunt Lute Books, 2001), received an American Book Award in 2002. Her poetry collection, Evidence of Red (Salt Publishing, UK; 2005), was awarded the 2006 Oklahoma Book Award. Currently, Howe is Associate Professor and Interim Director of American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and teaches in the M.F.A. program there. She divides her time between her home in Ada, Oklahoma and her academic life in Illinois.

Reviews

[Jerrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strange, disconcerting, mesmerizing - these are a few of the words that come to mind after finishing this book. This is written somewhat like a play, but in verse. It is the desperate conversations between Mary Todd Lincoln, following the death of her husband, the spirit of a hanged Dakota man, and the rope used to hang 38 Dakota men on Lincoln’s orders. The book seeks to present another side of history, namely that of the native Americans, for whom Lincoln was not as much of a hero, through the mind of Mary Todd Lincoln, who had serious mental health issues for most of her life. 4.5⭐️

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

JUST published, and in the week or so since it showed up on my front porch I've already read it THREE TIMES. It's absolutely brilliant. LeAnne's new book is a play, mostly in verse, set in June 1875-June 1876, with three major speaking characters: Mary Todd Lincoln, Savage Indian, and The Rope. MTL insists that she's being visited by an Indian ghost/spirit who does violence to her (cutting her, sewing her eyes open so that she has the opportunity to see....something, and even scalping her on occasion). In LeAnne's vision, Savage Indian is one of the Dakota 38, Dakota men wrongfully executed by decree of Abraham Lincoln in 1862. The Rope is, well, the rope—one of the nooses—and he's more than that, too. This is powerfully written work. Each time I reread, I see so much more.

[Claire Reads Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/2 ⭐️

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this sparse, difficult, weird little book. In what Coffee House is selling as fiction but reads almost as a play, Howe puts an institutionalized Mary Todd Lincoln in conversation with the ghost of Lakota man while an actual noose watches and, often, seethes. Lincoln and this ghost talk about their respective lives implicating each other in violence and see the future of racial oppression in America. To me, this work read a lot like an avant-garde play suggesting and hinting and letting the reader fill in the blanks. A glorious addition to my understanding of the Lincolns and their lives in the public eye. There are some parts that I think could have been fleshed out a bit more but I still adore this book. Ghosts, alternative history, Native American lit, stage directions, historical imagination, Savage Conversations has it all.

[Cathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fever dream fascinatingly both raw and lyrical, this exercise in dramatic frame interrogates historical perspective in a manner designed to disconcert, even to horrify. There is terrible beauty in the way nostalgic exceptionalism is toppled to make way for indignation and scorn, and the reader is left wondering not only what s/he just read, but what to do with it.

[Erin Hatch · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the most random and interesting book I have ever read. Picked it up at the library because it was the smallest/shortest book I could find. Someone plz read so we can chat

[Katarzyna Bartoszynska · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredible work of avant-garde theater, on the intimacy of enemies, and the vagaries of historical memory. I loved it.

[Allie · Rating 5 out of 5]

MARY TODD LINCOLN
Holds her head as she paces around the room.
Quiet, Savage!
I intend to shoot Robert Todd Lincoln with Tad's revolver.
Mr. Lincoln and I gave Tad the gun. Mine now.
Call this escapism if you like. Or you can think of it as revenge.

SAVAGE INDIAN
Reads from the Bible.
Thou shalt not kill.

MARY TODD LINCOLN
Grabbing her ears screaming.
Stop speaking! You cannot read the Bible or quote Shakespeare.

SAVAGE INDIAN
If the doctor is adroit, convenable,
And says "I am all in your head,"
Then, dear lady, regrettably,
I know what you know.

Wow. I've never seen historical fiction done like this before - Savage Conversations is both a play, and poetry, and littered with historical documents about Mary Todd Lincoln's life inside an asylum and out. It is violent and at times somewhat erotic (for MTL, not for the reader). It's also only three characters, used to brilliant effect: Mary, the Savage Indian that is a figment of her imagination (but part of the testimony that got her committed to the asylum in the first place), and The Rope that was used to hang 38 Dakota Indians in 1862.

MARY TODD LINCOLN
Do not pray for me, Savage!
I have suffered for my convictions,
Suffered the poor,
Suffered the slaves,
Suffered my children,
Suffered my husband's love of another woman,
And now I suffer a vicious red man.
Don't you know?
I was the STAUNCH ABOLITIONIST in the Todd clan,
More committed to freedom than the God of Abraham,
More committed to freeing the slaves than the radical wing of the
Republican delegation.
Fools. They created only monsters.
And to think I was Mr. Lincoln's literary editor.
Now here I am imprisoned in an asylum,
My eyes cracking like egg yolks,
Nightly my face tortured,
My blood glows red hot through crisscrossed wires
While Negros enjoy their freedom.

I'm pretty sure I added this to my TBR because of New Poets of Native Nations, which I read in 2019, and I'm really glad I finally prioritized it. Absolutely worth a read - it was pretty quick, and available at one of my local libraries.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was much trippier than I had expected it to be, and to some extent, reinforced that I don't really excel at reading plays: my brain struggles to bring the scene to life. Having said that, I came in with very high expectations: I loved LeAnne Howe's Shell Shaker to little bits, and I am fascinated, as many are, with Mary Todd Lincoln, so a play looking at her haunting by a Dakota victim of her husband, felt irresistible.
The play has some compelling dialogue, mostly from the character named only "Savage Indian" and the unforgettable repetition of the "the Rope Seethes". But I struggled more with Todd's role in the text - a figure of extreme emotions - and the mixing of themes of filicide and genocide, Todd's crimes and her husband's. Howe's research is excellent, and she gets a lot of nuances in around this - from Todd's family to where the Lincolns were aligned - but the price is that it becomes hard to follow the train in a short work with a lot packed in. I guess I got more out of it as an essay than a drama.
Still - I'd be keen to see a performance, just to get what I was missing.

[Aaron Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was very into this. It's a mad mashup of Mary Todd Lincoln and a fever dream she has of a Dakota man accusing her of murder. But Savage Conversations is nothing like, say, The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington or The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda or even Abe Lincoln and Uncle Tom in the White House. Instead it's an abstract, poetic, beautifully realized rendering of US American genocide, madness, and revenge.

[sk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Powerful, fever dream-esque, thoughtful. But also a bit obvious at times. Would have liked this more if it had been a true poetry book rather than a short play in verse.

I prefer more room for interpretation, plus in general short plays often just don’t do it for me.

[Becky Loader · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like to think of myself as a person who has read a lot about Mrs. Lincoln. I also think I am relatively intelligent and can reason through factual material that is presented to show many aspects of a topic. I respect strong women, from any historical period, who lived in time periods I only know about through reading. I also grew up in a household that respected Native Americans and honored their beliefs.

Howe has a lot of hate that is expressed in this small book, on almost every page. There are also some conclusions drawn that have no factual basis. In point: Mrs. Lincoln suffered from migraines. In an effort to describe her pain, she often referred to her skull feeling as if a tomahawk was piercing it. She sometimes referred to her migraines as "Chief Tomahawk has come calling." In an effort to describe her pain, she used a reference from her historical point of time. Migraineurs often name their headaches in an effort to have a specific "thing" to fight against. The author makes a big leap in stating that Mrs. Lincoln is referring to a Native American spirit who is not only a Dakota, but also one of the 38 Dakota men hung in a hideous execution approved by President Lincoln in 1862 after the Dakota Uprising. This is fiction--not fact.

Not for me.

[Serah J Blain · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a unique and worthwhile read. The playwright is an adept poet who creates a vivid window into the disturbed imagination and conscience of Mary Todd Lincoln. Mary becomes the manifestation of the horrors of her time: the misogyny she faced and barbaric treatment of her mental illness, alongside her own genocidal racism and murderous desperation. There is so much packed into this slim play, it's impossible to take in with a single reading. While I deeply appreciate the poetry and the subject matter, I can't help but wish this was a tinge more accessible. It's very cerebral. Dare I say, "high brow." I think there's a story and a truth here that I'd love to see communicated to a broader audience, and I know many of the people I might want to recommend it to simply won't be able to get into it. Thus the three stars. But it's very good, and for those who enjoy putting in work to comprehend a good poem, this is an excellent one to pick up.

[Sylvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is why I read books by Coffee House Press. They are constantly bringing attention to authors who are willing to explore form, language, and break the rules of what a book is supposed to be and do. LeAnne Howe relies on the playwriting format to tell us about Mary Todd Lincoln who was committed in a psychiatric hospital a few years after her husband's assassination. Mary claimed to see and talk and be hurt by a "savage Dakota man" so, Howe offers us a glimpse into these conversations with the intervention of a third voice that brings another layer to understanding violence.

As a reader one witnesses these conversations, but also, the interesting and critical research done by LeAnne Howe to remind us about the largest mass execution in the History of the US. Yes, in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln ordered the hanging of thirty-eight Dakotas who were simply demanding fairness, food, attention to the abuse of white families.

This book challenges the reader in many ways and becomes a piece in which we become the audience who cannot even take a break to breath act by act, scene by scene. The only reason I don't give this book five stars might be a very silly one, the footnotes drove me a bit crazy and distracted me from the interactions between such powerful characters.

[Laura McGee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really quick read and written almost entirely in play form, but it was absolutely riveting. The author of this book came across old medical records from Belleview Hospital where Mary Todd Lincoln had been put in due to “insanity”. According to the records, Mrs. Lincoln told doctors near daily that a Native American lived in her head and visited her every night. The author links this fact, to the little known historical one that Abraham Lincoln ordered the largest mass execution in US History by ordering 38 Dakota’s hung for a ridiculous offense.
Could Mary Todd have been haunted by this? This whole book is fascinating and I don’t want to give spoilers but there are some VERY intriguing allusions to what may have really happened to her 3 children who died.

[Muneera · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

I loved this book. As the title suggests, the book comprises of conversations between a Savage Indian who is the personified insanity of Mary Todd Lincoln’s opioid consumption and a noose that seethes.

The personification of a noose, or who she calls the Rope, is horrific as it awaits in every page the neck of the life it will end, but for once it won't be that of the Native American. Howe takes liberties to represent the Native American subject adding a different layer to a well-known figure in history. Well-worth a read.

[Shalini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leanne Howe, introduced to me by a Goodreads reader, leaves us haunted by the ghosts of the oppressed. While history is written by the victors, purified and sanctified, and the victors glorified, stories like this live on to remind us of the injustice.

Ten million Natives in the New World in 1492.
Nine million Natives dead by 1860.
Thirty-eight Dakhóta hanged December 26, 1862.
Two hundred thousand Natives surviving in 1890.
Five million Natives alive in the New World in 2010.

Our seven council fires burn undaunted,
We live.
We live.
We live.
We live.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary Todd Lincoln spends her days confined to a sanatorium, haunted by one of the thirty-eight Native American men her husband had ordered to be hanged.

Lyrical and mesmerizing, a short, theatrical novella, that will likely lead readers to learn more about the historical figures and largely unspoken/ignored events mentioned in the story.

It is also similar in style and subject matter to Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo, so it could make for an interesting supplement to any group’s book discussion.

[Melinda Kline · Rating 5 out of 5]

The audiobook performance was extremely well done. The author is masterful in imagination and conjuring of the dark places in Mary Todd Lincoln’s mind! I was way into my adulthood when I learned that Abe Lincoln had ordered the mass execution of 38 Dakotas. I think it only fitting that his wife was visited/tormented by a Native American “savage” as she struggled with her grasp on sanity in a hospital….which I learned when I was “today” year’s old!! Fascinating perspective from MTL, the “Savage Indian” and from the rope. This would be an excellent read for a social studies class…each page/chapter could be dissected and unpacked!!

[Carol Tilley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A difficult, beautiful work of dramatic poetry. Howe's words have given me much food for thought.

[Kristin Boldon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A play, in verse, with three characters: Mary Todd Lincoln, the "Savage Indian" who appears to her at night, and the Rope that hanged the Dakota 38. Fascinating, powerful.

[✰ Perry ✰ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remember the 38+2, Justice for the 38+2!

[MaKaylee Sills · Rating 3 out of 5]

a great reminder that if someone lived in the 1800s, they probably sucked no matter how mentally ill they were!

[viktor · Rating 5 out of 5]

i’m so glad i read this instead of the play i was supposed to read for class.

[Amanda Esthelm · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting piece about a piece a history I never learned. What an interesting way to showcase a massacre and the madness of a woman, I loved this

[Sasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short, difficult poetic work of fiction presented as a play, Leanne Howe's Savage Conversations is a haunting exploration of American histories of exceptionalism. Minimal in its actors but full in its implications, this book has the weight of American history behind it. The conversations between Mary Todd Lincoln and the "Savage Indian," an executed Dakota man, are heavy with reference to the First Lady's personal life, the life of the nation, and the recurring presence of a violent past. I could go on and on about my own interpretations, but the strength in this book is that it requires the work of each reader to understand precisely what is being shared. As is stated so eloquently in Susan Power's introduction, "Being Native American in this country means often having a very different take on American history and historic figures generally accepted as national heroes. Just because they're your heroes doesn't make them automatically ours..."(vii). Much as Mary Todd Lincoln experienced throughout this book, being forced to look at the past from another perspective can seem maddening but it is only through such forced examination that we can understand our present and a different set of futures.

[Erin (roostercalls) · Rating 4 out of 5]

WHAT a wild ride. Put this on your radar if you are into exploring form, non-traditional poetry, and/or American history through an indigenous lens.

[Kookie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea, but I did not like the execution of the idea. I don't feel like it treated the subject with enough gravity.

[Student · Rating 4 out of 5]

Savage Conversations by Leanne Howe tells the story of Mary Todd Lincoln who living in Illinois in 1875, who is visited by ghost named Savage Indian and a rope. The book's structure of being about one hundred pages in a stage play format makes dialogue essential to this story and the writing is done in very well crafted matter by Leanne Howe. The focus of the story is on the mass execution of 38 Native Americans that occurred when Mary Todd Lincoln's husband President Lincoln was president. The books shines an important light an Native American history and a moment during Lincoln's Presidency that is not as well known and speaks to the suffering of the Native American people. The Savage Indian character's constant presence shows the continual guilt and unresolved issues Mary Todd Lincoln has regarding her past and the mass execution. The rope offers as a reminders of the brutality and "seethes" throughout the book, giving off a grim reaper like image. While short the book tell an important story and offers a lot that can be taken away.

While reading this book I was initially hesitant of the stage/play like structure for the dialogue. As I continued reading I found it very insightful because it made our characters constantly react to each other and respond. This is enhanced with the characters largely sequestered in the story to a location forcing them to acknowledge each other. I also found that the injection poetry made the story deeper because it allowed the message to be heard through more than one genre within a singular complete work. Additionally the book covers an important subject and time in history and for it sheds light on it. I would give this book four stars out of five. I came to appreciate the structure, but the one thing I would change is while I came to warm up the dialogue structure I wish there was some more detail regarding the actions offering clarity on what the characters did. Sometimes I found myself having to read a reread to understand some of the situations like with the wire and the flint I would have liked some more clarity in the action sections. On the whole a book written with tremendous skill covering an important moment in history. One other thing I would like to mention about the set up of the book is that I thought it did a good job of offering information in the "introduction", "story", and character" sections that preceded the story. This really made the reader more prepared and gave them a greater understanding of the context of the book.

[Maryanne Trengove · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars would be closer to accurate on this very short book by LeAnne Howe but I'm rounding up for the sheer ingenuity of this telling. I thought the concept of this book was so intriguing I found it, downloaded it, and sat in my car and listened to it in one sitting. To be fair, it is super short. But the idea that the former First Lady, Mary Todd Lincoln's madness could be linked to the guilt she felt about what was happening to the Indigenous people at that time just hooked me from the beginning. To be honest, though, the story lost some of it's punch after the forward. Part of the problem for me was that the introduction by Susan Power actually gives you the entire story summarized in just a few pages and her summarization is simple and easy to understand. So, it was like hearing the whole story again as you listen to the book, although the audio version has unique creepy vibe and is really well produced. The book is a wildly imagined (albeit somewhat historically accurate) account of Mary Todd Lincoln after Lincoln's death when her mental illness is being played out nightly in the sanitorium where she has been committed by her son. The author takes bits and threads of facts like Mary Lincoln's documented reports that she was being visited by an "Indian" at night who tortured her and sews these scraps together with major historical events like the mass execution of 38 Dakota men in Mankato, Minnesota the day after Christmas in 1862. The result is one bewitching piece of work. The author cleverly ties the two events (Mary's nightmares and the execution) together in such a captivating and creepy way that you will be on a deep dive to find all evidence to support this truth once you entertain it. This book is super short and you can read it on your lunch break, but I recommend going in as blind as you can to get the full effect. The audio version includes the drumbeat of the Dakota at the end and is just about the most chilling thing I've ever heard. Really well done.