Sister Nations: Native American Women Writers on Community

by Heid E. Erdrich (Editor), Winona LaDuke (Foreword), Laura Tohe (Editor)

This anthology of fiction, prose, and poetry celebrates the rich diversity of writing by Native American women today. Editors Heid E. Erdrich and Laura Tohe have gathered stories from across the nation that celebrate, record, and explore Native American women's roles in community. The result is a rich tapestry that contains work by established writers along with emerging and first-time authors. Contributors include Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, Diane Glancy, Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, Allison Hedge Coke, LeAnne Howe, Roberta Hill, Kim Blaeser, Linda LeGarde Grover, with a foreword by Winona LaDuke.

The writings included range from the personal to the political, from notions of romantic love to the realities of marriage, from finding a place in modern society to incorporating tradition in daily life. Whether it's Louise Erdrich's heartbreaking story "The Shawl," Diane Glancy's tightly distilled poems, or Joy Harjo's elegant and fanciful "How to Get to Planet Venus," all of these works explore both what it means to be a woman and how those realities are complicated by the Native American experience.

The editors have divided these lively and thought-provoking pieces into four "Changing Women," which deals with the stages of a woman's life, awareness of female ancestors, and women's traditions of healing and making art; "Strong Hearts," which shows Indian women enduring with love, defending with fierce judgment, and reaching out across history to protect the people; "New Age Pocahontas," which reveals the humor and complexity of stereotypes and simplified images of Native American women; and "In the Arms of the Skies," which explores the ways in which typical notions about romantic love and marriage are put to the test.

Sister Nations also includes full biographies of all the contributors, commentary from many of the authors on their work, and a bibliography of relevant publications.

Genres: Poetry, Indigenous, Essays, Nonfiction, Native American, Anthologies, Feminism

252 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2002

About the author

Heid E. Erdrich writes and publishes poetry and non-fiction. Her NEW book of poems, Cell Traffic, a new and selected from University of Arizona Press, IS NOW AVAILABLE. Please consider buying it from www.birchbarkbooks.com

Heid's most recent book of poems, National Monuments from Michigan State University Press, won the 2009 Minnesota Book Award. Heid Erdrich teaches writing workshops, often as a guest at various colleges and universities. Each year she leads the Turtle Mountain Writers Workshop on her home reservation in North Dakota. Heid also works with American Indian visual artists as a curator and arts advocate. Author of the play "Curiosities," she collaborates broadly on multi-discilinary performances of other artists as well.

Founder of Wiigwaas Press, along with her sister Louise Erdrich and poet James Cihlar, Heid continues to publish Ojibwe language books in an effort to assist in indigenous language revitalization work.

Reviews

[❄Elsa Frost❄ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a very powerful book filled with a wide diversity of Native American voices. So important! We need more books like this.

[Leah Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Shawl gave me chills

[ONTD Feminism · Rating 3 out of 5]

LJ user pachakuti:

A collection of reflections, poems, and short stories exploring Native womens' lives and place within their community. There is a huge diversity of writers here, and it shows. Each story is absolutely unique. Some are sad, some silly, some funny, others thoughtful and some all of those things combined.

[Abby]

One of my favorite anthologies, because it is easily relatable and goes straight to the heart of things. Good diversity, and yet clear consistency. Hard-pressed to choose favorites, but the poetry is awesome in general.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutely amazing

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection of works by Native women writers and shared with other Native women.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haven't finished it yet, but -- this is so, so, so, so very good!

[Nikki E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful collection of poetry and prose by female Native American voices. It is an interesting look at gender equality from the perspective of the Native experience.

[Mary Banken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strong collection of poetry and prose from a diverse collection of Native American women.

[Gretchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a few poems that went over my head as I feel out of practice reading and delving into poetry. And as a white person, some of the references were also outside of my scope of knowledge, though the introductions do a good job and research helps full in the rest. The short stories, however, I quite enjoyed. "Choctalking on Other Realities" was a great look at intersections between cultures and where they are the same and where they are individual.

[Mariah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was phenomenal. It’s story telling at its finest from a community of Native women across nations. The editors phenomenally pieces together these pieces of poetry and prose to let Native Women tell their stories, ones that are too often overlooked by the rest of the world. Read this!

[Bookworm · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why’d you hide a whiny commentary on the Israel/Palestine conflict in here?
I’m here to read about Native American women and you throw in random political international drama?
That is NOT what I signed up for.

[Toni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning collection of Indigenous Women's voices. I wish there were a lot more book published like this in recent years.

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of short stories and poems is sad, funny, intelligent, insightful, and altogether wonderful. My favorite was a poem about "Don't call me Ma'am" and any woman "of a certain age" will laugh out loud when they read it.