Lakota Woman tells the life story of Mary Crow Dog, a Native American woman who witnessed some of the most relevant events of the Native American movement during the late 60’s and 70’s. Crow Dog was born Mary Brave Bird on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota in 1953; she grew up in poverty, without running water or electricity, in a one room shack that she shared with her mother and six siblings. She was born to a Native American woman and a white man; her father disappeared shortly after. Not only did she grow up without a father, but she also grew up as a "half-breed," something that would play a big part in the socialization among her people.

Crow Dog left her mother’s home at the age of eleven, her childhood was spent growing up in the streets, drinking and living "like a hobo." Fed up with the school system, Cro

“Meeting with AIM for the first time loosened a sort of earthquake inside me.” (Crow Dog, 74) For Mary Crow Dog, the AIM movement was a decisive event in her life, for it gave her a vehicle in which she could express her thoughts, her feelings towards the plight of the Native American people. She became involved with AIM in 1971 during a ‘powwow’ at her future husband’s place; they spoke of relinquishing the “necktie for the choker, the briefcase for the bedroll, the missionary’s church for the sacred pipe. [They] talked about not celebrating Thanksgiving because that would be celebrating one’s own destruction.” (Crow Dog, 75) AIM goals and objectives resonated with Crow Dog’s own ideals about taking action and fighting for the return to the old ways, the true fate of the Native American. Throughout her involvement with AIM, Crow Dog did and does not agree with all their ideas, but the movement provide a much needed push of Native Americans, “[i]t defined out goals and expressed our innermost yearnings.” (Crow Dog, 82)

On February 27, 1973 a large group of Native Americans took hold of Wounded Knee; the site where some three hundred Sioux, including chief Big Foot, lost their lives at the hands of U.S. troops. Crow Dog was part of the siege from the very beginning, and left one week before it officially ended. During the siege women were in charge of feeding the people, some took turns at the firing line, taking care of the wounded, among other responsibilities. Crow D

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