In "Madonna Swan: A Lakota Woman's Story, "Mark St. Pierre
skillfully weaves together his interviews with Madonna Swan-Abdulla
to capture the indomitable spirit of a Lakota woman as she
celebrates the joys and endures the sufferings of her remarkable
life on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota.
Born in 1928, Madonna Swan was "winona -- "the""first-born
daughter-of Lucy High Pine and James Swan. She held a special place
in an extended family of grandparents, parents, and ten brothers
and sisters.
For the Swans, as for other Lakota Sioux, life on the
reservation in the first half of the twentieth century was
appallingly difficult. In her narrative, Madonna details her
life-her earliest childhood memories, the Lakota traditions taught
by her grandparents, the daily struggle against poverty and
prejudice, and her education at Stephan Mission, South
Dakota.Stricken with dreaded tuberculosis at age sixteen, she
survived nearly seven years in Sioux Sanitorium, a place where most
other Sioux victims of TB quickly expired. Madonna's strength of
spirit and determination to live carried her through the "chanhu
sica" bad""lungs-and into a new life, free of disease. She survived
to marry, have a family, go to college, and teach in the
reservation's Head Start program.A symbol of courage for all women,
Indian and non-Indian alike, Madonna Swan-Abdulla was named North
American Indian Woman of the Year in 1983. She still lives on the
Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, where her Lakota people honor her
as matriarch.
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