Resources: Podcast and Discussion Guide

Lanniko Lee (Mnicojou Lakota), Oak Lake Writers Society Charter Member and longtime educator, interviews Faith Spotted Eagle, co-founder of The Braveheart Society and the Waterlily Institute of Lake Andes, about Dakota author Ella Deloria's classic novel. Lee also wrote the discussion guide.

#NativeReads 2020: Waterlilly

Author

Ella Cara Deloria (Yanktonai Dakota)

book summary

Waterlily is a fictional account of the life of a young Dakota woman from early childhood through age 22. Born into the White Ghost camp circle (tiospaye), she learns the honorable and complex role of a good woman during pre-colonization: how to behave within her tiospaye, and the expectations of her within and beyond that circle when she is bought and leaves to live with her first husband’s people. She demonstrates her exquisite womanhood skills against the backdrop of ritual ceremonial life and enduring the plague of smallpox, all the while maturing into the exemplary life she leads in her time. She serves as a model for the various expressions of womanhood and of marriage. The novel is a historical love story.