English 230 - Literature for Younger Readers
Dr. Wally Hastings - Northern State University

 
 
Jamie Lee & Leon Hale

LIFE

      Jamie Lee lives in Rapid City with her husband, Milt.  Together they operate Many Kites Press, the publisher of Washaka.  Although Lee herself is of white ancestry, she grew up on the Leech Lake Ojibway (Chippewa) Reservation in Minnesota, and currently teaches at Oglala Lakota College, so she has been immersed in Native American culture for much of her life.  Her husband was adopted, but his biological parents are both Native American – Lakota and Cherokee.

      Lee has been a writer for some time and tells the story of how she came to write Washaka:

      I was casting about looking for a new story idea.  I like to write in coffee shops and was sitting near a window scribbling in a notebook when an Indian man about my age came to my table and asked if I was a writer.  I nodded to him and said, yes.  He introduced himself as Leon Hale and asked if he could sit and tell me a story.  We shook hands, and he began.

      Leon told me about a dream he has had for many years.  It is always the same dream; full of rich detail, sounds, smells, and sights.  In the dream, he is a young Lakota boy living in a tipi village in the early 1800s…

“Author’s Introduction” to Washaka (v)

      Leon Hale is a registered member of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe and lives in Dupree with his wife and grandson (Braunstein).  In the process of writing the story, Hale visited Lee 22 times to record details of his dream, creating 15 hours of tape; Lee then used the dream as the basis for a novel into which she added additional characters (e.g., “Rabbit” is Lee’s addition) and researched background. The writing of the first draft took less than a month, and the book was released within a year of recording Hale’s dream.  When it was finished, Lee shared it with Lakota speakers and elders to remove cultural errors. 

Washaka, the Bear Dreamer

      A reviewer for Indian Country Today observed that Lakota life is somewhat romanticized in this story, but found it nevertheless engaging:

            This story is for all ages. Young men of any culture could find something of themselves in this dream; young women might also find their purpose within this dream. Adults will find a story that may affect them emotionally and offer some insight about life on the Plains with a culture about which many people today are hungry to learn more.  (Melmer)

      Although marketed generally, Washaka has many typical features of a young adult novel – its primary thematic concern is the coming of age (both of Little Chief and of Mato Ska) and in particular the problem of finding a place for oneself in the world.  Although the story takes place in a different culture, this theme is typical of what Sanford and Ann Pinsker call the "primary occupation" of young people in our society from about the age of 12 until at least 19: the development of a sense of self (152). 

Coming of Age

• How does Washaka depict the coming of age (also called a “rite of passage”) of the typical Lakota youth? 

• What steps does Little Chief take in his path from childhood to manhood?

• Why does Mato Ska need to live with the Lakota in order to find a place for himself in society? 

• What is his path to adulthood? (Note that it is different from that of Little Chief – why?  Little Chief has one role to play in the Lakota society, Mato Ska has another; and Mato Ska also has to mediate between two cultures, the one he was born into and the one into which Little Chief initiates him.) 

• Which culture’s values seem most conducive to a healthy adolescence?  Why? 

• Is the issue for Mato Ska just culture, or is it the specific of his abusive father – i.e., is his childhood unhappy because of the expectations of white culture, or because he has a bad parent – or both?  (Consider the role of the cavalry as representatives of white culture.)

Dream/Dreamers/Visions

      This story originated in Leon Hale’s dream of the past, so it isn’t surprising that dreams or visions play a major role in its unfolding:

·       Little Chief’s vision of the White Bear, and the resultant compulsion to find and rescue him.

·       Grandfather Whirling Hand’s vision of the coming of the white men, in particular the importance of maza (metal).  The description of a web of maza (76-77) hints at the ultimate arrival of the railroad.  (Railroad trains with metal rails began to appear in the late 18^th century but did not become major means of long-distance travel until sometime in the middle of the 19^th century.)  On the other hand, the name selected for Little Chief and Morning Dove’s daughter, “Shining in the Water,” hints at another meaning of metal dooming the Lakota way of life – i.e., the discovery of gold in the Black Hills and the subsequent gold rush.

·       Little Chief’s second vision, of a herd of black bears coming across the plain.

Historical accuracy 

      Lee suggests that we “take Leon’s story as it comes; in the form of a dream, in its spirit” (vi).  She specifically notes that the characters of Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull should not be confused with the historic figures, who came later in history.  But then we might ask, why use these names – arguably the most famous Sioux of the 19^th century?  And further, Sitting Bull is identified as one day becoming “a great leader who uses his mind.”  Does using the names of famous historical figures to refer to different people create difficulties for the story, or is it acceptable in the spirit of the vision?  Like religious stories of other cultures, the truth of vision tales may lie not in verifiable historical facts, but rather in the deeper meaning of the vision itself.

      Further difficulties – if this story in fact took place in the early 19^th century, that is too soon for white settlers to locate at Hot Springs, the location of the Edwards’ homestead.  Their farm is more developed than a farm that far in advance of the frontier at the time would have made plausible, and James’ study as a doctor is historically implausible – most physicians in the 19^th century learned their trade by apprenticeship rather than by medical study (although there were a few medical schools that early).  And women did not become nurses in large numbers until mid-century.

      Finally, the U.S. cavalry (the men in blue coats) would not have been operating in the Black Hills area that early.

Landscape

      Recognizable features of the landscape:

·       Fall River in the Hot Springs area – this is clearly the river along which the Edwards have settled; several details, including both the description of the river and its location to the south of the hills, make this clear.

·       Bear Mountain/Bear Butte – a holy place north of the Black Hills.

SOURCES:  Susan Braunstein, “Dreams captured in book published by Many Kites Press,” Rapid City Weekly News, May 24, 2006; Milt and Jamie Lee, “Oyate Ta Olwan,” www.oyate.com; David Melmer, “May I Suggest…” Indian Country Today, May 23, 2006; Sanford and Ann Pinsker, Understanding Catcher in the Rye: A Student Case­book to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999; Jomay Steen, “American Indian-themed books hit shelves,” Rapid City Journal, April 24, 2006.

A. Waller Hastings
Professor of English
Northern State University
Aberdeen, SD  57401

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