Dakotapi women's traditions: A historical and literary critique of women as culture bearers.

Abstract

A tradition is established by such early writers as Marie Louise McLaughlin, Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, and Ella Cara Deloria. These women writers knew early in their lives the importance of women's voices in literature. Transitional writers such as Beatrice Medicine, Elizabeth Cook Lynn, and Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, carried the culture forward in a strong tradition of literary survival. Modern or contemporary writers such as Susan Power continue the literary traditions of Dakotapi women. The works of Mary Brave Bird, Barbara Means Adams, and Betty J. Eadie portray their individual cultural world views. The shape of each writer's life is influenced according to the variances in cultural upbringing and the dependent variables examined. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Cultures change over time and this is shown in the literary traditions of Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota women. Dakotapi women are the bearers of culture. Prior to contact with Europeans, Dakotapi oral stories were female-centered. This resulted in an egalitarian society that created an ideal lifestyle for both males and females. After contact, the oral stories shifted to a male focus because European males recorded the stories from a male perspective into a male-based historical record. Thus stories that were once female-based became male-based.

Each of the Dakotapi women writers considered in this dissertation were critique on three levels: (1) Initially the oral stories of the Dakotapi were told with women central to the stories. The focus was on their roles in Dakotapi culture and society. A consideration is given to the descriptions a writer provides about the oral traditions. (2) Oral and written stories are often recorded, retold, and/or transcribed by European-American men or Dakotapi males in a way that the stories lose altogether or lack significant women characters as the central focus. Some of the Dakotapi women writers in this dissertation write critical responses to this and rewrite the stories to include the Dakotapi woman's voice. A few of the writers use male protagonists to give representation to the Dakotapi woman's voice. Other Dakotapi women writers use the historical and literary information created by European-American males and do not rely on the substantial amount of writing by other Dakotapi women writers. (3) Some Dakotapi women are rewriting stories and creating their own so that women once again are central to the Dakotapi oral and written traditions. Three oral narratives "Wohpe, " "White Buffalo Calf woman, " and "Standing Rock Legend, " central to Dakotapi theology are explicated on these levels.