The Dark Horse Speaks

The fact that it is a dark story does nothing to lesson it's impact, or message. The author writes in a very easy to follow manner, and offers outstanding descriptions and explanations. Her accounts are so vivid, in fact, that the reader can visualize the locations and the experiences. Other reviewers, who are seeking to dismiss the author's accounts as fiction, fail to give one reason why anyone would write a fiction where they are the one who was totally degraded, humiliated, used, and abused? This is actually harder to believe, than it is NOT to believe her story. There is NO doubt in my mind that the author's account is true! The descriptions are far too vivid to be imaginations. And for what reason would anyone write a story so self-degrading? I can understand why the book is controversial, and why some who have reviewed it are so critical, even accusing the author of fiction, but I believe this has to do with those particular reviewer's LACK of true knowledge and experience with American Indians. I have found the author's account to be spot on; as it applies to my own experience regarding the behavior of some individual American Indians. People tend to romanticize the American Indian almost in mythological proportions, but the reality regarding modern day American Indians is stark in contrast...and harsh! I hate to say it, but it's true.To "Little White Bird", I say...Bravo!

As a non-Indian who worked over a year there and previously visited Lakota friends there on the Rez, the observations of the land, the culture, and some of the people, mirrored my experience and time there. Referring to her misogynist friend as "Chief", understandably, may have been offputting to many Lakota people but I understand she was giving descriptive pseudonyms to protect identities. Like the author, it was very disheartening to see the chasm that exists between the historical cultural values and what years of oppression have done to this once beautiful and pure culture. Erik Erikson, in the 1930', after visiting Pine Ridge, referred to the problem as "compensation neurosis" - ("You did this to me--now you owe me") and so the "counting coup" on most non-Indians continues. Of course, there are many people there Indian and non-Indian who are working tirelessly to promote and uplift and to return to the greatest of cultural values, generosity and sharing, and respect for all living things, to work for the good of all the people, not just the self. It is a well-written, beautifully descriptive, memoir of one woman's experience living cross-culturally.

Wow! I just finished your book. I literally couldn't put it down. Started reading yesterday afternoon. I felt so many things reading your story. At first happy you were following your dream. Then shock at your treatment turning to anger and even hate towards chief as he treated you worse at each turn of the page. Screaming in my head for you to run like hell & get away! I'm angry at him for hurting and taking such advantage of such a loving person. I guess that's the mother in me coming out. Your story is beautifully written and I'm so glad you choose to share that part of your life with the Lakota people. May you always be blessed.

Little White Bird seeks Truth in unexpected and unexpectedly dangerous places. Her heart trumps her head every step of the way on her romantic journey to enlightenment. At its end, however, she has arrived at a place where she knows herself and her need to balance a passion for justice with common sense. Her story is riveting and well-written. I can't promise that you won't find yourself shaking your head in disbelief at yet one more wrong turn, but at the end you will find yourself admiring her courage and cheering her on.

Moved my heart like no other. This book reads like your best friend telling you a story, yet, it is all true and full of real life memories this noble, fearless, loving young lady personally experienced. I have visited this reservation and know the people Little White Bird writes about. She just changed the names to protect the living. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction...

I read many books this year this is one of my favorite. Easy read tells a compelling story about a woman looking 4 love. She tells a lot about the Indian struggle against the white man. Could have been a story about domestic violence. I do recommend, I hope you enjoy, not boring or preachy. Little white bird has a big heart.

Met this young lady in Sturgis 2015. Actually worked with her out tbere. I found her to be extremely i teresting and an old wise soul beyond her years. Not done with the book yet but is very intriguing so far

This is a dreadful books and deeply disrespectful of the Lakota people. It is written by a very troubled woman and is full of misinformation mixed with some truth which makes it dangerous. I would not recommend this to anyone. I am distressed that it may fall into the hands of some of my friends on the Rez and would be less than a helpful read for them. I, like the author, am white. But have a respect and love for the Lakota which is unsentimental and, I hope, based on much more realistic expectations and experiences than she dreams up in her fevered imaginations. Just for one example, I was infested by bedbugs when in the States, and they never burrow under your skin, that is nonsense. It is a sick making book. Sorry....but don't bother with it.

This is an intriguing and thought-provoking true story, so much so that some have doubted its veracity. Indeed at some points it beggars belief but the whole thing rings true to me. It is written by a modern, free-spirited and educated young woman who was brought up conventionally but who was never going to fit into the pattern expected by her family and friends.She is plenty old and worldly wise enough to know her own mind as her life changes entirely. Prior to a bikers' convention at Sturgis, South Dakota she reads a book (Lakota Woman) by Mary Crow Dog of the impoverished Lakota Indian people. She persuades her biker boyfriend to detour to their reservation at Pine Ridge, wanting to learn more to take back to supplement her college work.In 1890 the remnants of Custer's 7th Cavalry murdered hundreds of Lakota people, including women and children, burying the bodies in a mass grave. Little White Bird (LWB, we never get to know her birth name) visits the reservation and the mass grave. There she has her epiphany, and describes it with some powerful writing.<Quote I heard the Ancestors from the 1890 Massacre calling to me. Their dead voices became alive, rising from the ground, screaming from the sky and earth, their whirling swirled around me, creating the wind... Everything inside my body and mind, heart and spirit, was swept away. Like the sirens singing to the Greek mythological warriors, luring them to their deaths as their sweet, hypnotic voices made their boats crash upon the rocks, the Ancestors called to me. Unquote>LWB's boat crashed upon the rocks. She is mesmerised by the Lakota nation and Chief Two Bear Paws. And it's at this point, when she agrees to live with him on the reservation as his wife that the real story begins.It's a riveting description of real life on the Pine Ridge reservation. But it will horrify most modern women. There is nothing heroic about the modern Lakota people. The men have lost their hunting, the women their tipis, they have no identity only their traditions. In their poverty they are as materialistic as the rest of modern America.The Chief treats LWB cruelly, as a chattel, with no hint of affection. And what is remarkable is that she continues to love him, accepting the hardships, determined to help put right the wrongs done by the White Man.She tries to leave him more than once. He brutally assaults her. She finally leaves for good...no! She comes back again, unbelievably.There are so many truths told here. The Indians despise the White Man and no show of remorse or reparation will change that. Those that see the Indians as `noble' will need to think again. And on another level it is remarkable how much abuse and disdain a woman can take and keep coming back for more.A remarkable book, one you should read and draw your own conclusions.

Really enjoyed every page it was like living through everything with Little White Bird. An easy to read book.