Turtle Lung Woman's Granddaughter

by Delphine Red Shirt

Turtle Lung Woman's Granddaughter is the unforgettable story of several generations of Lakota women told in their words. Delphine Red Shirt -- like her mother, Lone Woman, and her mother's grandmother, Turtle Lung Woman -- grew up on the wide open plains of northern Nebraska and southern South Dakota. Lone Woman told her daughter the story of her life growing up on Pine Ridge in the early and mid-twentieth century. Remarkably, Lone Woman also recounted the life of her own grandmother, Turtle Lung Woman, who had grown up Lakota before her people had been forced to live on reservations in the late nineteenth century. These two women's lives overlapped by fifteen years, allowing the younger to learn many fascinating details and stories about the life and times of the elder.

Delphine Red Shirt has delicately woven the life stories of her mother and great-grandmother into a continuous narrative that succeeds triumphantly as a moving, epic saga of Lakota women from traditional times to the present. Especially revealing and riveting are Turtle Lung Woman's relationship with her husband, Paints His Face with Clay, her healing practice as a medicine woman (where turtle shells become animated and crawl during the Yuwipi ceremony), Lone Woman's hardships and celebrations growing up in the early twentieth century, and many wonderful details of their domestic lives before and during the early reservation years. Lone Woman passed away just after telling her story to her daughter. This splendid, magical story is a legacy for her and for all Lakota women.

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