The long-awaited, profoundly moving, and unforgettable new novel from PEN Award–winning Native American author Mona Susan Power, spanning three generations of Yanktonai Dakota women from the 19th century to the present day.
From the mid-century metropolis of Chicago to the windswept ancestral lands of the Dakota people, to the bleak and brutal Indian boarding schools, A Council of Dolls is the story of three women, told in part through the stories of the dolls they carried….
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Sissy, born 1961: Sissy’s relationship with her beautiful and volatile mother is difficult, even dangerous, but her life is also filled with beautiful things, including a new Christmas present, a doll called Ethel. Ethel whispers advice and kindness in Sissy’s ear, and in one especially terrifying moment, maybe even saves Sissy’s life.
Lillian, born 1925: Born in her ancestral lands in a time of terrible change, Lillian clings to her sister, Blanche, and her doll, Mae. When the sisters are forced to attend an “Indian school” far from their home, Blanche refuses to be cowed by the school’s abusive nuns. But when tragedy strikes the sisters, the doll Mae finds her way to defend the girls.
Cora, born 1888: Though she was born into the brutal legacy of the “Indian Wars,” Cora isn’t afraid of the white men who remove her to a school across the country to be “civilized.” When teachers burn her beloved buckskin and beaded doll Winona, Cora discovers that the spirit of Winona may not be entirely lost…
A modern masterpiece, A Council of Dolls is gorgeous, quietly devastating, and ultimately hopeful, shining a light on the echoing damage wrought by Indian boarding schools, and the historical massacres of Indigenous people. With stunning prose, Mona Susan Power weaves a spell of love and healing that comes alive on the page.
My Review
When I was in my teens in 1970 I saw the film Little Big Man with Dustin Hoffman. What stuck with me was a scene in which a fleeing Native American woman was shot from behind by the US troops, killing the baby she was carrying on her back. It has never left me. I fear the horrendous scene with Blanche at school will be the same.
While Little Big Man is set decades earlier (mid 1850s), the treatment of Native Americans hadn’t changed by the last century. Regarded as savages who needed to be ‘civilised’, they were forced to adopt Catholicism with all its cruelty and prejudice. They were sent to ‘Indian’ schools, forced to go to church and were not allowed to speak in their own language.
The level of cruelty is astonishing, as is the lack of respect for their culture. It was virtually wiped out. In The Council of Dolls, we follow three women – grandmother Cora at the start of the century, her daughter Lillian in the 1930s and Sissy, growing up in the 1960s.
But we start with Sissy, born in 1961, a decade when segregation of blacks and whites was still the norm, Native Americans were regarded as primitive barbarians. Sissy is given a dark skinned doll, who she names Ethel after her godmother, and she talks to it. It talks back, giving her advice and comfort. Sissy’s mother is Lillian, whose treatment of her daughter is erratic and often abusive by today’s standards.
We then follow Lillian born in 1925, who is sent to the Carlisle Indian boarding school, where the nuns are cruel to her and her sister Blanche. Regardless of how clever the children are – Lillian could read at four years old – they are taught to be manual workers, cleaners and housekeepers to white people. Lillian has a doll she calls Mae, who she talks to like Sissy does to Ethel.
In part three, we follow Cora born in 1888, and her eventual husband Jack, who we know from later will ‘go bad’, exacerbated by the hard liquor that he is addicted to – the liquor introduced by white men to a nation that had never tasted it and often drove them mad. Cora has a buckskin and beaded doll she calls Winona.
Part four is all about Sissy – now Jesse – at fifty years old. She reflects on the three generations, and the Council of Dolls that have helped shape their lives. The dolls are their mentors, their comfort and their focus for love. Incidentally, the names of the three women were those they had to use instead of their real names, considered too native, and part of their indigenous culture.
I don’t know what else to say – I am slightly loathe to try and analyse the story too deeply as it’s not my country or my culture, but like the Aboriginals in Australia, who were the real ‘owners’ of the land, they were shoved out and made to feel like they were the usurpers. There is no justification for white men’s behaviour and some of the blame must lie at the feet of religion – I apologise to those who will disagree, but it’s a fact.
A brilliant book which everyone should read. Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of the #blogtour and giving me the opportunity to read this wonderful book.
About the Author
Mona Susan Power is the author of four books of fiction, including The Grass Dancer (a National Bestseller awarded a PEN/Hemingway Prize), Roofwalker (a collection of stories and essays awarded the Milkweed National Fiction Prize), Sacred Wilderness (a novel which received the Electa Quinney Award), and A Council of Dolls (winner of the Minnesota Book Award and High Plains Book Award, longlisted for the National Book Award and the Carol Shields Prize). She’s a graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is also the recipient of several grants in support of her writing which include an Iowa Arts Fellowship, James Michener Fellowship, Radcliffe Bunting Institute Fellowship, Princeton Hodder Fellowship, USA Artists Fellowship, McKnight Fellowship, and Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Fellowship. Her short stories and essays have appeared in numerous publications and anthologies including The Best American Short Stories series, The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, The Missouri Review, Ploughshares, and Granta.
Mona is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna Dakhóta), born and raised in Chicago. During her childhood she was a member of the Chicago Indian Village movement, a group organized to protest the conditions of Native people lured to urban areas with promises of secure jobs and good housing, that seldom materialized. In 1979, a documentary following the experiences of this group was nominated for an Academy Award. Mona attended the Oscar ceremonies that year as a guest of the director, Jerry Aronson.
She currently lives in Minnesota, where she’s working on other novels, including, The Year of Fury.
