47 pages • 1 hour read
Joseph M. Marshall IIIThe Lakota Way: Stories and Lessons in Living
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Saving Power of Stories
The stories that Marshall tells have been passed down by the Lakota for centuries. He writes that these stories have sustained the Lakota for years, especially after their lands were taken away and they were pursued and killed by whites. Crowded on reservations without much of their ancestral lands, the stories contained their wisdom and lessons about the virtues that they held dear. Marshall credits these stories with sustaining the Lakota in difficult times. He offers them now as lessons to the wider world.
Stories are also a way in which to reclaim and proclaim Lakota glory and truth. The stories about the Plains Indians that are often heard in American culture are those created and told by whites. These stories often portray the Lakota as craven, weak, or destroyed. Marshall’s stories change this dominant narrative and restore the Lakota sense of dignity and power.
Offering Another Side to the Historical Record
Marshall writes about the historical record from the point of view of being from the Lakota. His essays offer another point of view, one that is distinct from the traditional white narrative. For example, he writes that Crazy Horse, the Oglala leader during the Battle of Little Bighorn, was brave but was also known for his humility, as he never bragged of his victories. In addition, Marshall writes about Crazy Horse’s brave decision to surrender to the US Army rather than endure the capture of the elderly and the women and children among his followers. By appreciating Crazy Horse’s humility and his willingness to endure capture to save his people, the author offers a different take on the virtues that we look for in leaders.
Marshall also discusses the conventional idea that the Lakota were captured because the whites were more skilled or braver, or even that they were on the side of God. He says instead that the whites simply outnumbered the Lakota and had superior weapons. The author offers a different take on the traditional history narrative.
Respect for Elders
Many of Marshall’s stories emphasize the importance of one’s elders in teaching virtues and passing down the Lakota culture. For example, in the story “The Story of the Old Woman’s Dog,” Good Voice, the older woman, understands the pain of In a Hurry, an 8-year-old girl whose grandmother has recently died. She tells the girl that there is no friend as great as a grandmother. In this same chapter, Chapter 10, Marshall also writes about the vital role grandmothers in all Native American cultures play, particularly in exercising the fortitude that sustains their culture.
In writing about his own upbringing, Marshall makes it clear that his maternal grandmother and grandfather were extremely important to him. This sense of respect for elders permeates the stories from Lakota lore he tells and permeates the stories about his own upbringing. Respect for elders also emphasizes the cycle of life and the way in which the generations—and all living things—are connected. The Lakota believe in the interconnectedness of all living things and the continuity of life in a cycle, and people show an understanding and respect for the cycle of life by forging connections with their elders.
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By Joseph M. Marshall III
