Native Women: Changing Their Worlds: A Book Review by Member Linda M. Delene, Ph.D.

“This slim volume in the Native Trailblazers Series is a testament to family strength, cultural identity, and the power of education.  The twelve women portrayed in this volume all demonstrated resilience despite the many obstacles each faced, including discrimination in schools and sports.  In every portrait, the individuals and their extended families knew that change could occur with family support, reliance on Native community heritage, and seeking change through education and years of hard work. These are amazing women, steeped in their Native traditions, and proud of that heritage with its constant emphasis on family and community.

Each woman portrayed opens a window to a personal story of resilience despite facing difficult and long odds, usually beginning in economic poverty. Whether the individuals developed through care from parents and grandparents, a teacher’s encouragement or their own sheer tenacity is revealed in each biography. After I finished reading this volume, I thought about how often we still in higher education take for granted the sacrifices necessary by individuals in the pursuit of their education – lost time with close-knit families, fear of the unknown, lack of funds, social isolation, and unintentional as well as intentional discrimination. Certainly, these factors are not unique to Native Americans but I have come to believe that those with the Native American heritage face another peculiar awareness – realizing that their historic care for the environment is now becoming a national obsession as evidence of the earth’s fragility becomes more evident.

The twelve life stories resonate with grit and determination to help others move ahead.  Whether as a representative in Congress, a bus driver, an attorney, a national pageant winner, a professor, a social worker, in tribal leadership or an engineer each and every biography reflects the importance of education as the pathway for both individual growth and federal and state policy changes that affect Native Americans. Their charity towards others is evident as is their continuing care for their Native heritage. I was also struck by the fact that their lives on lands throughout the United States predate every European settlement by hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years. As our national history is rewritten to acknowledge their presence throughout the United States, it will be most interesting to see how their first presence is reconciled with our later use of land and the environmental consequences of such use.

This volume can fill a void in Native American history and knowledge even though written for a juvenile audience.  It certainly can promote a clearer understanding of the obstacles facing Native Americans who value education as the key means to change the circumstances of their families and nations.  Most directly, it affirms the resolute nature of women who work to improve lives everywhere regardless of beginning circumstances.  This book is a tribute to all who labor for the common good, especially women who are Native Americans.”