In a paper that consists of six pages the novel that examines the nineteenth century Dakota Sioux Indian tribe is analyzed in terms of its telling from a female perspective and the insights on cultural expectations and family relationships that the text provides. Three sources are cited in the bibliography.
Name of Research Paper File: D0_GSWaLily.rtf
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extraordinary world is revealed to us through Waterlily, who is the young, female central character of this novel. Also of importance in this novel is the relationship which she
has with her mother and grandmother and it is through these fictitious alliances that their rich, textured, complex and intriguing history is revealed. Although this story is fiction, it
is based on the actual way in which these native people lived and quite vividly describes their existence. Deloria herself
is a Sioux Indian and was born on the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota in 1889 (Deloria, 2002). Deloria eventually left the reservation to study at Columbia University
in New York (Deloria, 2002). "There, in 1915, she began to work as a research assistant for Franz Boas, the father of American anthropology" (Deloria, 2002). Subsequently, Deloria
made many contributions to American Indian Studies in terms of literature and folklore and became quite well-known in this field (Deloria, 2002).
What is so exceptional about this novel is that the world which Deloria exposes the reader to is vastly different than our own. The life of the
Dakota Sioux during the 19th century is as different a life from our current society as one could imagine. And yet, Deloria has the remarkable ability to bring that
far away culture to life for the reader and expose it sympathetically. Her renderings of the Dakota Sioux and their culture is expressed in such detail and with such
grace that the reader is fully able to understand the complexity of their society. In addition, the reader is treated to the primarily female viewpoint of this novel.