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The Lost Journals of Sacajewea
From the award-winning author of Perma Red comes a devastatingly beautiful novel that challenges prevailing historical narratives of Sacajewea
In my seventh winter, when my head only reached my Appe’s rib, a White Man came into camp. Bare trees scratched sky. Cold was endless. He moved through trees like strikes of sunlight. My Bia said he came with bad intentions, like a Water Baby’s cry.
Among the most memorialized women in American history, Sacajewea served as interpreter and guide for Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery. In this visionary novel, acclaimed Indigenous author Debra Magpie Earling brings this mythologized figure vividly to life, casting unsparing light on the men who brutalized her and recentering Sacajewea as the arbiter of her own history.
Raised among the Lemhi Shoshone, in this telling the young Sacajewea is bright and bold, growing strong from the hard work of “learning all ways to survive”: gathering berries, water, roots, and wood; butchering buffalo, antelope, and deer; catching salmon and snaring rabbits; weaving baskets and listening to the stories of her elders. When her village is raided and her beloved Appe and Bia are killed, Sacajewea is kidnapped and then gambled away to Charbonneau, a French Canadian trapper.
Heavy with grief, Sacajewea learns how to survive at the edge of a strange new world teeming with fur trappers and traders. When Lewis and Clark’s expedition party arrives, Sacajewea knows she must cross a vast and brutal terrain with her newborn son, the white man who owns her, and a company of men who wish to conquer and commodify the world she loves.
Written in lyrical, dreamlike prose, The Lost Journals of Sacajewea is an astonishing work of art and a powerful tale of perseverance—the Indigenous woman’s story that hasn’t been told.
In my seventh winter, when my head only reached my Appe’s rib, a White Man came into camp. Bare trees scratched sky. Cold was endless. He moved through trees like strikes of sunlight. My Bia said he came with bad intentions, like a Water Baby’s cry.
Among the most memorialized women in American history, Sacajewea served as interpreter and guide for Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery. In this visionary novel, acclaimed Indigenous author Debra Magpie Earling brings this mythologized figure vividly to life, casting unsparing light on the men who brutalized her and recentering Sacajewea as the arbiter of her own history.
Raised among the Lemhi Shoshone, in this telling the young Sacajewea is bright and bold, growing strong from the hard work of “learning all ways to survive”: gathering berries, water, roots, and wood; butchering buffalo, antelope, and deer; catching salmon and snaring rabbits; weaving baskets and listening to the stories of her elders. When her village is raided and her beloved Appe and Bia are killed, Sacajewea is kidnapped and then gambled away to Charbonneau, a French Canadian trapper.
Heavy with grief, Sacajewea learns how to survive at the edge of a strange new world teeming with fur trappers and traders. When Lewis and Clark’s expedition party arrives, Sacajewea knows she must cross a vast and brutal terrain with her newborn son, the white man who owns her, and a company of men who wish to conquer and commodify the world she loves.
Written in lyrical, dreamlike prose, The Lost Journals of Sacajewea is an astonishing work of art and a powerful tale of perseverance—the Indigenous woman’s story that hasn’t been told.
264 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
About the author
Debra Magpie Earling
4 books122 followersDebra Cecille Magpie Earling is a Native American novelist (Bitterroot Salish tribe), and short story writer. She is the author of Perma Red and The Lost Journals of Sacajewea, which was on display at the Missoula Museum of Art in late 2011. Her work has also appeared in Ploughshares and the Northeast Indian Quarterly.
She is a graduate of the University of Washington, and holds both an MA in English and an MFA in Fiction Writing from Cornell University.
Earling is currently a faculty member in the English Department at the University of Montana at Missoula.
Awards
2007 Guggenheim Fellow
2003 American Book Award
2006 NEA grant
She is a graduate of the University of Washington, and holds both an MA in English and an MFA in Fiction Writing from Cornell University.
Earling is currently a faculty member in the English Department at the University of Montana at Missoula.
Awards
2007 Guggenheim Fellow
2003 American Book Award
2006 NEA grant
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 259 reviews
December 30, 2023
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A riveting exploration of one one of America’s most romanticized, yet exploited and silenced women. The Lost Journals of Sacajawea shed light on the brutal reality behind the girl who is so widely recognized, yet so wholly unknown. This poetic and dreamlike account holds nothing back when exposing the raw truths on colonialism, misogyny, abuse, and overshadowing that indigenous communities faces at the hands of European men, and the ways in which those overwritten truths have continued to alter our perception of history today. Immersive and bleak, but with a haunting clarity that lasts long after reading.
A riveting exploration of one one of America’s most romanticized, yet exploited and silenced women. The Lost Journals of Sacajawea shed light on the brutal reality behind the girl who is so widely recognized, yet so wholly unknown. This poetic and dreamlike account holds nothing back when exposing the raw truths on colonialism, misogyny, abuse, and overshadowing that indigenous communities faces at the hands of European men, and the ways in which those overwritten truths have continued to alter our perception of history today. Immersive and bleak, but with a haunting clarity that lasts long after reading.
August 15, 2024
This is precisely the sort of novel I had been avoiding "for the duration." But I am a fan both of Earling and of history. [I registered for the 2023 Portland Book Festival this weekend specifically to hear her read this novel.]
So I prepared for a challenging read and for tragedy. Revelations I know I would find, but though I wanted very much for Sacajewea's story to take an upward turn, that was never going to happen. Earling might have located a hopeful moment to stop her telling, but that choice would have done a disservice to the lives of all the people who suffered in European conquest of this continent.
None of this should be a spoiler unless you still have only the child's version of Sacajewea's life and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Even I know more than I wish. I know, for example, that the version of the post-expedition freeing of the slave, York, is a lie. Much of the prettier history of Europeans in the Americas is pure fiction and literal White-washing. You have to expect that when an invasion kills off most of the locals, they prefer not to brag about it... once the people in power decide the locals are actually human. That took a while.
I knew it would be well written but sad.
But I read this novel anyway and without regret. The major challenge is linguistic with a complex weaving of Sacajewea's names and magical perspective, her respect for the land and the spirits of the land, and for the blindness of the men she travels with. Earling's telling of her story is so laden with that girl's youthful and cultural perspective that it took some work to follow her fictional journaling—like many things worth doing.
Fort Clatsop, the furthest west stop of the expedition trail—they spent the entire winter of 1805-1806, 106 days—is about 35 miles north of our coastal home. Salt was boiled a few miles nearer us at what is now Seaside, and even closer, I have often run six miles from home to what is called Cannon Beach (there were cannons from the wreck of the USS Shark in 1846, but they weren't found on that beach but less than a mile north of my home) where native peoples shared whale meat with the members of that party.
Each time I have visited the Fort Clatsop replica, the story about Lewis and Clark has been revised. They were not, despite the "heroic" journey most of us were taught about in school, "good men" by my standards. They were ambitious, selfish, and entitled White men who used and abused everyone they met. Fort Clatsop had not quite caught up with that perspective when I was last there but was headed in that direction.
.
So I prepared for a challenging read and for tragedy. Revelations I know I would find, but though I wanted very much for Sacajewea's story to take an upward turn, that was never going to happen. Earling might have located a hopeful moment to stop her telling, but that choice would have done a disservice to the lives of all the people who suffered in European conquest of this continent.
None of this should be a spoiler unless you still have only the child's version of Sacajewea's life and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Even I know more than I wish. I know, for example, that the version of the post-expedition freeing of the slave, York, is a lie. Much of the prettier history of Europeans in the Americas is pure fiction and literal White-washing. You have to expect that when an invasion kills off most of the locals, they prefer not to brag about it... once the people in power decide the locals are actually human. That took a while.
I knew it would be well written but sad.
But I read this novel anyway and without regret. The major challenge is linguistic with a complex weaving of Sacajewea's names and magical perspective, her respect for the land and the spirits of the land, and for the blindness of the men she travels with. Earling's telling of her story is so laden with that girl's youthful and cultural perspective that it took some work to follow her fictional journaling—like many things worth doing.
Fort Clatsop, the furthest west stop of the expedition trail—they spent the entire winter of 1805-1806, 106 days—is about 35 miles north of our coastal home. Salt was boiled a few miles nearer us at what is now Seaside, and even closer, I have often run six miles from home to what is called Cannon Beach (there were cannons from the wreck of the USS Shark in 1846, but they weren't found on that beach but less than a mile north of my home) where native peoples shared whale meat with the members of that party.
Each time I have visited the Fort Clatsop replica, the story about Lewis and Clark has been revised. They were not, despite the "heroic" journey most of us were taught about in school, "good men" by my standards. They were ambitious, selfish, and entitled White men who used and abused everyone they met. Fort Clatsop had not quite caught up with that perspective when I was last there but was headed in that direction.
.
March 17, 2023
This book may be classified as a novel, but arguably does more justice to Sacajewea's story than many of the sanitized historical recounts of her life-- not hiding the fact that that she was stolen, sold, brutalized, and pregnant, all before the age of twelve. Earling wrote The Lost Journals of Sacajewea for the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition, now finally published in book form to read worldwide. Essential for any American History reader.
May 26, 2023
Very little is known about the real Sacajawea. She is a cipher, an archetype, an empty vessel, and for many years a footnote to history. As is often the case with women that people can’t claim to know, she is written about by any number of people who can only imagine who she was. Erica Funkhouser wrote poems about her, and also was included in at least one documentary because of her research into the subject. As an aside, if you read the poems in her book Sure Shot, there is a stark difference between her work and this one.
I also remember a massive paperback I read as a kid simply called Sacajawea which extrapolated much from what little was known, and if I remember correctly, left our heroine mourning herself to death over the unrequited love of one of the explorers.
What these three examples share, although to a lesser extent in Sure Shot, is the descriptions of brutality and sexual abuse Sacajawea endured from any number of men in her life. While it seems likely she experienced this, it stands out to me how this is used by these various authors, for what? Does the reader gain anything reading this? Are we wrong to focus on and perpetuate these abuses? And please take this as a warning if you are sensitive to child rape, you may want to avoid The Lost Journals. It was certainly more than I could handle.
But now to my review, and it’s a short one. I couldn’t finish it.
I found it to be a self-serious, cringeworthy book with nonsense lines like, “distant Mountains, growl-thick with Moose stink…”.
I began skipping sentences early into the book, then whole paragraphs then entire pages until I jumped to the end and put the book down for good.
It’s cliché, it’s banal, it’s problematic and an affront to the reader.
I understand this book has generated a lot of positive reviews and attention and I suppose I’m an outlier, but I’m finding a lot of contemporary books that are highly praised are often not worthy of that praise. I think we can do better.
I also remember a massive paperback I read as a kid simply called Sacajawea which extrapolated much from what little was known, and if I remember correctly, left our heroine mourning herself to death over the unrequited love of one of the explorers.
What these three examples share, although to a lesser extent in Sure Shot, is the descriptions of brutality and sexual abuse Sacajawea endured from any number of men in her life. While it seems likely she experienced this, it stands out to me how this is used by these various authors, for what? Does the reader gain anything reading this? Are we wrong to focus on and perpetuate these abuses? And please take this as a warning if you are sensitive to child rape, you may want to avoid The Lost Journals. It was certainly more than I could handle.
But now to my review, and it’s a short one. I couldn’t finish it.
I found it to be a self-serious, cringeworthy book with nonsense lines like, “distant Mountains, growl-thick with Moose stink…”.
I began skipping sentences early into the book, then whole paragraphs then entire pages until I jumped to the end and put the book down for good.
It’s cliché, it’s banal, it’s problematic and an affront to the reader.
I understand this book has generated a lot of positive reviews and attention and I suppose I’m an outlier, but I’m finding a lot of contemporary books that are highly praised are often not worthy of that praise. I think we can do better.
May 31, 2023
Sacajewea is a girl who had almost everything taken away from her. Her people, her innocence, her name and her existence. After she's stolen from her people she's enslaved to Charbonneau, a cruel and seedy trapper, who joins the Lewis and Clark expedition. She exists through their journals and here, we have her reimagined journals in her voice. And through Sacajewea's eyes, we see the beginning of the brutal waste that the expedition wreaks upon the lands. Despite the brutal content, these beautiful rendered writings, are both lyrical and evocative.
ETA: June 2023 staff pick
ETA: June 2023 staff pick
July 16, 2023
I understand why the author wrote the book the way she did, but it made it so hard to understand. Rather than getting into the story, it sometimes took me pages before I understood what we were even talking about. Rather than “lyrical” as other reviewers have said, I found it difficult, distracting, and frustrating. Yes, I wanted her voice to come through, but I think it could have been achieved in a more reader-friendly manner. Perhaps I’m not smart enough for it, or unwilling to put in the work for it, but finally had to put it down. DNF
Read
September 24, 2023Do not trust anyone who tells you you cannot tell your story.
Do not trust anyone who tells you there is only one story.
If there were only one story
Or one way of seeing things all stories would die.
Uff, this book was hard to get into. And quite honestly if I wasn't reading it for a discussion, I probably wouldn't have finished it. It's absolutely a story that needs shared and I think about Sacajewea, Lewis and Clark very differently now. But I think it took me nearly 40 pages to figure out what was going on. I'm not sure I'd recommend this...and yet I'm glad I read it.
Do not trust anyone who tells you there is only one story.
If there were only one story
Or one way of seeing things all stories would die.
Uff, this book was hard to get into. And quite honestly if I wasn't reading it for a discussion, I probably wouldn't have finished it. It's absolutely a story that needs shared and I think about Sacajewea, Lewis and Clark very differently now. But I think it took me nearly 40 pages to figure out what was going on. I'm not sure I'd recommend this...and yet I'm glad I read it.
July 8, 2023
Earling's prose is beautiful. This may be a more challenging read for some, but it is more than worth it to read this novel. Earling depicts the tragedies Sacajewea endures but also captures her heart, her spirit, and her strength.
Please check the content warnings, though. This is not an easy or comfortable read by any means.
Please check the content warnings, though. This is not an easy or comfortable read by any means.
Read
May 18, 2024I really loved this! It was also a tough hang, and less for the content (which is bleak but not unnecessarily so) as much as the way the book sort of tries to rewire your brain in real time. It invites you to see the world as its narrator does, a place that is more or less constantly filled with spirits and lesser gods. Yet it's not a fantasy novel in the slightest, because all of this is real to her. It also requires you to just sort of guess what a lot of words mean through context clues, which I enjoyed.
But when you get to the last few chapters, and Sacajewea is mostly writing in plain, "straightforward" English because she's been in captivity for so long, the readability of the book becomes heartbreaking.
Anyway, highly recommend.
But when you get to the last few chapters, and Sacajewea is mostly writing in plain, "straightforward" English because she's been in captivity for so long, the readability of the book becomes heartbreaking.
Anyway, highly recommend.
February 5, 2024
An extremely difficult but worthwhile read that imagines if Sacajewea had been able to take control of telling her own story. Author Debra Magpie Earling invents her own dialect of sorts and it is a challenge for the reader to understand what is going on. I almost gave up within the first 30 pages, but kept sputtering along and I'm glad I did.
June 14, 2023
It is hard to rate this novel. I think it was an impressive feat to take on. While I certainly understand the difficulty of getting into this book as the syntax, tempo, and language are different than the typical American novel I found this rang true to the story. Painfully true, tragically true. When you accept that this is not written from a western perspective you can fall into the blissful relief of that.
Much like the connection Sacajewea feels to her riverside home this novel pulls you along in its current. You want to look away from the atrocities but you cannot just like she could not. I found the vocabulary deeply powerful, disgusting at times, and of course unceasingly disturbing. You know it to be true even as you know it to be a fictionalization of her experience.
The lyrical, dreamlike, and darkly honest prose is unlike anything I’ve ever read. It’s a tone and style that fits the context. If you believed that spirits ruled over the natural world would you not also see the ogre face in stone or the wild cries of angry spirits in the roiling of a dark river? The lesson maybe, of how want can ruin men, of how taking all you want can destroy your soul, rings painfully true in our modern world. I hated this novel and I also loved it. I wanted to turn away from the pain but I also could not turn away. I finished it in two days because I wanted the hurt to be over for her but also I wanted the beauty to continue. Highly recommend.
Much like the connection Sacajewea feels to her riverside home this novel pulls you along in its current. You want to look away from the atrocities but you cannot just like she could not. I found the vocabulary deeply powerful, disgusting at times, and of course unceasingly disturbing. You know it to be true even as you know it to be a fictionalization of her experience.
The lyrical, dreamlike, and darkly honest prose is unlike anything I’ve ever read. It’s a tone and style that fits the context. If you believed that spirits ruled over the natural world would you not also see the ogre face in stone or the wild cries of angry spirits in the roiling of a dark river? The lesson maybe, of how want can ruin men, of how taking all you want can destroy your soul, rings painfully true in our modern world. I hated this novel and I also loved it. I wanted to turn away from the pain but I also could not turn away. I finished it in two days because I wanted the hurt to be over for her but also I wanted the beauty to continue. Highly recommend.
February 17, 2024
This book was a struggle, and I’m still not sure of some of the vocabulary and the actions being described. But I found Earling’s language, imagination and insights to be, in places, downright exhilarating, so I’m going with five stars. Part of the 2024 Tournament of Books.
August 5, 2024
Many comments on how difficult this is to read: all true. Difficult in form, style, themes, and content. It was easy to get frustrated. Once I began thinking of it more as poetry than narrative, it became more powerful. Threads of continuity revealed themselves. However, I have decided it is right for it to be difficult to try to comprehend a culture, language, social and environmental context that we really still know so little about-that has been so altered and scattered and repressed. I feel Earling was incredibly brave to attempt to give Sacajawea a voice, and to begin a difficult conversation about who history immortalizes and who it minimizes.
April 3, 2024
I really liked the parts of this I could understand, but I could only understand about 50% of what was going on.
November 29, 2023
2.5 stars rounded down to 2.
I appreciate the intention here with the writing style, but it was just a little too experimental for me. I couldn’t quite get a grip on what was going on/who was who/what was real or not for nearly the entire book, and it became frustrating very quickly. The constant violence was also hard to swallow, despite knowing Sacajewea’s story was likely one of immense hardship. I have a lot of mixed feelings about wanting to understand history as it likely happened, and not wanting to engage in reading speculative misery porn.
Trigger warnings for SA, violence, death.
I appreciate the intention here with the writing style, but it was just a little too experimental for me. I couldn’t quite get a grip on what was going on/who was who/what was real or not for nearly the entire book, and it became frustrating very quickly. The constant violence was also hard to swallow, despite knowing Sacajewea’s story was likely one of immense hardship. I have a lot of mixed feelings about wanting to understand history as it likely happened, and not wanting to engage in reading speculative misery porn.
Trigger warnings for SA, violence, death.
Read
January 9, 2024Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling is one of my favorite books of all time. I was so excited when The Lost Journals of Sacajewea came out, and it is unlike any other book I have ever experienced. Even with the author's note on the style and language, it took me a while to learn how to read the prose, to sink into the world of the book, and to fall under its quiet spell. It's a book that makes me think differently about history and about the natural world, a book that sparks curiosity, grief, awe. Though not an easy read, it is truly a work of art, and, it also seems to me, a work of heart, a work of tremendous empathy and imagination. Sacajewea near the end, gathering herself to meet the ocean, is a wonder.
June 4, 2023
Initially I found the writing style very hard to get along woth and put this book down for several days after starting it. However, I was very curious about how Sacajewea would be portrayed and kept thinking about this book, so I decided to keep reading. Once I had read around 120 pages, I felt at home in the lyrical language and lack of plot and really began to enjoy myself. This imagining of Sacajewea does not add plot to her narrative, but it does narrate her marriage/abduction from her perspective and humanise her. It is not a reimagining of a historical figure, as it lacks plot, but is a lyrical, fictional first person-ish account of her experience. I think the strange narration also serves to decolonise the narrative form away from pure prose fiction. The language is very skillfully done and an excellent portrayal of emotions, colonialism and violence.
„I grew up with him. We were the same age at one time. But when you're a man's slave, years eat you. I was bequeathed to him.
Bequeathed, given away by Death to a spoiled child. Can you imag-ine? I know you can.“
„Lewis and Clark call their selves Captains.
Their men build an open Lodge for everyone to see they are important. The Captains stand before us, proud, on their new wood foor. Their flags Stream in wind above them.
See our great power, the Captains say, we come in peace from the Great White Father. If you do not treat us well, the Great White Father will punish you.
Some of the People come up and touch their shining buttons.
The Captains muddle their faces like fluster-boys. What they say is urgent. They spray spittle as they speak. We must understand they come with news from the Great White Father. Their white man flag is their Sacred. Nothing is more important than their mission.
If their Great White Father wants us to understand, then where is he? |He is man shouts. Why should we listen to subchiefs? If you come with such important news, where are our gifts? Why do you bring an Enemy Arikara to smoke beside you?“
„I grew up with him. We were the same age at one time. But when you're a man's slave, years eat you. I was bequeathed to him.
Bequeathed, given away by Death to a spoiled child. Can you imag-ine? I know you can.“
„Lewis and Clark call their selves Captains.
Their men build an open Lodge for everyone to see they are important. The Captains stand before us, proud, on their new wood foor. Their flags Stream in wind above them.
See our great power, the Captains say, we come in peace from the Great White Father. If you do not treat us well, the Great White Father will punish you.
Some of the People come up and touch their shining buttons.
The Captains muddle their faces like fluster-boys. What they say is urgent. They spray spittle as they speak. We must understand they come with news from the Great White Father. Their white man flag is their Sacred. Nothing is more important than their mission.
If their Great White Father wants us to understand, then where is he? |He is man shouts. Why should we listen to subchiefs? If you come with such important news, where are our gifts? Why do you bring an Enemy Arikara to smoke beside you?“
January 14, 2024
I struggled to understand until just past page 100 - at that point I almost fell in love with this book. Clearly I am lacking in background knowledge. Would like to reread as part of a guided group. With a leader who could fill in missing historical and cultural parts.
September 12, 2023
4.25⭐
This is one of those very hard books to review. Part poetry, part story, part history, part culture study, this was truly unique. Telling the story of Sacajawea from a new perspective that wove together real history with native stories including the horrors of white men conquering the Native Americans is why this type of story from an Own Voices author is incredibly important. It was not an easy read and I feel like there's still so much I need to learn to understand the spirits and culture in this book. The format was not easy to follow, but the story is there and the feeling of wrongdoing, torture and sorrow is there. And that is why I think anyone looking to unpack how biased history can be should read this book.
This is one of those very hard books to review. Part poetry, part story, part history, part culture study, this was truly unique. Telling the story of Sacajawea from a new perspective that wove together real history with native stories including the horrors of white men conquering the Native Americans is why this type of story from an Own Voices author is incredibly important. It was not an easy read and I feel like there's still so much I need to learn to understand the spirits and culture in this book. The format was not easy to follow, but the story is there and the feeling of wrongdoing, torture and sorrow is there. And that is why I think anyone looking to unpack how biased history can be should read this book.
December 25, 2023
Wow. The ToB reading is just one mediocre book after another for me so far. This one was SO earnest, written in a ponderous allusive style that was ultimately -- for me -- just tiresome and totally confusing. I could not keep track of who was who and even when I did, the names changed. For me, all the symbolic language was TOO symbolic -- I often could not fathom what was actually happening.
Sigh. I sure hope I hit a good one soon.
Sigh. I sure hope I hit a good one soon.
March 20, 2024
I was surprised by how much of the story was NOT about the Lewis and Clark expedition. Of course that's the reason Sacajewea has entered our national consciousness so it's not surprising it gets mentioned prominently, but they don't even show up here until the novel is two-thirds over. I found the novel to have a larger focus, one right there in the cover flap summary: "casting unsparing light on the men who brutalized her and recentering Sacajewea as the arbiter of her own history."
The sexual violence against women is everywhere in this novel. It's in her Shoshone community, especially in the story of White Crow, but also in casual harassment as in this evocative passage: "Walks Back Night runs around camp, his Man-push like a knife sticking out below his bloat-gut. All day he runs... His Man-push flapping. How many Rutting Seasons has he plagued us?"
She's repeatedly raped, as a 9 year old, by a warrior in a hostile tribe of Siouan people after being kidnapped by them. Taken to their village far from her own land, the reader sees sexual violence everywhere in the mixed community of white traders and native men. And this is all before Lewis and Clark arrive. They're newcomers in a long line of abusive men we've seen. Perhaps it's a reminder that violence against women crosses all cultural lines, and did not need to wait for European colonizers to arrive to exist in North America.
The language the book uses, a fractured language of an abused and traumatized girl, reminded me a lot of Eimear McBride's "A Girl is a Half-formed Thing", which in that respect did the same thing. Earling's language is more obviously linked to poetry though, and incorporates much more of nature, but for instance here's Eimear McBride:
"Like smoke in my lungs to be coughed out. I'd throw up excitement. What is it? Like a nosebleed. Like a freezing pain. I felt me not me. Turning to the sun. Feel the roast of it. Like sunburn. Like a hot sunstroke. Like globs dropping in. Through my hair. Spat skin with it. Blank my eyes the dazzle. Huge shatter. Me who is just new. Fallen out of the sky."
Not too far from Earling's Sacajewea?
The sexual violence against women is everywhere in this novel. It's in her Shoshone community, especially in the story of White Crow, but also in casual harassment as in this evocative passage: "Walks Back Night runs around camp, his Man-push like a knife sticking out below his bloat-gut. All day he runs... His Man-push flapping. How many Rutting Seasons has he plagued us?"
She's repeatedly raped, as a 9 year old, by a warrior in a hostile tribe of Siouan people after being kidnapped by them. Taken to their village far from her own land, the reader sees sexual violence everywhere in the mixed community of white traders and native men. And this is all before Lewis and Clark arrive. They're newcomers in a long line of abusive men we've seen. Perhaps it's a reminder that violence against women crosses all cultural lines, and did not need to wait for European colonizers to arrive to exist in North America.
The language the book uses, a fractured language of an abused and traumatized girl, reminded me a lot of Eimear McBride's "A Girl is a Half-formed Thing", which in that respect did the same thing. Earling's language is more obviously linked to poetry though, and incorporates much more of nature, but for instance here's Eimear McBride:
"Like smoke in my lungs to be coughed out. I'd throw up excitement. What is it? Like a nosebleed. Like a freezing pain. I felt me not me. Turning to the sun. Feel the roast of it. Like sunburn. Like a hot sunstroke. Like globs dropping in. Through my hair. Spat skin with it. Blank my eyes the dazzle. Huge shatter. Me who is just new. Fallen out of the sky."
Not too far from Earling's Sacajewea?
I am in a Land no longer my own. The scents around me are not scents I know. My legs jolt and stiffen out like a butchered Deer. My body is broken. My body is a different Country. A different River breaks my blood. Weta roars…
Roars over my hush liver.
Roars over sleep hands.
Roars into days no longer me.
Roars into gone .. Appe Bia Cameahwait Blue Elk Otter Woman. Pop Pank.
His roar becomes voices of Rivers, patters of Water. Sparkling hands of Ogres.
When I breathe out, no more,
No more
no me.
October 6, 2024
This book is confusing...on so many levels. For one thing, what language is Sacajewea supposed to be writing in? In English or in her own language that the author presents to us in English? Either way, it all kinda reads like a racist caricature of an Indigenous person speaking (Trash in River make big Chief tears fall like Rain). Overall, it is very hard to tell whether words/phrases/passages were meant to be magical realism, or literary prose, or a proper noun in Sacajewea's tongue, or a person's name.
Read
February 1, 2024This is one of the most challenging books I’ve ever read and reading it was a mostly unpleasant experience.
I think the author tried to do justice to the way Sacajewea would have thought and spoken before she learned the language of her oppressors. The stream of consciousness style is very elemental, centered around the natural and spiritual world, and very connected to the body. This was difficult for me to follow or understand at times but there were many passages of dazzling poetry.
And the content is brutal. Rape, murder, torture, mutilation, and every kind of injustice is narrated in this book.
I expect this book to have a very narrow audience that can tolerate it, but I’m glad I made it through.
I think the author tried to do justice to the way Sacajewea would have thought and spoken before she learned the language of her oppressors. The stream of consciousness style is very elemental, centered around the natural and spiritual world, and very connected to the body. This was difficult for me to follow or understand at times but there were many passages of dazzling poetry.
And the content is brutal. Rape, murder, torture, mutilation, and every kind of injustice is narrated in this book.
I expect this book to have a very narrow audience that can tolerate it, but I’m glad I made it through.
April 6, 2024
One of the coolest books I’ve ever read. Really impactful and unique.
(I don’t give many fives but this one is at the top of that list for me.)
(I don’t give many fives but this one is at the top of that list for me.)
December 23, 2023
There's something wrong with you when you need a god to love you for what you hate in yourself.
This is a book that requires patience, and a willingness to translate. I came to this book knowing nothing about the legend of Sacajewea or the Lewis and Clark expedition (recent immigrant to the US). I found a beautiful, poetic narrative about the horrors of slowly losing your civilization to invaders. Before Sacajewea is first abducted, we can spot the rot beginning to take hold in her tribe; insatiable lust and greed, personified by the character of Bawitchuwa, begins to insinuate itself after contact with the white man becomes more frequent. The seeds of the ecological collapse brought by European invaders are apparent, as they trigger heightened aggression between the Native people. "Men come back to us changed like there are trees charred by lightning and standing without life. I have not seen this change before. Warriors no longer our own. Our prayers do not work for them. Child's laughter does not heal them. war men seething. Scorched. Their bodies crooked by stabs, gouged by knife wounds, bulged by liver death." A loss of place, the sacred, tradition, and above all, innocence, makes this novel a difficult read. Trigger warnings for some horrific sexual violence, that not even poetry can soften. The physical rape perpetrated against Sacajewea is mirrored by the rape of the land at the hands of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Even simple acts for a European soil and disrupt the connection with the land. "Long ago, the people knew life rested in what must not be named. When all things are named, when all earth's gifts are claimed without thanks, without stories, without prayer, water and fire will come. Speaking of mirrors, one of the most beautiful transition scenes I have ever read includes the Old Woman (an entity whose full meaning I most likely didn't grasp), showing Sacajewea, and the reader, where our protagonist will travel: "Rain falls all around. Rain quivers down. Dust smoke rises. Old woman turns and turns and her glittering mirrors become the glittering river, the glittering wet grasses, the glittering tree sap, the glittering waves of the far away glittering sea." I loved the sentence structure, the rhythm, the slow insinuation of European words and concepts as Sacajewea learns the languages, the use of verbs that are typically only nouns in several Indo-European languages (small, night); I also understood the practicality of a name born from the experience of the person (there are many Janes, and Julias, but there is only one Lost His Head To Horse).
I only encountered problems with the narrative in the last 40 pages, describing among other things the brief reunion of Sacajewea with her tribe. The story felt rushed at the end. The constant promise of escape or retribution, that was never fulfilled in the novel, made sense considering Native American history, but was nonetheless a bit frustrating for the reader. Still, I loved this novel and will surely read more from the author. 4.5 stars
This is a book that requires patience, and a willingness to translate. I came to this book knowing nothing about the legend of Sacajewea or the Lewis and Clark expedition (recent immigrant to the US). I found a beautiful, poetic narrative about the horrors of slowly losing your civilization to invaders. Before Sacajewea is first abducted, we can spot the rot beginning to take hold in her tribe; insatiable lust and greed, personified by the character of Bawitchuwa, begins to insinuate itself after contact with the white man becomes more frequent. The seeds of the ecological collapse brought by European invaders are apparent, as they trigger heightened aggression between the Native people. "Men come back to us changed like there are trees charred by lightning and standing without life. I have not seen this change before. Warriors no longer our own. Our prayers do not work for them. Child's laughter does not heal them. war men seething. Scorched. Their bodies crooked by stabs, gouged by knife wounds, bulged by liver death." A loss of place, the sacred, tradition, and above all, innocence, makes this novel a difficult read. Trigger warnings for some horrific sexual violence, that not even poetry can soften. The physical rape perpetrated against Sacajewea is mirrored by the rape of the land at the hands of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Even simple acts for a European soil and disrupt the connection with the land. "Long ago, the people knew life rested in what must not be named. When all things are named, when all earth's gifts are claimed without thanks, without stories, without prayer, water and fire will come. Speaking of mirrors, one of the most beautiful transition scenes I have ever read includes the Old Woman (an entity whose full meaning I most likely didn't grasp), showing Sacajewea, and the reader, where our protagonist will travel: "Rain falls all around. Rain quivers down. Dust smoke rises. Old woman turns and turns and her glittering mirrors become the glittering river, the glittering wet grasses, the glittering tree sap, the glittering waves of the far away glittering sea." I loved the sentence structure, the rhythm, the slow insinuation of European words and concepts as Sacajewea learns the languages, the use of verbs that are typically only nouns in several Indo-European languages (small, night); I also understood the practicality of a name born from the experience of the person (there are many Janes, and Julias, but there is only one Lost His Head To Horse).
I only encountered problems with the narrative in the last 40 pages, describing among other things the brief reunion of Sacajewea with her tribe. The story felt rushed at the end. The constant promise of escape or retribution, that was never fulfilled in the novel, made sense considering Native American history, but was nonetheless a bit frustrating for the reader. Still, I loved this novel and will surely read more from the author. 4.5 stars
June 23, 2023
Grade: A
Many words describe this book, but I want to start with this one: Difficult.
This book is difficult on many levels, but three seemed the highest hurdles. The first is the language: Earling explains in a forward to the book she writes in the cadence of the Indigenous language. All dialects have a cadence, although we usually wrap it up with the idea of an accent. However, the indigenous cadence is different enough to challenge a reader who speaks and reads in English. While this is prose, I think if you have experience reading poetry, you may find this easier. At least, that was my experience.
But, while the language was difficult, it was also beautiful and absorbing. I found it helpful to read aloud sometimes, and reading slowly is necessary. But, in the grand scheme, I found it easier to read than authors like Salman Rushdie. Sometimes, it is just a case of "choosing your hard."
Related to the language, this book is replete with indigenous and natural imagery. At first, I thought I would look up things as I went along. However, I quickly realized that I was better off just going with the flow and accepting what I didn't understand, and learning what I could from the context. I believe the beauty of the writing allowed me to put this trust in Earling, but it was worth it.
The final big hurdle is that this book is very violent, and Earling does not shy away from the violence. Moreover, much of this violence is sexual in nature and inflicted on women and girls. I won't sugarcoat it: this was the hardest part of the book for me, but it was also necessary to the story. Earling is never explicit in the details, but we know what happens, and that is enough. If you are considering this one, please check the content warnings.
I know all this sounds like I didn't like this book, but I actually really enjoyed it! Sacajewea is a vital historical figure, and we know so little about her. Obviously, this book imagines her life, but what Earling could have actually happened. She takes the crumbs we know of Sacajewea's life and builds a biography that may be closer to the truth than we realize.
Upon my first reading, I gave this book an A. However, I plan to reread it at some point, and I expect it to only rise in my esteem with each revisit. Because of the difficulty, this isn't a book that I would widely recommend. However, if you are up for the challenge and open to what Earling has to say, please pick this up.
Many words describe this book, but I want to start with this one: Difficult.
This book is difficult on many levels, but three seemed the highest hurdles. The first is the language: Earling explains in a forward to the book she writes in the cadence of the Indigenous language. All dialects have a cadence, although we usually wrap it up with the idea of an accent. However, the indigenous cadence is different enough to challenge a reader who speaks and reads in English. While this is prose, I think if you have experience reading poetry, you may find this easier. At least, that was my experience.
But, while the language was difficult, it was also beautiful and absorbing. I found it helpful to read aloud sometimes, and reading slowly is necessary. But, in the grand scheme, I found it easier to read than authors like Salman Rushdie. Sometimes, it is just a case of "choosing your hard."
Related to the language, this book is replete with indigenous and natural imagery. At first, I thought I would look up things as I went along. However, I quickly realized that I was better off just going with the flow and accepting what I didn't understand, and learning what I could from the context. I believe the beauty of the writing allowed me to put this trust in Earling, but it was worth it.
The final big hurdle is that this book is very violent, and Earling does not shy away from the violence. Moreover, much of this violence is sexual in nature and inflicted on women and girls. I won't sugarcoat it: this was the hardest part of the book for me, but it was also necessary to the story. Earling is never explicit in the details, but we know what happens, and that is enough. If you are considering this one, please check the content warnings.
I know all this sounds like I didn't like this book, but I actually really enjoyed it! Sacajewea is a vital historical figure, and we know so little about her. Obviously, this book imagines her life, but what Earling could have actually happened. She takes the crumbs we know of Sacajewea's life and builds a biography that may be closer to the truth than we realize.
Upon my first reading, I gave this book an A. However, I plan to reread it at some point, and I expect it to only rise in my esteem with each revisit. Because of the difficulty, this isn't a book that I would widely recommend. However, if you are up for the challenge and open to what Earling has to say, please pick this up.
June 21, 2023
I wanted to love this book….I just didn’t. I would get lost in the descriptive prose and often felt like I didn’t understand what was going on, especially at the beginning of the book. I do understand that the author was trying to write in the descriptive language of Native Americans but, to me, it overshadowed the plot. Maybe it was just me but I found this book a very difficult read for little return.
July 13, 2023
A hauntingly honest and beautiful telling of Sacajewea's life and journey. Each page and paragraph, every word is rhythmic and mesmerizingly poetic yet brutally candid. The Sacajewea legend that we (I) came to know in the history books is deconstructed. Sacajawea was kidnapped, a White Man's hostage, yet she harbored the skills and an innate spirit to survive.
December 7, 2023
DNF at 30%. Maybe this book just wasn’t meant for me, and that’s okay. I thought the author was very creative with the use of language to portray Sacajawea’s inner world. However, the prose was so vague/overwrought that it was virtually incomprehensible to me and I had a hard time connecting with the characters or following the story. It was hard to understand what was happening.
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