Witness: A Hunkpapha Historian’s Strong-Heart Song of the Lakotas

The value of these journals is that they were written by a Native American, but using western writing style that Americans could understand. Josephine Waggoner came from the Lakota tribe, but she was educated at the Hampton Normal school. She writes about the organization of the tribes (and sub tribes) along with their history, customs, and mythology.

Waggoner discusses how the tribes were divided into groups that remained near rivers and hunting grounds, rarely going far from their familiar territory. When settlers began moving in, the various groups were forced to move, and though she doesn’t expressly say it, the migration probably crowded the territory. That would’ve put a strain on the hunters’ supply of game.

The most fantastic story in the book is called Hampton and Back to Standing Rock. Two boys get into a dispute with a farmer, he tries to beat them, they beat him back, and off they run. These boys travel over mountains and rivers with meager food, all the way to Chicago, then join Hobos on a train ride home. Then they get taken in by Sitting Bull, who rails at an Army Major for conning the boys. The chapter describes how the schools used tricks to force the kids to learn English; they would house different tribes, like Apache and Sioux, in the same room. Since they didn’t speak the same language, they had no choice but to speak English to each other. However, the tribal work ethic shows through, like the time where some boys fix the cabin of a Black family, at their own expense.

My only fault with the book is that it is a little too extensive. I would rather see this book divided into several, with the author’s life story, chief’s biographies, and descriptions of tribal life in separate volumes. The story of her own life would make for a great book in itself. I would also be interested to learn about her interaction with tribes that she would never have encountered, like the Oneida from New York and the Apache from the Southwest. But I’m grateful to be able to read a book like this, because it describes the Native American experience from someone who knew it firsthand.