“We’ve lived on this land for many, many generations. Some called us the great Sioux nation, but we are Dakota, our name for ourselves, which means ‘friendly.’ We are a civilized people who understand that our survival depends on knowing how to be a good relative, especially to Ina Maka, Mother Earth.”
I’m Betty Martin with "Martin’s Must Reads" and those are some lines from the first chapter of Diane Wilson’s novel The Seed Keeper. The story covers time between the 1860’s with the Dakota’s forced march and 2002 when the main character, Rosalie Iron Wing Meister, has just buried her husband.
In her grief she returns to the cabin in the woods where her ancestors lived. As a young orphan she was placed in an unloving family so when John Miester, a lonely farmer asked her to marry him, she accepted. In the back of the farmhouse pantry she found a packet of seeds and started a garden for the first time. When she was in school, the only other Indian, Gaby Makespeace, befriends Rosie and as an adult tries to get her to join the fight against the big seed/chemical companies that are polluting the rivers. One of the companies convinces John to contract with them for chemically altered seeds that will improve their harvests. But at what cost to the land?
As one of the commentators wrote, the book “invokes the strength that women, land, and plants have shared with one another through the generations.” I heard the author speak and she reminded the audience that seeds give us the gift of life and in return we should give them clean soil and water.
If you agree with her and you’re interested in a well written novel about how the Dakota held sacred the land and seeds in particular, then you must read The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson.
