The Seed Keeper is a multi-generational saga told from the points of view of four different women. The primary story is that of Rosalie Iron Wing, who is orphaned young and sent to foster care. There, she meets Gaby Makespeace, forming a friendship that lasts decades. The other voices are women from Rosalie’s past. Together these women tell the story of a band of Dakhótas from the days when they were herded to reservations to be starved and mistreated, later when children were kidnapped and sent to boarding schools, to the present when drugs, alcohol, and diabetes erode their lives as they endure generational trauma, and what it is like to be a Native American in a land of Whites. As Rosalie’s father once told her, “forgetting was easy. It’s the remembering that wears you down.”
Rosalie marries a white man for the convenience of a home and safety but comes to love him and raises a son with him. When he dies, she returns to her childhood home after living thirty years away from the reservation, to the place where her father had taught her the stories of plants and how to use them along with legends of the stars and Dakhóta people’s origins. Rosalie has a huge void in her soul and with time begins to heal. She “remembered how it felt to be connected to each season, to listen deeply, to find a resting place within winter’s isolation.”
There is a Rachel Carson-type angle here as well as Rosalie’s husband agrees to grow genetically modified seeds on their farm and uses toxic pesticides regularly. Rosalie—and her friend Gaby—realize the potential harm to the environment and to the seeds that form the basis of life.
A blend of fiction and history, this is a gorgeous novel that reflects the past and future of an aboriginal people whose strong matriarchs tended their men and their children, raised their crops, and passed on a love and understanding of nature.
********************
The Seed Keeper (Milkweed Edition, March 9, 2021) is available through:
Your local independent bookseller | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
********************
You can find my reviews of similar books here:
Keeper’n Me by Richard Wagamese
Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
Dream Wheels by Richard Wagamese
Cavalry Scout by Dee Brown
********************
This post contains affiliate links to third party sites. These can help you visually identify books I recommend. If you make a purchase, I may receive a small compensation at no additional cost to you. This offsets some of the cost of maintaining this blog.
