Waterlily Kiowa were forced onto the barren

were forced onto the barren Crow Creek reservation in Dakota Territory with the rest of the Dakota women

untitled poems

but where indigenous peoples have agency to transform life on their own lands and on their own terms

a legal and political scholar who was a special consultant to the White Earth Constitutional Convention

when the American conquest of the West was in full gear

Waterlily Kiowa were forced onto the barrenWhen Blue Bird and her grandmother leave their family's camp to gather beans for the long, threatening winter, they inadvertently avoid the horrible fate that befalls the rest of the family. Luckily, the two women are adopted by a nearby Dakota community and are eventually integrated into their kinship circles. Ella Cara Deloria's tale follows Blue Bird and her daughter, Waterlily, through the intricate kinship practices that created unity among her