Summary
In the tradition of Brian Lanker's I Dream a World, Women of White Earth collects portraits of forty-three members of the Minnesota White Earth Tribe. Vance Vannote's arresting images -- of teenagers and elders, homemakers and mothers, doctors and teachers -- are matched with interviews in which these remarkable women tell their own stories.
Some of the women interviewed are lifelong members of the White Earth community; others have returned after living elsewhere; still others reside off the reservation but maintain important ties to it. All reveal their sense of allegiance and belonging in these heartfelt conversations. Tribal elder Saraphine Martin, activist Winona LaDuke, poet Kimberly Blaeser, and others candidly discuss society, politics, women's roles, religion and spirituality, values, ambitions, and their dreams for life on and off the reservation.
Through conversations with these articulate, engaging women, we see the complexity of Native American women's experiences. Women of Whiteearth is destined to be a classic portrait of the lives of Native American women at the end of the twentieth century.
