The Seed Keeper: A Novel

Captivating and Lyrical
This beautifully written story kept me turning the page. I enjoyed the description of nature. I appreciate the lessons taught through the history of the indigenous people. The author wraps this history into a story of survival without the romanticism of needing to be saved by someone and shows that our humanity is universal. It is shining a light on the prejudice that has misguided this country since Europeans first stepped foot here.

INDIAN LIVES AND MEMORIES
This book was interesting, but sad about the Dakota Indians and their way of life. The way they prayed, how they felt about seed, heritage seeds, growing food, animals, how they apologized to animals before killing them. Circle of Life. How these people kept seeds to be handed down to the coming generations. The Dakota Indians honored the land, protected the earth, honored and respected nature. Do not destroy the world, the coming generations will be left with nothing.This book was chosen as All Iowa Reads 2024. It is well written, sad, takes readers back over several generations and how hard it is to be an Indian. These people are proud to be Dakota Indians, want to be who they are, not who others want them to be.The book is told mostly by Rosalie Iron Wing and begins out in the country in a small shack where Rosie had grown up with her father. Her mother was gone, her father would never speak of her. Her father had been a science teacher, had lost his job. Rosie had been brought up Indian. Her father had nothing to do with others, white or Indian. He died when she was twelve. She went into foster care. No relatives were ever looked for. There were some, never told, but would be happy to have Rosie. The first foster mother was an alcoholic and mentally ill. Second foster care, a woman who treated Rosie like a servant and felt she was such a good woman. She was paid for keeping the girl. The lady loved money.Rosie finished school and got married at 18. She was working on a farm, but she and John, late twenties, felt alone. John’s family was dead. Rose had a son, Thomas, half white, half Indian. Another confused soul.Rose found she liked farm work. Farmers didn’t do this type work the Indian way, but some farmers used old fashioned ways which was much the way Indians farmed. Not far from honoring the earth. But events changed. There were ways found to make crops grow faster, sprays to kill insects, but poisoned the earth, water and people.The book goes back in time to 1862, the Indian war with whites. Much of the land was given to white. Indians chased off. Marie Blackbird, a great great grandmother of Rosalie was fourteen, her father was away at war. The small family was starving, the mother, Marie and baby brother. Marie the only one left was taken to a reservation. She had a blue eyed daughter, Susanna.Time passes. Marie Blackbird, 1920, is a grandmother of four, two boys, two girls. She and Darlene, about nine, were walking in the woods which they loved doing. When they returned to the home, Susanna and her husband were upset. People had come to the house and took the three kids and placed them in a government school. Darlene had to go into hiding. When the three kids returned home to attend their grandmother’s funeral, they were changed, badly. Darlene had to go into hiding. She was treated well by an Indian family.Rosie goes back to the small shack where she had lived with her father after her husband died. The two felt they like each other. A lady, a neighbor, another Indian befriended her, brought her into an Indian group not far off. She fit in well, became proud to be who she was. As she should be.These people were disenfranchised by the United States like some other groups. The writer goes deep into Dakota Indian lives. I learned much.The book is set in southern Minnesota, the city of Mankato and the area around, the ancestral lands of the Dakota. This book needed to be written.

Captivating Story
I really enjoyed how the story went through the present then past and present bring the full circle of the family.

Profound Story
I started this book twice, about a month apart. The first start and end was due to library constraints. It took a while to spark my interest, but once it did I was fascinated. The story brings up another horrible part of our country’s history. The characters in the story are wonderful. But I was and am saddened by their stories. About 2/3 in, I realized that I will start the book again to understand more.

Beautifully written yet heartbreaking story, like its characters the reader is taken on a journey through history, family trauma and love.