American Indian Stories

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1921

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

“Impressions of an Indian Childhood”

“The School Days of an Indian Girl”

“An Indian Teacher Among Indians”

“The Great Spirit”

“The Soft-Hearted Sioux”

“The Trial Path”

“A Warrior’s Daughter”

“A Dream of Her Grandfather”

“The Widespread Enigma Concerning Blue-Star Woman”

“America’s Indian Problem”

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

“A Warrior’s Daughter”Chapter Summaries & Analyses

“A Warrior’s Daughter” Summary

A young Dakota girl named Tusee learns to dance while her father watches. An elderly man arrives on horseback. Tusee’s father captured and enslaved this man years ago but later granted him freedom. The man decided to stay with Tusee’s family. Tusee is promised a wild pony as a gift for participating in her first dance. The elderly man agrees to get the pony for Tusee.

Years later, a young brave decides he wants Tusee to be his bride. Her father is against the arrangement unless the young brave brings him the scalp of an enemy. The young brave goes with other warriors to attack an enemy tribe’s camp. The enemy takes the young brave captive.

Tusee sneaks away from her village when she hears the news. She goes to the enemy’s camp and prays to the Great Spirit for help, asking for her “warrior-father’s heart, strong to slay a foe and mighty to save a friend” (84). The enemy tribe is gathered around a campfire to watch the young brave, who is bound to a post. One of the warriors brandishes a tomahawk in the young brave’s face. Tusee approaches, and the enemy warrior is intrigued at her boldness. She invites him to the wilderness to speak, and they begin a wild chase that ends in Tusee killing the warrior. She then transforms into an elderly woman, sneaks into the enemy camp, and frees the young brave before transforming back into her own appearance. She then carries him out of the camp and heads toward their village.

“A Warrior’s Daughter” Analysis

Like “The Trial Path,” “A Warrior’s Daughter” examines aspects of Sioux culture rather than the conflict between it and outside forces. Likewise, both stories emphasize tribal life and traditions, particularly as they apply to challenging situations. In “The Trial Path” the narrator faces a murder he had committed, while in “A Warrior’s Daughter” Tusee seeks to free her beloved, who was captured by a neighboring tribe. However, “A Warrior’s Daughter” puts renewed emphasis on female empowerment, independence, and rebellion, themes Zitkála-Šá also explored in the autobiographical sections.

As a gift in celebration of completing her first ritual dance, Tusee asks for “a fleet-footed pony,” a choice that symbolizes and foreshadows her independence and bravery (80). As an adult she is betrothed to a brave warrior, but she proves to be a powerful heroine herself. When enemies capture her betrothed, Tusee uses the full scope of her capabilities to save him. She draws on her beauty to lure her beloved’s captor away, “[b]eckoning him with a slender hand” (86). When she gets the chance to lead her beloved away from the enemy camp, she shows both bravery and strength, with a “mighty power” filling her as she powerfully lifts her beloved up, leading him away with “triumphant steps” (88). There are even signs that she utilizes some kind of magical power, disguising herself as a “bent old woman” after killing the enemy warrior so she can return to the camp to free her beloved (87). Similar dreamlike or magical elements appear in the story “A Dream of Her Grandfather” as well.

Above all, “A Warrior’s Daughter” is a celebration of Tusee’s strength as a woman and Sioux. She proudly exclaims, “I am a Dakota woman!” when the stunned enemy warrior asks who she is (87). Tusee represents a willingness to use talent to resist injustice, and she thus reflects some of Zitkála-Šá’s own ideals. She is also proud of her heritage and confident in her abilities, representing traits championed elsewhere in American Indian Stories as key elements in establishing American Indian equality and pride.