The Grass Dancer

Harley’s grandmother, Margaret Many Wounds, is dying. Her daughters and five-year-old Harley are caring for her in her home. The two sisters are foils in many ways. Harley’s mother Lydia has been mute since the death of Calvin and Duane. Lydia lives on the reservation and shares her mother’s traditional ways. Evelyn “Evie” Many Wounds, Lydia’s fraternal twin, left the reservation but returned when she learned of Margaret’s impending death. She carries resentment toward her mother that has been brewing since her childhood.

As Margaret prepares to die, she sees hazy figures throughout the room. She tells these figures the story of the men she loved. Her first husband was an Indigenous man who died after two years of marriage. Her second love was a Japanese doctor who fathered her two daughters. Margaret never told him about his children, and she never told her daughters about their father. Evie overhears this story and is devastated by her mother’s secrecy. Rather than dwell on the events unfolding in her own life, Evie focuses on broader, global events. The first moon walk is about to occur, and Evie insists they watch on TV.

As the moon landing occurs, Margaret tells young Harley about a beautiful beaded dress her grandmother owned, which is currently housed in a museum. She has Harley promise that one day he will reclaim the dress. Margaret then tells Harley, “I will show you the moon” (116). Unbeknownst to Lydia and Evie, Harley and Margaret take a spiritual voyage to the moon.

When Margaret dies, her soul slips away through a river and appears in the spirit world wearing her grandmother’s dress. She sees her first love waiting for her on the other side. Before joining him “beyond the edge of the universe” (122), she goes to the moon and dances a traditional Sioux powwow dance.

As Evie and Lydia prepare Margaret’s remains, Evie opens her mother’s locket. Inside, she sees a picture of her real father. As the sisters continue the burial preparations, Harley watches the astronauts on the moon. He sees not only the two astronauts but also the spirit of his grandmother dancing on the moon.

In 1963, 17-year-old Crystal Thunder dates Martin Lundstrom, a classmate of Swedish descent. This causes a reaction in the community, as most people are not used to seeing mixed-race couples, but Crystal is most concerned about what her mother, Anna Thunder, will think.

Anna has always had her secrets. She even remained reticent about Crystal’s father until Crystal learned his name from a tribal elder. Anna tells her daughter that her father, Clive Broken Rope, physically assaulted her while she was pregnant with Crystal. Anna swore Clive would regret this. He died a week before Crystal was born, but Anna does not elaborate on his cause of death.

Crystal becomes pregnant with Martin’s child, and the couple decide to get married. Crystal goes to tells her mother, but Anna intuitively knows that her daughter is carrying a baby girl. Anna agrees not to interfere with Crystal’s plans for marriage, but she has one caveat: “A soul for a soul” (135). Crystal must remain with Anna throughout the pregnancy and stay away from Martin. When Crystal goes into labor, Anna delivers the baby. The new grandmother immediately takes the child away from her daughter.

After delivery, Crystal awakes wrapped in blankets in the back of Martin’s car. For the first time in her life, she feels she has ownership of her own soul. Martin asks where the baby is. Crystal tells him it died.

Crystal and Martin marry and move to Chicago. Martin’s mother Isabel moves in as well. At first there is some domestic tension between the women, with Isabel finding indirect ways to critique Crystal’s housekeeping. However, their attempts to bond result in Isabel passing on a treasured family heirloom to Crystal. It is a gift from mother to daughter. Meanwhile, Crystal does not yet know her own daughter is named Charlene. She only sees the child in her dreams, where it is clear the girl belongs to Anna.