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Fiction. Literature. HTML:A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakhóta family's struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most. Rosalie Iron Wing has grown up in the woods with her father, Ray, a former science teacher who tells her stories of plants, of the stars, of the origins of the Dakhóta people. Until, one morning, Ray doesn't return from checking his traps. Told she has no family, Rosalie is sent to live with a foster family in nearby Mankato�??where the reserved, bookish teenager meets rebellious Gaby Makespeace, in a friendship that transcends the damaged legacies they've inherited. On a winter's day many years later, Rosalie returns to her childhood home. A widow and mother, she has spent the previous two decades on her white husband's farm, finding solace in her garden even as the farm is threatened first by drought and then by a predatory chemical company. Now, grieving, Rosalie begins to confront the past, on a search for family, identity, and a community where she can finally belong. In the process, she learns what it means to be descended from women with souls of iron�??women who have protected their families, their traditions, and a precious cache of seeds through generations of hardship and loss, through war and the insidious trauma of boarding schools. Weaving together the voices of four indelible women, The Seed Keeper is a beautifully told story of reawakening, of remembering our original relationship to the seeds and, through them, to our… (more)
User reviews
The book is framed with Rosalie's present day experiences and a flashback to her high school years leading up to middle age. There is also a voice of her great, great grandmother who tells the story of a battle between the Dakhótas and the white settlers. Her family story continues with the stealing of the children to go to a school for Indian children and describes all the ways these traumas have affective their communities. An additional voice of Rosalie's friend Gaby is included. Gaby is also a Dakhóta, but has a contrasting relationship with her heritage to Rosalie.
These competing timelines and voices are the only reason I'll knock a half star off of this book that I absolutely loved. I'm not sure Gaby's first person voice was totally necessary. And I'm not sure the Rosalie's story needed to be told in flashback. I did like the earlier story that was told alongside Rosalie's - that was very effective.
I'm so glad I read [Braiding Sweetgrass] early in the year because it really paved the way for me to understand more deeply what I've been reading this year from Indigenous authors. [The Seed Keeper] is a really wonderful book that addresses important history. It is emotional but not overly-sentimental, something that always turns me off. I highly recommend it and thank Beth, BLBera, for the recommendation.
After her father's unexpected death, Rosalie Iron Wing was taken from her extended family and tribe and put into foster care in Mankato. Her foster home is OK until she approaches her high school graduation. With intentions of going to college, she gets a job. And her foster mother then
With her plans out the door, she makes do. 20-odd years later she returns to her childhood home and reconnects with a childhood friend and the tribe.
This book is thoughtful and timely. Maybe a little too perfect, but sometimes things really do work out in unexpected ways.
I read this book the same month as Shutter (Ramona Emerson) and The Rabbit Hutch (Tess McGunty), and am considering making a Venn diagram of these three books, there are many similarities but they are also very different. All three focus on a female main character whose college plans are derailed.
Excellent narration by Kyla Garcia.
Ms. Wilson's writing technique of inserting historical
Only in recent years has the plight of the children who were plucked from their homes by social workers and placed in group homes or foster homes surfaced. This book adds to that awareness.
Ms. Wilson uses the importance of seeds to the survival of the Natives as the basis for her story line and adds the impact of technology and especially genetically modified seeds as another antagonist.
Well-written, page-turner.
The reason for my low rating
I'm left with the feeling of how poorly we humans are managing our lives, how damaging our actions are. The book is not quite hopeless--there is that last chance to make a change--but it is a desperate chance just the same.
[Audiobook note: The reader is quite good.]