Lost Bird of Wounded Knee: Spirit of the Lakota

Brief Description: "In December 1890 the U. S. Seventh Cavalry massacred a band of Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Miraculously, after a four-day blizzard, an infant was found alive under th"Biographical Note: Renee Samson Flood, lecturer and author of seven books of history, has worked among the tribes of the northern plains for more than twenty years. She lives in Montana. Publisher Marketing: December 29, 1890, beneath a white flag of truce, a band of Lakota Indians was massacred by the United States Seventh Cavalry at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Four days later, after a blizzard had swept over the area, a burial detail heard the cries of an infant. Beneath the slain body of a woman who had frozen to the ground in her own blood, they found a baby girl, frostbitten yet miraculously alive, tightly wrapped, and wearing a small buckskin cap, beaded on both sides with American flags. Disobeying military orders, Brigadier General Leonard W. Colby adopted the small living "curio" of the massacre. He later became assistant attorney general of the United States and used his adopted daughter to convince prominent Native American tribes to hire him as their lawyer. As an adolescent, Lost Bird was sexually abused by the general, and her adopted mother, Clara Colby, divorced him. A suffragist and newspaper editor, Clara Colby spoke up against the exploitation of Indian culture and defied her close associates Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to raise the girl alone. After an unceasing but futile search for her roots and employment in the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show and in silent films, Lost Bird resorted to the streets of the Barbary Coast to survive. Her tragic life ended on Valentine's Day, 1920, at the age of twenty-nine, and she was buried in a remote cemetery far from her native land. In 1991, more than one hundred years after the Wounded Knee tragedy, descendants of victims of the massacre searched for Lost Bird's grave, repatriated her remains, and reburied her at the Wounded Knee Memorial alongside the mass grave of her relatives. Publisher Marketing: In December 1890 the U. S. Seventh Cavalry massacred a band of Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Miraculously, after a four-day blizzard, an infant was found alive under the frozen body of her dead mother. The dashing brigadier general (and future Assistant Attorney General of the United States) Leonard W. Colby kidnapped and then adopted the baby girl named Lost Bird (1890-1920) as a "living curio," and exploited her in order to attract prominent tribes as clients of his law practice. After the general's wife, the nationally known suffragist and newspaper editor Clara B. Colby, divorced her husband, she raised the Lakota child as a white girl in a well-meaning but disastrous attempt to provide a stable home. Lost Bird ran away to join Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and appeared in silent films and vaudeville. During her brief but unforgettable life she endured sexual abuse, violence, prostitution, and the rejection of her own tribe before dying at age twenty-nine on Valentine's Day. This remarkable biography examines the life of the woman who became a symbol of the warring cultures that entrapped her, and a heartbreaking microcosm of all those Native American children who lost their heritage through adoption, social injustice, and war. Review Citations:

Booklist 06/01/1995 pg. 1722 (EAN 9780684195124, Hardcover)

Library Journal 06/01/1995 pg. 134 (EAN 9780684195124, Hardcover) - *Starred Review

Publishers Weekly 05/15/1995 pg. 62 (EAN 9780684195124, Hardcover)

Kirkus Reviews 05/01/1995 pg. 605 (EAN 9780684195124, Hardcover)

Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1995 pg. 132 (EAN 9780684195124, Hardcover)

Wilson Senior High Core Col 01/01/1996 pg. 67 (EAN 9780684195124, Hardcover)

Wilson Senior High Core Col 01/01/1997 pg. 494 (EAN 9780684195124, Hardcover)