SOURCE: "Mary Crow Dog: Real Life Hero," in New Directions for Women, Vol. 21, No. 2, March-April, 1992, p. 28.

Mahtowin is a Lakota political activist who writes about Native issues. In the following essay, she praises the positive portrayal of Native American women in Lakota Woman.

Being a Native woman, I think a lot about the fact that there are so few positive images of Native women in American popular culture. Chances are if you can name three historically prominent Native women, they will be Pocahontas, Sacajaweah and La Malinche, all three of whom, at best, were severely taken advantage of by the white conquerors or, at worst, betrayed their race.

Indian women, when we appear at all (and usually we don't; I'll never forget or forgive the organizers of the massive women's march on Washington in April 1989 for not including even one Native woman on the program) are portrayed as...