Mary’s Mother Character Analysis

Mary’s mother is a Lakota woman whose husband, Bill Moore, abandoned her shortly after she got pregnant with Mary. Mary explains that single-parenting is not uncommon for Native American women—many Native American men abandon their families due to the poverty and hopelessness that’s common among indigenous people. Mary’s mother became a nurse, but because she could only find work far from home, she recruited her mother and stepfather, Louise Flood and Noble Moore, to raise her children. Mary had a poor relationship with her mother for years, as her mother was convinced that assimilation to white society was the only way to prosper, while Mary longed to reconnect with her Lakota heritage and advocate for Native Americans’ rights. After becoming a mother herself, Mary’s relationship with her mother greatly improved, as she could better understand the pressures and challenges that Native American mothers face. Although Mary has no intention of letting go of her activism—which she finds more rewarding than her mother’s passive acceptance of her circumstances—she better understands how the sexism and racism that Native American women experience can affect a person’s thinking.