In 1977, Dorothy Black Crow traded worlds from mainstream America to a foreign country within the United States: the Great Sioux Nation. Though it hardly took any time for her to meet—marry—and move with Selo Black Crow—from Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Pine Ridge Res, South Dakota, it took years for her to fit into the vastly different Lakota culture. Out on 800 acres of South Dakota land, Dorothy had to learn, often the hard way:

•WE is more important than I.
•Tiyoshpaya, the extended family, is most important.
•Greed and hoarding is the greatest sin.
•Generosity, courage and endurance are the greatest goals.
•Reputation is all: Black Crow Honor.
•The Land itself is alive, and the Great Mystery watches over all.

Faced with living in a log cabin without running water or electricity, Dorothy hauled water, sewed by lamplight, and polished the dirt floor. Under South Dakota skies, she butchered and dried meat, chopped wood, “fixed fence,” chased horses, picked chokecherries, plums, buffaloberries, horsemint and sage. She survived blizzards, South Dakota gumbo, and cousins-in-law teasing.

Dorothy shares an unforgettable journey into a different American culture that forever altered her point of view and way of life.