Dorothy Black Crow

Author of The Handless Maiden and Belonging to the Black Crows

An award-winning poet, fiction writer and former professor of literature at Oglala Lakota College and the University of Michigan, author Dorothy Black Crow explores the reality of life on the Pine Ridge Reservation, from her own experience as a woman married to a Lakota Sundance leader, as well as from an outsider’s perspective. She writes with a blend of understanding, experience and knowledge.

But her story is best told in her own words…

In 1977 I married Selo Blackcrow, a Lakota sundance leader and moved to Pine Ridge Reservation, SD, in 1977, and raised a sacred herd of buffalo. I lived in a one-room log cabin without electricity, running water, or book, but many stories. My tiyoshpaya (extended family) taught me generosity, co-operation, and respect — for the land, the elders, the children. Respect for all my relations: birds, rocks, trees, surrounded by the Everywhere Spirit.

My husband was a member of the Wanblee Law & Order Board, which for the first time, selected our own Oglala Sioux Tribal Police force. Meanwhile I taught atOglala Lakota College and joined the South Dakota Humanities Speakers Bureau. As members of AIM, we witnessed many breaches of law and order on the reservation. I write about these now in fictionalized and non-fictionalized form.

At present I teach fiction & creative nonfiction at Oregon Coast Community College.

Dorothy Black Crow also is

Past editor at Calyx. Writers on the Edge Board member,Willamette Writers Board member & chair of its Coast Branch.

and has been:

Winner of 30 writing awards, Walden Fellowship, Oregon Literary Arts Council Grant, Writer in Residence at OWC. Published in Fiction International, Folio, Fireweed, The Literary Review, Shaman’s Drum, Side Show, Spa, Sun, ZYZZYVA, and 13 anthologies. Poem “Wind Cave II: Time of Emergence” nominated for Pushcart Prize.

Read more about Dorothy Black Crow on her website, DorothyBlackCrow.com

Click here for more on The Handless Maiden

Click here for more on Belonging to the Black Crows