Assiniboin Girl
Kathi Wallace
language
(, Oct. 23, 2011)
When Mary Two Dogs' parents died, she went to live with her Aunt Janet, a woman she barely knew. Her parents had been musicians, and they traveled a lot, but New York was home. Now, she's living in a podunk, backward, Georgia town with her aunt, an FBI agent working undercover to solve a string of racially motivated murders. But it gets worse, because when things get too hot, Janet decides to send Mary to the rez for her own protection. Mary doesn't know anything about her people, the reservation, or the strange woman she's going to be living with for who knows how long. She's been harrassed by some of the local kids, but she's met a nice boy and she doesn't want to go. Too bad Janet is determined. Montana isn't like any place Mary's ever been. Mountains to the West, acres of rolling grassland to the East, and strange people who speak a language she's never learned...but their speech is slow and gentle, like her parents' after a bottle of wine, and they welcome her like a lost child. Mary's adopted grandmother determines that Mary needs to learn who she is and where she belongs, so Mikusa teaches her how to build her own sweat lodge and find herself, and in doing so, Mary learns more than she expected. Mary's introduction to the ways of her people gives her strength to face the future when Janet is found brutally beaten. Together, Mary, Mikusa and Mary's new uncle, Frank Spotted Pony, race to Georgia to be by Janet's side. There, Mary discovers that Steve, the boy she liked, is missing and Janet might die. If she does the murderer may never be found. What good is finding her place among her people if everyone Mary cares about leaves her behind?