>p.s. Did you hear about Ian Frazier's new
book, On the Rez and this story> he tells about SuAnne
>Big Crow? A friend of mine forwarded it to me after I
saw him at a philosophy conference; he's pretty nice, by
the way, I think you might know him from a meditation
retreat. I think you would like him. He cut it from
McMurtry's online review where McM >quotes a long
passage, --let me paste it in for you.
>In the fall of 1988, the Pine Ridge Lady Thorpes
>went to Lead to play a basketball game. SuAnne
was >a full member of the team by then. She was a
>freshman, fourteen years old. Getting ready in
the >locker room, the Pine Ridge girls could hear
the din >from the fans. They were yelling
fake-Indian war >cries, a “woo-woo-woo”
sound [the whooping sound].... As the team >waited
in the hallway leading from the locker >room, the
heckling got louder. The Lead fans were >yelling
epithets like “squaw” and
“gut-eater.” Some >were waving food
stamps, a reference to the >reservation's
receiving federal aid. Others yelled,
>“Where's the cheese?”--the joke being
that if >Indians were lining up, it must be to get
>commodity cheese.... Doni De Cory looked out the
>door and told here teammates, “I can't
handle this.” >SuAnne quickly offered to go
first in her place. She >was so eager that Doni
became suspicious. “Don't >embarrass
us,” Doni told her. SuAnne said, “I
>won't embarrass you.” Doni gave her the
ball, and >SuAnne stood first in line.
> She came running onto the court dribbling the
>basketball, with her teammates running behind. On
>the court, the noise was deafeningly loud. SuAnne
>went right down the middle; but instead of
>running a full lap, she suddenly stopped when she
>got to center court.... SuAnne turned to Doni De
>Cory and tossed her the ball. Then she stepped
into >the jump-ball circle at center court, in
from of the >Lead fans. She unbuttoned her warm-up
jacket, >took it off, draped it over her
shoulders, and began >to do the Lakota shawl
dance.... The dance she >chose is a young woman's
dance, graceful and >modest and show-offy all at
the same time. “I >couldn't believe it--she
was powwowin', like `get >down!'” Doni De
Cory recalled. “And then she >started to
sing.” SuAnne began to sing in Lakota,
>swaying back and forth in the jump-ball circle,
>doing the shawl dance, using her warm-up jacket
>for a shawl. The crowd went completely silent.
“All >that stuff the Lead fans were
yelling--it was like she >reversed it
somehow,” a teammate said. In the >sudden
quiet all you could hear was her Lakota >song.
SuAnne stood up, dropped her jacket, took >the
ball from Doni De Cory, and ran a lap around >the
court dribbling expertly and fast. The fans began
>to cheer and applaud....
>That's page 27, Feb. 10 '99 NY
Rev Bks. McMurtry says she died in
a car wreck >four years later in 1992 when she was
eighteen.
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