Crow Mary

Content Warning: This section discusses racism, colonialism and colonial violence, and sexual assault.

Crow Mary’s story is a journey of survival and homecoming. The novel explores Indigenous people’s survival against colonial trauma, violence, and cultural erasure, highlighting their historical struggles and endurance against colonialism. From the start of her life with Farwell, Crow Mary experiences alienation. Separated from her family and the Crow tribe, Crow Mary finds white people’s forts and cities isolating and disturbing. Grissom uses olfactory and visual imagery to describe Crow Mary’s perspective; the “rank smell” of Fort Benton and its “huge structures” suggest her sense of displacement. The “shattering” noise of the fort highlights the distorting effects of the colonial environment on the inner self. The text indicates the colonial efforts of cultural erasure, as during her marriage to Farwell, she is forced to change her name to Mary. Crow Mary’s identity is rooted in her traditional culture, and her life with a white man away from her homeland challenges her identity and inhibits her sense of belonging.

The text illustrates colonial trauma and the genocide against Indigenous people through the Cypress Hills massacre and the forced removal of Indigenous children to residential schools. Grissom explores the Cypress Hills massacre as a disorganized form of genocide, indicating the impact of colonial oppression and anti-Indigenous racism. With his racism and sexual harassment of Crow Mary and other Indigenous women, Stiller embodies the colonialist ethos of the wolfers. The massacre is a result of colonial violence that disproportionately affects innocent women and children. Crow Mary describes the horror of the massacre: “[T]he Nakoda women and children raced from their lodges and out toward the trees, and then the bullets came faster and thicker than ever” (188). The novel also creates vivid imagery of colonial violence, describing the wolfers’ sexual assault against the Nakoda women. Crow Mary is determined to save the women, but the experience traumatizes her. Her testimony about the assault against Indigenous women is ignored, indicating that the Western justice system often perpetuates Indigenous suffering. Her children’s abduction by Stiller and their relocation to a residential school against her will also demonstrates the traumatizing impact of colonial policies on Indigenous people.

In the novel, Indigenous tradition and culture counterbalance the impact of colonialism and can heal colonial trauma. Through Red Fox’s character, Grissom demonstrates the resilience of Indigenous culture, countering dominant narratives of elimination and erasure. Red Fox represents the Indigenous elders who preserves the tribe’s traditions across generations. He nurtures Crow Mary as a child with traditional teachings of bravery and practices like horse racing and shooting. He continues to provide spiritual sustenance to Crow Mary’s children. He passes on traditional storytelling, reinforcing their Indigenous consciousness and helping them remember their Crow identity even as the residential school attempts to erase this identity. Red Fox kills Stiller, signifying the healing power of the Indigenous tradition against colonialism. Reservation life limits the tribe, but Crow Mary begins a new life with her community on Crow land. The novel demonstrates that despite the repercussions of colonialism, Indigenous people survive, reconnecting with their culture and ancestral lands.