45 pages • 1 hour read
Susan PowerThe Grass Dancer
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1994A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Prologue-Chapter 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Prologue Summary: “Crowns of Glass”
The month before Harley Wind Soldier is born, his father Calvin and brother Duane are killed in a collision. The day of the accident, Henry Burger is at a tavern on the edge of the Sioux reservation with his best friend Lloyd. Lloyd tells Henry he wants to revive Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show by casting people who live on the reservation. Lloyd believes this will provide them the opportunity to leave North Dakota and see New York City. Henry does not approve of Lloyd’s idea and does not think other locals share Lloyd’s desire to leave.
Henry’s lack of enthusiasm upsets Lloyd, who brings up that Henry’s girlfriend cheated on him. Henry reflects on this while drinking copious amounts of alcohol. He believes his girlfriend Jeanette is growing tired of him. She often threatens to leave, but he is unsure if she wishes to leave him or the Sioux reservation altogether. He tries to avoid arguing with her and to ignore her interest in other men, but Lloyd’s decision to openly discuss her infidelity breaks his state of denial.
After finishing several alcoholic drinks, Henry gets behind the wheel of his truck and starts to drive the familiar route home. He is vaguely aware that something is not right, but he is too intoxicated to realize he has forgotten to turn on his headlights. As he drives further down Route 6, he sees two glowing lights ahead of him. In his intoxicated state, he is convinced these lights are the eyes of Sioux ghosts come to taunt him. He reacts by slamming his car into the oncoming lights to send the ghosts “back to hell” (6).
What Henry believes to be ghosts are actually the headlights of Calvin Wind Soldier’s car. Calvin and Duane are thrust forward, shattering the car’s windshield with their bodies. One day, Harley will dream of his deceased father and brother as they were that day, “wearing crowns of glass” (3).
Chapter 1 Summary: “Grass Dancers”
The year is 1981, and the Indigenous peoples of the area are preparing for a powwow. Harley Wind Soldier and his friend Frank Pipe set up tipis, while their friend Charlene Thunder conducts sound checks. From Chicago, four young Menominee drive to the event. Among them is Pumpkin, a beautiful, red-haired girl with a promising academic future.
The first day of the powwow arrives, and Pumpkin quickly draws Harley and Charlene’s attention. She stands out due to both her striking appearance and her grass dancer ceremonial dress. Harley has never seen a female grass dancer before, but Pumpkin’s departure from tradition brings her esteem from all except Charlene and Charlene’s grandmother, Anna “Mercury” Thunder. Charlene is wary of Pumpkin’s interest in Harley, for whom she has long held feelings.
Unlike Pumpkin and Harley, Charlene no longer participates in dancing contests. This is mainly due to Mercury’s past interference. Mercury is a witch who uses magic to further her own desires. In previous competitions, Mercury repeatedly caused Charlene’s competitors to lose so Charlene could win. Charlene disapproves of this and other selfish uses of magic.
Harley and Pumpkin leave the powwow together, an uncharacteristic engagement with a love interest for Harley. Charlene watches them go; she reassures herself, “It’s just one of those powwow things… [Pumpkin] will be gone soon” (35). Harley takes Pumpkin to an abandoned house, where they spend an intimate night together. At first, Harley struggles to open up emotionally. He feels as if he is missing part of his soul. Pumpkin is understanding and offers Harley part of her own soul, which she bestows through a massage. In the morning, Harley sees the ghost of a white woman weeping over Pumpkin. He does not tell Pumpkin about the vision.
When Pumpkin and her Menominee friends depart for Chicago, she takes with her a trophy from the contest and Harley’s contact information. However, the group never reaches their destination. Their car swerves in the rain and crashes. None of the young passengers survive.
Harley is devastated by the news. He feels Pumpkin’s soul inside him and longs to restore it to her. Charlene is shocked to hear of the accident, but she also worries Mercury may have used magic to remove Charlene’s competition in love, as she removed her competition in dance.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Christianity Comes to the Sioux”
The year is 1971. Thirteen-year-old Harley Wind Soldier and his classmates Frank and Charlene are attending school. Their teacher is Jeanette McVay, a white woman who is eager to bring Indigenous culture and traditions into her classroom, a passion her students do not share. She calls upon students to share stories from their culture. Instead, they each share a banal fable while privately recalling a more impactful experience.
Harley remembers a walk he took with Frank Pipe and Frank’s grandfather, Herod Small War. Along the river bank, Herod tells the boys how Christianity came to the community. It came in the form of a piano that played hymns. These hymns became popular and spread the religion “better than any priest’s words” (60). After the story, Herod drops an offering to their ancestral deity, Wakan Tanka, into the Missouri River.
Frank recalls a time when coyotes and dogs were being killed by someone in the village. In his memory, the community comes together to conduct a ritual that will determine the guilty party. As they gather in a dark room to conduct the ceremony, a coyote bursts through a widow, shattering the glass. The coyote snatches a young man from the room. When this man’s body is found, the consensus is he was the guilty party.
In Charlene’s recollection, it is the holiday season. Mercury enchants a man into decorating their home with string lights. As the man walks along the roof, he falls and dislocates his shoulder. Charlene thinks he should see a doctor, but the man is too bewitched to abandon his task. As he climbs back to the roof, Charlene begs Mercury to release him from her spell. Mercury is unsympathetic and allows the man to complete his job.
Outside of school, Harley meets with Herod Small War. Herod explains that one of Harley’s ancestors, Ghost Horse, has been visiting Herod in spirit. Ghost Horse was heyo’ka, a sacred fool who always does the opposite of what is expected. After hearing about Ghost Horse, Harley begins to mimic his behavior by behaving contrarily and refuting modern media. He goes back to the river, walking against the current as his ancestor would, and pictures a piano coming downstream. Harley wonders if his father would have enjoyed the hymns.
Prologue-Chapter 2 Analysis
The opening chapters lay the foundation for a coming-of-age tale centered around the protagonist, Harley Wind Soldier. This section also establishes the magic that exists in this otherwise realistic world, as seen through visions and other expressions of the supernatural. Altogether, these elements add a spiritual aspect to the narrative and place it in the magical realism genre.
Harley is searching for his place in his community and the world while navigating personal and intergenerational trauma. He feels an emptiness that is rooted in the loss of his father and brother. He grew up without a male role model in the home and is unsure how to grow in the shadow of their loss. This theme of loss is reflected in the broader community, too, as the Sioux experienced a cultural genocide through colonization. The members of Harley’s community must now find a way to keep their culture alive while bearing the pain of their ancestors. The powwow is an expression of cultural continuity. It brings together several generations of Indigenous people to keep past traditions alive.
The theme of loss is closely connected to the theme of identity. While the Indigenous characters fight to keep their way of life, outside forces remain active. Jeanette McVay’s insistence on imposing her interpretation of Indigenous culture on the classroom is a continuation of colonization. Although her motivations may be different from early iterations, she is ultimately an outsider who feels justified in inserting herself into Indigenous society and dictating what indigeneity should look like.
Pumpkin’s introduction to Harley and the Sioux community represents hope for the future. She is young, has a bright future, and participates enthusiastically in the culture. Her decision to break gender norms by appearing in traditionally male regalia signifies both her willingness to keep traditions alive and to evolve Indigenous customs in the modern era.
Through his relationship with Pumpkin, Harley sees the opportunity to make himself whole and heal his psychological trauma. Harley can feel Pumpkin’s spirit “lighting the corners of his empty soul with a red-gold flame” (42). Thus, she imparts the hope she represents to Harley. It is because of this hope that Pumpkin’s death is such a blow. When she dies, Harley loses both a love interest and his faith in the future.
Anna “Mercury” Thunder is the antagonist of the narrative. Her status as an elder in the community demands respect, but her use of magic invokes fear. It is unclear if Mercury caused Pumpkin’s death, but Charlene’s suspicion indicates significant distrust between grandmother and granddaughter.
