Horn Book (Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2013)

Living from approximately 18391932, Buffalo Bird Woman of the Hidatsa people experienced the significant changes in Native American life on the Great Plains. Incorporating quotes taken from her interview(s) with anthropologist Gilbert Wilson, Nelson meticulously recreates incidents from her childhood in the first person. Glowing acrylics, pencil drawings, and archival photographs illustrate the biography. An extensive author's note is appended. Timeline. Bib., ind.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

A noted Native American artist interprets the early life of Buffalo Bird Woman, Waheenee-wea, one of the last of the Hidatsa to live according to old traditions. Using material from his subject's own reminiscences, published by an anthropologist in the early 20th century, Lakota painter and biographer Nelson describes Buffalo Bird's village childhood. Each section begins with a quote from her own story. Born around 1840, "three years after the smallpox winter," the girl grew up in Like-a-Fishhook Village high over the Missouri River in what is now North Dakota. There, for nine months of each year, she lived with her family in an earth-mound lodge. She describes helping her aunts and grandmother with traditional household and garden tasks, visiting a trading center, playing with other children and her dog, and a Lakota attack. During winter's worst weather, villagers retreated to temporary lodges in the woodlands, where they ate stored food. The extraordinary illustration of this handsome volume begins with the endpaper maps and features acrylic paintings of the Hidatsa world reminiscent of traditional Plains Indian art. Pencil drawings and relevant, carefully labeled photographs round out the exquisite design. All the artwork both supports and adds to the text. An extensive author's note and timeline supplement this beautiful tribute. Pair with Nelson's Gift Horse (1999) for a broad vision of Plains Indian childhood. (notes, bibliography, index) (Informational picture book. 7-12)

ALA Booklist

Drawing on Buffalo Bird Girl's historic personal accounts, this handsome picture-book biography tells her story in the first person about growing up American Indian on the Great Plains in the nineteenth century. Born in the Hidatsa tribe in Like-a-Fishhook Village, she is raised by loving grandparents and aunts after the devastating smallpox epidemic, brought by the whites, kills her parents. Despite the losses and hardships, which include brutal winter blizzards, she remembers a blissful childhood. Along with archival, sepia-tone photos, Nelson's moving pencil drawings and acrylic paintings show the girl and her community throughout the year: the women and girls harvesting, cooking, dressing up; the men hunting. Her grandmother teaches her to use a buffalo shoulder blade like a shovel. She loves the wonderful new luxuries the white traders bring, including kettles, sugar, and guns. But then comes the buffalo hunting for trade, the hides in piles like mountains. The personal focus is bound to spark discussion, and many readers will want to go on to the very lengthy informative notes.

Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

A noted Native American artist interprets the early life of Buffalo Bird Woman, Waheenee-wea, one of the last of the Hidatsa to live according to old traditions. Using material from his subject's own reminiscences, published by an anthropologist in the early 20th century, Lakota painter and biographer Nelson describes Buffalo Bird's village childhood. Each section begins with a quote from her own story. Born around 1840, "three years after the smallpox winter," the girl grew up in Like-a-Fishhook Village high over the Missouri River in what is now North Dakota. There, for nine months of each year, she lived with her family in an earth-mound lodge. She describes helping her aunts and grandmother with traditional household and garden tasks, visiting a trading center, playing with other children and her dog, and a Lakota attack. During winter's worst weather, villagers retreated to temporary lodges in the woodlands, where they ate stored food. The extraordinary illustration of this handsome volume begins with the endpaper maps and features acrylic paintings of the Hidatsa world reminiscent of traditional Plains Indian art. Pencil drawings and relevant, carefully labeled photographs round out the exquisite design. All the artwork both supports and adds to the text. An extensive author's note and timeline supplement this beautiful tribute. Pair with Nelson's Gift Horse (1999) for a broad vision of Plains Indian childhood. (notes, bibliography, index) (Informational picture book. 7-12)