The Grass Dancer Chapter Summary & Analysis - Chapter 8 Summary

Chapter 8 Summary

Chapter eight skips back to 1935, and Anna Thunder once again narrates the story. When the chapter opens, Anna's four-year-old son Chaske and her thirteen-year-old niece Bernardine are dancing and singing. North Dakota is a dust bowl, and the Sioux nation is subsisting on potatoes. Chaske's baptismal name is Emery Bauer, Jr., named after his German father. He is blond and gray-eyed. The two children, though distant in age, are inseparable. Anna is sewing Bernardine's (Dina's) first traditional Sioux dress because Dina's mother is useless with a needle. Dina asks her aunt Anna if she will make her rattlesnake hair ties, a question that disturbs Anna. Anna queries Dina as to where she has seen such ties. Dina replies that she dreamed of a Sioux named Red Dress who was wearing them.

Anna angrily orders Dina to turn the other way if Red Dress appears again to Dina. Anna resisted...
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