Introduction & Overview of The Grass Dancer by Susan Power

The Grass Dancer Introduction

The book tells the story of Harley Wind Soldier, a young Sioux, and several generations of his ancestors. The novel includes nonhuman as well as human characters; the spirit world is an important part of all the stories, and ghosts and magical powers are part of the characters' everyday lives. Long-dead ancestors, such as lovers Red Dress and Ghost Horse, who lived in the nineteenth century and saw the first impact of European-American culture on their own, are still vital figures in Power's twentieth-century characters' lives.

The book's title refers to a traditional Native-American dance, and there are two kinds of grass dancing. A character in the book explains: "There's the grass dancer who prepares the field for a powwow the old-time way, turning the grass over with his feet to flatten it down. Then there's the spiritual dancer, who wants to learn grass secrets by imitating it, moving...
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