A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power

This book has had mixed reviews, but I found it because it was one of the New York Times Notable Books for 2023, and I really enjoyed it and would recommend it. It has an unusual organizing principle: dolls. The book describes three generations of Dakhóta and Lakhóta women—girls, really—from most recent to least, and back again. Each girl had a beloved doll. In the 1960s, Sissy had Ethel, a Black Tiny Thumbelina doll. In the ‘30s, Lily had Mae, a used Shirley Temple doll. And at the beginning of the century, Cora had Winona, a traditional Dakota doll made from deer hide. Each doll seems to be inhabited by a spirit; each girl seems to hear her speak. Cora, and Lily after her, suffer at the Indian boarding schools they’re forced to attend, and while their dolls try to protect them, their powers are limited. Sissy, meanwhile, bears the brunt of her mother’s inherited trauma. This is a reflection on how American Indians have been treated over the years, the significant traumas that continued well into my lifetime--I have a coworker who's mother was sent to one of the boarding schools, designed to smother both a culture and a people, genocide by capturing the children, never realizing that your genetics are fixed, it cannot be changed, and so while intentionally malicious it was also poorly thought through. The reader sits in that with this book and mourns with the women herein.