They Met at Wounded Knee

At first glance this book’s subject appears to be the 1891 marriage of Charles Ohiyesa Eastman, a Dakota physician, and Elaine Goodale, a New England-born writer and teacher. Actually, it is only partially about that remarkable union. In fact, not until one-third of the way into the volume does the pair meet and wed. What follows makes clear that their partnership splintered into two very different lives: one that led Eastman to a career working for the Indian Service, policy-advising, publishing, and obtaining a measure of public acclaim; the other that chained Goodale to childrearing, domestic duty, frustration, and anger. Of course, their upbringings also differed. Ohiysa spent much of his early childhood as a refugee in Canada, having fled the United States during the so-called Dakota War. Eventually he joined his father on a homestead in South Dakota; and he attended a mission boarding school, several colleges, and Boston...

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