Quiet Mountain Essays
Copyright ©, 2004
"Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer" by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
(University of Nebraska Press)
A Book Review
by
Diane M. Zephier
For many people, this book will be hard to read and harder to put down. After reading it, I
spent a lot of time thinking about a lost child and a lost childhood. It was a painful read and,
in vicariously experiencing the pain Ms. Hedge Coke endured, I felt immediate anger toward
society as a whole. This book makes a plea one can hardly ignore. Rock, Ghost, Willow,
Deer left a lasting impact on me, one that compels and provokes long past the last page of the
book. I am certain this book will engage and move the greater audience remarkably and
indefinitely.
The plight is hauntingly familiar to the lost children of Frank McCourt's memoir Angela's
Ashes, and equally reminiscent of yearning young characters in Toni Morrison's novel, Sula.
Yet, this uniquely personal narrative stands in its own right as an equally great piece of
literature. It is truly a memoir of survival. Survival in many aspects. Survival from the
chronically insane mother, to the survival of a half-breed Indian girl thrown to the world at an
early age. Hedge Coke is from Cherokee and Huron mixed-blood heritage which
undoubtedly sustained her through her struggles. This memoir of a mixed-blood is all too
heartbreakingly true of many mixed blood Indian children who struggle to find their way
today.
Ms. Hedge Coke's mother, diagnosed with acute schizophrenia during the author's infancy,
was institutionalized numerous times. The children were initially fostered out to relatives, then
returned only to endure nonstop maternal delusions. Ms. Hedge Coke's father --her hero, her
mentor, and her rock-- strove to keep their family together at all costs but, oftentimes, at a
great personal loss for this little girl, 'Baby No'.
After suffering assaults of emotional and mental community abuse, great periods of physical
violence, self-inflicted drug and alcohol abuse, Ms. Hedge Coke escaped at thirteen. She
married at seventeen and ended up in yet more violence and more abuse, all the while
continually searching for, and believing in, a safer place of refuge and serenity. But who can
blame her family? As with many families in strife, in the dilemma of diaspora, hers did the
best they could with what they had to work with at the time. What was clearly afforded this
family, no matter the actual dilemma at hand, was devotion to their hereditary Indigenous
culture that obviously sustained their very souls through the gifts of resiliency, adaptability,
acceptance and hope.
In her adulthood, Hedge Coke's dedication to helping young people, her willingness to speak
out on Native American issues, and her honesty and dedication to living a good life, have all
finally brought her the peace which was ever-present in her greatest imagination and dreams
as a child. This is a woman-story, an Indian story; forthright, yet always collective. Rock,
Ghost, Willow, Deer makes perfectly clear, the realization that more Native women need to
tell their stories, whatever those stories may be, so that we can all heal from the telling and the
shared knowledge that these stories hold. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to
accomplish such a feat as to bare oneself, sharing a story of this magnitude with the world.
I have known Allison Hedge Coke for more than fifteen years. We met at a time when we had
both lost loved ones, and spent a lot of time together mourning our losses. I know that in her
experience, authentic healing comes from speaking the truth through her story. She has
traveled a difficult road and has truly found well-deserved happiness in her life as a mother,
grandmother, and a nationally acclaimed poet and educator today.
The image that Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer imparts demands that all of us stand and raise the
questions, "Who will protect and defend the abused and neglected children?" And, "Who will
take a stand against violence to protect and defend the children who have no voice?" This
book insists that we search within ourselves to find solutions, and to take notice of who among
us --what tiny child or tight-lipped angry adolescent-- is silently suffering; it empowers readers
to speak out and demand of themselves, and of society at large, that we provide better care
for the mentally ill and the victims of abuse on reservations. This book has the ability to open
eyes, and to provide freedom on a deep and personal level through the glory of truth, which is
a beautiful thing no matter how shocking its origins. Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer is one read
that you will not forget.
"My father raised us to believe being Indian was what made us who we are--what shaped us. We were
proud of our ancestors. No matter if we were mixed-blood--we were from people who lived with
purpose and humbleness and personal integrity; and proud we were from truly independent people
who had not compromised. We believed there was no real separation between our lives and those of
our ancestors. We knew we would always belong to the wet, green, Eastern Woodlands. We also
knew we were travelers, nomadic peoples resulting from and adapting to changes of life upon the
earth."
It is with these words that Hedge Coke tells her story without compromising her heritage or
culture, thus bringing her full circle in life to a respected Native woman.
Contributor's Notes...
Ms. Zephier is a Native American attorney practicing in South Dakota.
