Ruth Beebe Hill wrote one book in her lifetime, Hanta Yo. It was published by Doubleday in 1979 amid some pretty savvy marketing that soon became a huge controversy.
Hill and her Lakotah mentor Chunksa Yuta promoted the book as having taken her 30 years to write. Hill claimed to have researched extensively by both library research and actually visiting Reservations during those 3 decades. She claimed to have interviewed over 1,000 Native Americans. Chunksa Yuta claimed to have taught her the ancient language of the Dakotah to help her write her book and to get her in touch with the Native American “soul”. The author claimed to have written the book in English, then translated it into the ancient language, and then translated it back into English. Controversy arose from the Native American community over her claims and her depictment of the Sioux Indian tribes of the Black Hills. It was felt that Hill and Yuta fell short in their accuraccy and used the book to promote themselves and their own agenda while real Native Americans were starving and overlooked by the American public.
I just recently read this book. It is, in my humble opinion, a great story. The book covers the time frame from 1750 to 1834 and tells the story of a small tribe of Teton Sioux over three generations. Hill did a nice job of storytelling showing what one would imagine the daily life might consist of for a small band people. The characters face danger from enemy tribes, hunting, and the elements of nature. As with any culture there is betrayal and disappointment along with love and the joy of a newborn child. As the story unfolds in it’s over 800 pages you realize that a huge part of the story is about this band of people wanting to resist the white man’s sudden and unwelcome emergence into their land. As a story about human nature, it is superbly written.
I didn’t realize the controversy over this book when I first picked it up to read. As a true bibliophile, I just wanted to read a good work of fiction. One of my favorite genres of fiction is the historical novel. I don’t usually put a lot of emphasis on whether the story I’m reading is historically accurate or that the people in the story are being portrayed correctly. To me, historical fiction means that the author has taken an era in history and used their imagination to come up with a storyline that hopefully readers will enjoy. In that frame of mind, I think Ruth Beebe Hill did a fantastic job. I hated to come to the last page of the book. She kept my interest and fascinated me with her detail.
As for the marketing that was done when this book was published, well that is a different matter. I believe the Native American community should have been upset about the tactics used by the author and her mentor to promote their own agenda. There is nothing wrong with promoting a book, all authors need and should do that. It just appears that Hill and Yuta created another form of fiction to capitalize on it. I read one report that said that Yuta agreed to help the author for free room and board and cigarette money. The declaration that the author wrote the book and translated it into the ancient language of the Dakotah seems so unnecessary and bizarre in todays standards. How would you write a language that had no alphabet and was never written by the very people who spoke it? What a shame to create such a sham!
My recommendation would be that if you want to read a good piece of fiction about the late 1700’s and early 1800’s that takes place in the Black Hills and has a good story line this would be a book you would enjoy. Don’t take for fact the depiction of the spiritualty of the tribe or the concept of the Sioux being a culture with no restraints or an almost indivdualistic society. That portion of the book is truly fictional as this wonderful culture is very community and family oriented.
