Completing the Circle Book

Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve tells her own story and the story of her family. An expert quilter, she recalls her grandmother, Flora Driving Hawk, teaching her how storytelling enthralls and how a quilt can represent all that holds a family together. "I think of how she and her woman friends sat around the quilt frame, gossiping, laughing, sighing as they stitched the joys and sorrows of their lives into the quilt."

Publishers Weekly

Sneve, author of stories for children about Native American culture (High Elk's Treasure), here details her family history. Descended from three branches of Sioux (the Santee, Teton and Yankton), Sneve consulted archival records and published sources to supplement the oral histories and legends that had been passed down to her by her grandmothers, whom Sneve remembers as religious, hardworking and loving individuals. They were devout Christians as a result of missionary work among Native Americans, and both women gave Sneve a respect for her Sioux cultural heritage. Her paternal grandmother, Flora Driving Hawk, was an expert quilter; Sneve's memories of her grandmother's stitching inspired her to fashion quilts of her own. Sneve also describes the suffering imposed on her great-grandmothers and grandmothers by the U.S. government when they were forced into reservation life. Of greatest interest to historians. Photos. (May)