Garden In the Dunes: A novel by Leslie Marmon Silko
Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, 1999
ISBN 0-684-81154-5, 479 pages

Description
In a novel that moves with extraordinary fluidity and grace between two diametrically opposed worlds -- the timeless, "traditional" world of Native American peoples and the elaborate, stylized world of European and American upper-class culture at its glittering, falsely glamorous zenith before the First World War.

Leslie Marmon Silko, the author of such highly praised works of fiction as Ceremony and Almanac of the Dead, has written what Larry McMurtry, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lonesome Dove, calls "a little masterpiece." With the sure hand and unerring eye of a mature artist, Silko takes the reader on a grand tour of England and Europe in the era of Henry James, as seen through the eyes of a young Native American girl, Indigo, who is in flight from the destruction at the hands of the whites of her own tribal world. Indigo’s fascination with the world of luxury and privilege never eclipses her instinctive faith in the traditions and the culture of her own people or her desire to return home to what remains of her tribe and her family.

Spanning the jungles of Brazil, the gardens and stately homes of England and Europe, the desert of the American Southwest, and the great estates of the American rich at the height of the Gilded Age, Gardens in the Dunes is an ambitious, fully realized novel about the fatal collision between two cultures, that of the colonizers and that of the indigenous peoples they have conquered, and about the ideas, beliefs, and structures of time, mind, and habit that bind and sunder them.

At the heart of the book is Indigo herself -- a young child of the Sand Lizard people, who runs away from the government school to which the soldiers have taken her to be brought up in the ways of the white world. Hattie, Indigo’s kind-hearted and determined rescuer, is herself something of a rebel. Hattie has defied the prevailing Victorian standards for young ladies by pursuing her own career as a scholar (she is something of a bluestocking) and by not producing an heir.

In Indigo, Hattie finds at once a cure for her own loneliness and lack of love -- and a new object to study. Kind, observant, optimistic, full of good intentions, Hattie methodically sets about transforming Indigo, whose high spirits and native intelligence soon re-emerge into a "proper," well brought-up American child, a transformation that is doomed to fail, for Indigo’s view of the world is very different from Hattie’s. In the end, by small degrees, they (and we) begin to understand that Hattie has at least as much to learn from the child as the child does from her—perhaps more.

About the author
Leslie Marmon Silko, a former professor of English and fiction writing, is the author of novels, short stories, essays, poetry, articles, and screenplays. She was the youngest writer to have her work included in The Norton Anthology of Women’s Literature, for her short story "Lullaby." Ms. Silko lives in Tucson, Arizona.

Reflection and Discussion Questions

1. With which character did you most identify, and why? Least identify? Why?
2. Which character did you like the best? Why? Least? Why?
3. Did you enjoy the book? Explain.
4. What were your predominant feelings while reading this book?
5. Did you learn anything new about yourself? Explain.
6. Did you learn anything new about Native Americans? Explain.
7. This book is set amid historic events that took place before World War I. Are these events familiar to you? Do you think any of these events contributed to the start of the war? Would you like to learn more about them? Explain.
8. Do you think this book offers a realistic portrayal of Native Americans and other people of color (Mexicans, African Americans, etc.) during this time period? Explain.
9. The Ghost Dance was an actual religious movement started by a Paiute holy man named Wovoka in 1889. The movement quickly spread to neighboring tribes and eventually to the Great Plains. What is the significance of the Ghost Dance to the story? Why do you think the white people were against it? Are you surprised that white Mormons also participated in it? Why or why not?
10. The Sherman Institute was a real Indian boarding school. From what you have read in Gardens in the Dunes or what you already know, what was the purpose of the Indian boarding schools during this time period? Why were they so damaging to Indian children and their communities?
11. What is the relationship between Edward’s botanical expeditions and the experience of the indigenous people in the places he traveled to?
12. Discuss the significance of Aunt Bronwyn and Professoressa Laura. How are they important to the story? What significance do they have for Hattie? Indigo? Edward?
13. Discuss the character Delana. What was her role in the story? What do you think happens when she and Big Candy meet again (as hinted in the conclusion)?
14. What is the significance of Hattie’s final encounter with her parents? Why do you suppose the author pairs that encounter with the climax of the Ghost Dance? What do you think happens to Hattie? Why?
15. Can this book be used as a metaphor for Native Americans today? Explain.