In Search of an Enigma
Woman Walking Ahead: In Search of Catherine Weldon and Sitting Bull reads like an archival researcher's Sherlock Holmes mystery. Author Catherine Pollack takes us on a journey as she follows the footsteps of the enigmatic Victorian woman who became advisor and friend to Chief Sitting Bull. Pollack travels from the Bronx to the plains of South Dakota, stopping at various archives and visiting people along the way.
She frames Weldon through her present day odyssey and the people she meets in the various places. Intermittently, she flashes back to the past to focus on the history that is known and what she discovers about Weldon.
As someone that loves to snoop in archives and old documents, her tales of this and that archival search are fascinating. Also, the fact that I know some of the people and places she discusses makes for a much more personal reading experience than most books.
Pollack sees Weldon as a sort of Shindleresque character who bucked the tide of racial discrimination at a time when it was national policy. Interestingly, Weldon emigrated from Switzerland at the age of 33 and was hence seamingly outside the belief matrix of Manifest Destiny that drove the nation during this period. She seemed to frame what was happening to Sitting Bull and his people in the reflective light of her native Swiss battling against Napoleon. She would read tales of Napoleon to Sitting Bull by the evening firelight. The life of Catherine Weldon is a useful tool for us to reflect on our nation's past.
She frames Weldon through her present day odyssey and the people she meets in the various places. Intermittently, she flashes back to the past to focus on the history that is known and what she discovers about Weldon.
As someone that loves to snoop in archives and old documents, her tales of this and that archival search are fascinating. Also, the fact that I know some of the people and places she discusses makes for a much more personal reading experience than most books.
Pollack sees Weldon as a sort of Shindleresque character who bucked the tide of racial discrimination at a time when it was national policy. Interestingly, Weldon emigrated from Switzerland at the age of 33 and was hence seamingly outside the belief matrix of Manifest Destiny that drove the nation during this period. She seemed to frame what was happening to Sitting Bull and his people in the reflective light of her native Swiss battling against Napoleon. She would read tales of Napoleon to Sitting Bull by the evening firelight. The life of Catherine Weldon is a useful tool for us to reflect on our nation's past.
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