Waterlily

Waterlily is Blue Bird’s daughter, and a great portion of the novel tracks her experience as a child, adolescent, and young adult. Through Waterlily, the reader learns a great deal about Dakota social customs and rituals, as she is an exemplary Dakota girl. Waterlily is born while Blue Bird is still part of her adopted camp circle. When Waterlily is young, she and her mother rejoin White Ghost. Waterlily is adored by her mother and the family of her step father, Rainbow.

As a young child, Waterlily gets sick, and Rainbow promises her a hunka ceremony if she survives—this a great honor, showing her family’s devotion to her. From this point on, she can wear red vermilion paint as a marker of this honor. Between the ages of 6 and 7, she begins to “take homely things and family doings with more appreciation” (78). In this way, she embraces some of the rules of kinship, showing respect and devotion to her family. By the time she is 10, “Waterlily was fast becoming ‘bashful,’ as a well-trained young girl was expected to be” (86). In this way, Waterlily takes on the demur, restrained role that befits Dakota women. She always places kinship values and obligations above her own personal ones.