They Call Me Agnes: A Crow Narrative Based on the Life of Agnes Yellowtail Deernose

Anthropologist Fred Voget first met Agnes Deernose in 1939, when he taught school on the Crow Reservation in Montana. Since then, he has made repeated visits to the reservation, conducting extensive interviews with Agnes and her family. Here he provides background, then lets her speak. Agnes's narrative reveals her remarkable adjustment to two cultures. She and her husband, Donnie, fluent in English and active in the Baptist church, still retained Crow traditions, integrating them with religion, family and social activities. Agnes describes her childhood in an extended family and gives us a glimpse of a woman's life in Crow culture, as well as a good sense of the culture's yearly rhythm. Agnes has made a valuable contribution to Indian ethnography. Illustrations. (Mar.)