THE SEED KEEPER
Minnesota Book Award Winner, Book Riot and Ms. Magazine Best Book of the Year
A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakota family’s struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most.
Rosalie Iron Wing grew up in the woods with her father until one morning he didn’t return from checking his traps. Told she has no family, Rosalie is sent to foster care—where the reserved, bookish teenager meets rebellious Gaby Makespeace, in a friendship that transcends the damaged legacies they’ve inherited.
Many years later,
Minnesota Book Award Winner, Book Riot and Ms. Magazine Best Book of the Year
A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakota family’s struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most.
Rosalie Iron Wing grew up in the woods with her father until one morning he didn’t return from checking his traps. Told she has no family, Rosalie is sent to foster care—where the reserved, bookish teenager meets rebellious Gaby Makespeace, in a friendship that transcends the damaged legacies they’ve inherited.
Many years later, Rosalie returns to her childhood home. A widow and mother, she has spent the previous two decades on her white husband’s farm, finding solace in her garden. Now, grieving, Rosalie begins to confront the past with a search for belonging. She learns what it means to be descended from women with souls of iron—women who have protected their families, traditions, and a precious cache of seeds through generations of hardship and loss.
Weaving together the voices of four indelible women, this is a story of reawakening, of remembering our original relationship to the seeds and, through them, to our ancestors.
- Milkweed Editions
- Paperback
- March 2021
- 392 Pages
- 9781571311375
Buy the Book
$18.00
About Diane Wilson
Diane Wilson (Dakota) is the author of The Seed Keeper, as well as a memoir, Spirit Car, and a nonfiction book, Beloved Child. She is the former executive director for the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance. She is a Mdewakanton descendent, enrolled on the Rosebud Reservation, and lives in Shafer, Minnesota.
Praise
“In chapters that shift among the perspectives of four Dakhóta women [. . .] Wilson tracks Rosalie’s attempts to understand her family and her roots, and considers how memory cultivates a sense of connection to the land.” —The New Yorker
“A moving multi-generational story about the destruction of Native American families, communities and lands—but also about reconnection, hope and the natural world.”— TODAY Show
Discussion Questions
1. Consider the way the various timelines and characters are tied together in the conclusion. How can you use these interwoven stories to reflect on intergenerational trauma and the role the past plays in the present and future, particularly in Indigenous communities?
2. This story was inspired by the true story of Dakhóta women hiding seeds in their skirts while being forcibly removed from their homelands, Diane notes that they are “the reason why we have Dakhóta corn today” (364). What does this suggest about the nature of sacrifice?
3. Rosalie and Ida’s friendship is a reminder that while we inherit a past legacy from those who come before us, we each get to choose the way we allow that legacy to influence our lives. What lessons on reconciliation, with others and with the earth, can be gleaned from this relationship?
4. The closing epigraph of this book is a prayer: “Love the seeds as you love your children, and the people will survive. Wačhékiye.” (361) Consider this prayer and Rosalie’s connection with her son. What might the significance of this parallel between Wakpa/Tommy and the seeds be? What do you think happens after the novel ends, and how might the seeds act as a bridge for him to find his way back to his own Dakhóta heritage?
5. The Seed Keeper grapples directly with themes of environmental degradation, specifically at the hands of corporate agriculture. This industry impacts the entire community in which Rosalie and her family are living. What elements of this conflict struck you? What impacts are industries like this one having on communities today?
6. Rosalie and Gaby are frequently portrayed as opposites (“the mouth and the ears”). Compare and contrast their approaches to activism and their relationships to identity/community. What does their friendship tell us about the different roles we can play in social movements? What do you think they learn from each other?