With My Own Eyes

A Lakota Woman Tells Her People's History

by Susan Bordeaux Bettelyoun

With My Own Eyes tells the history of the nineteenth-century Lakotas. Susan Bordeaux Bettelyoun (1857-1945), the daughter of a French-American fur trader and a Brule Lakota woman, was raised near Fort Laramie and experienced firsthand the often devastating changes forced on the Lakotas.

As Bettelyoun grew older, she became increasingly dissatisfied with the way Lakota history was being written by non-Natives. With My Own Eyes represents Bettelyoun's attempt to correct misconceptions about Lakota history. Her narrative was recorded during the 1930s by another Lakota historian, Joesephine Waggoner. The collaboration of the two women produced a detailed, insightful account of the dispossession of their people. Although long regarded as a valuable source by historians, this unique work was never previously published.

Scrupulously and meticulously edited by scholar Emily Levine, With My Own Eyes has been restored to its original text and annotated. It now takes its rightful place alongside other histories of the Lakotas.

187 pp ~ 20 b/w photos — ©1998