Mountain Wolf Woman: 1884-1960; Prairie Quilts

These two latest entries in writer/director Jocelyn Riley's "Her Own Words" series use beautiful photographs presented in slide-show dissolve fashion with accompanying music and voiceover narration to tell their respective stories. Mountain Wolf Woman: 1884-1960 is the story of a Winnebago Indian woman, who was born the last child of a sprawling family of Wisconsin homesteaders, and led a picaresque life comprised of Indian customs and rituals as well as the backbreaking day-to-day life of early 20th-century settler life. Narrated by Naomi Russell (Mountain Wolf Woman's granddaughter), the video is based on the recorded interviews that anthropologist Nancy Oestreich Lurie conducted several years before Mountain Wolf Woman's death. Sentenced to an arranged marriage at an early age, Mountain Wolf Woman was not happy with her marital life with her partner (whom she refers to as "that man"), she later remarried to a spouse of her own choosing and lived a much happier and fruitful life. The video offers many gorgeous photographs of Indian artifacts, and scenes from a Winnebago powwow, as well as an authentic Winnebago wedding song, sung by Irene Thundercloud. Prairie Quilts is a loving tribute to the spirit of the pioneer women who transformed the sometimes harsh, sometimes nurturing Wisconsin prairie that sustained them into wondrously detailed quilts, filled with windswept grasses and beautiful floral designs. The fictional narrator describes the early pioneer life, and then moves forward in time to talk about a "quilt challenge" in which she participates. During this latter half of the program, viewers see over 30 contemporary quilts celebrating the prairie. Both Mountain Wolf Woman: 1884-1960 and Prairie Quilts are recommended. (Available from: Jocelyn Riley, P.O. Box 5264, Madison, WI 53705.)