A Council of Dolls

A complimentary copy of A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power

In July 2023, I received a request to use this photo of my Newborn Thumbelina doll in HarperCollins' social media promotion of the book, A Council of Dolls. With permission granted, and after I took and submitted a better photo of the doll for their use, I received the above complimentary copy of A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Powell.

Dolls from my collection that represent the council of dolls, Ethel, Mae, and Winona.

A Council of Dolls tells the stories of three indigenous American women partly through their dolls. The story begins in the 1960s, flashes back to the 1930s, and further back to the 1800s before ending in 2010. Tiny Thumbelina (not Newborn Thumbelina) is one of the doll storytellers. The person in the book who owned Tiny Thumbelina chose it because the doll's brown complexion was closer to hers than the white version of the doll. The other two doll storytellers are a composition Shirley Temple doll and a handmade indigenous girl doll made of buckskin and beads.

In my review of the book below, I use my Newborn Thumbelina and dolls from my collection similar to the two other doll storytellers.

Newborn Thumbelina stands in for Tiny Thumbelina whose book name is Ethel.

Ethel is a black Tiny Thumbelina that helps Sissy tell her story. Sissy, born in 1961, endures multiple episodes of abuse from her seemingly bipolar mother, Lillian, who was traumatized in childhood after her forced attendance at an "Indian" boarding school where she, her sister Blanche, and other Native American children were stripped of their cultural heritage. The children were not allowed to speak their Dakhóta language. All their belongings were burned upon arrival at the school. Their hair was either cut or shaved, and they endured or witnessed other atrocities at the hands of white teachers and administrators. It's not surprising that Lillian's inability to overcome her childhood trauma caused her to periodically (more often than not) lash out at both her husband and Sissy and act out in other unbecoming ways that ultimately lead to tragedy. Ethel (Tiny Thumbelina) witnessed it all and attempted to advise and console Sissy.

A Shirley Temple-type composition and hard plastic doll represents the doll character, Mae.

A physically ill child, born with a congenital heart condition in 1925, Lillian's brief doll companion and confidante was a Shirley Temple doll named Mae. Mae's doll life, unfortunately, was short-lived. Thanks to Lillian's daughter, Sissy, and Sissy's Godmother, Ethel (for whom Sissy's doll was named), a replacement Mae arrived several years later.

A tiny celluloid doll wrapped in a leather carrier represents the doll, Winona.

Winona, the oldest and wisest of the doll trio was also a survivor of teacher abuse. Burned beyond recognition on the first day that her human, Cora, entered the "Indian" school, the doll's resilience overpowered the burning blaze. Winona's remains continued to guide Cora (Lillian's mother and Sissy's grandmother) through the 1900s travesties she endured at boarding school and later in life from an abusive husband who was also traumatized in childhood by his attendance at the same school.

Without the doll storytellers, I might not have finished reading A Council of Dolls, which took a while to do and even longer to write this post. I'd read a few chapters before putting the book down for days or weeks because it was difficult to process the generational trauma that Mona Susan Power made me feel I was experiencing as I read. The book gave me a keen awareness of a fraction of what Indigenous American children endured and the psychological effects that resulted. Children were taken from their families (similar to enslaved Africans) and forcefully indoctrinated to believe their natural way of life and belief systems were unacceptable and that the white-established way of life was to be practiced and revered. 

©Black Doll Collecting/dbg

There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.

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