Book Summary and Reviews of The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson

Book Summary

A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakhóta family's struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most.

Rosalie Iron Wing has grown up in the woods with her father, Ray, a former science teacher who tells her stories of plants, of the stars, of the origins of the Dakhóta people. Until, one morning, Ray doesn't return from checking his traps. Told she has no family, Rosalie is sent to live with a foster family in nearby Mankato—where the reserved, bookish teenager meets rebellious Gaby Makespeace, in a friendship that transcends the damaged legacies they've inherited.

On a winter's day 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 even as the farm is threatened first by drought and then by a predatory chemical company. Now, grieving, Rosalie begins to confront the past, on a search for family, identity, and a community where she can finally belong. In the process, she learns what it means to be descended from women with souls of iron—women who have protected their families, their traditions, and a precious cache of seeds through generations of hardship and loss, through war and the insidious trauma of boarding schools.

Weaving together the voices of four indelible women, The Seed Keeper is a beautifully told story of reawakening, of remembering our original relationship to the seeds and, through them, to our ancestors.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Consider the way the various timelines and characters are tied together in the conclusion of the novel. In what ways can readers of The Seed Keeper use these interwoven stories to reflect on intergenerational trauma, and more broadly, the role the past plays in the present and future, particularly in Indigenous communities?
2. In the Author's Note, Diane Wilson tells us that this story was inspired by the true story of Dakhóta women hiding seeds in their skirts while being forcibly removed from their homelands, noting that they are "the reason why we have Dakhóta corn today" (364). What does this story suggest about the nature of sacrifice?
3. Rosalie and Ida's friendship is a powerful reminder that while we ...