100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #100
100. Thunder Heart Woman, as seen in the miniseries Into the West, portrayed by Tonantzin Carmelo
I'm fascinated by Native stories. I don't think there are any groups of people who are more marginalized and treated deplorably, especially in the US. I live in Pennsylvania, a little over an hour away from the Seneca reservation in Salamanca. Most people I know go up there to go to the casino or to buy cigarettes, but one year, we were returning from visiting my uncle in New York when we happened to be passing by reservation during their annual Pow Wow. They open it up to the public so people can see their crafts and dances, and I remember being fascinated by how beautiful everything seemed. I was still in elementary school, and I didn't fully understand the depth of what had been done to the tribes then. It wasn't until I was older I saw how terribly the people who went to the reservation for cigarettes and gambling really treated those who lived on the reservation, and it became clear to me why they didn't like us either. I think it's so easy to romanticize the Native experience because generally, when we see it depicted in books and movies, it's all Dances With Wolves and Pocahontas and not the ugly reality of what was really done.
Into the West, by no means, is a perfectly accurate representation of the Native experience (especially since it was written and directed by white people), but it showed in gritty, bloody detail what happened in the last 19th century. The miniseries follows the lives of 2 families: that of Jacob Wheeler, a white wheelwright who travels West for adventure, and that of Loved by the Buffalo, a Lakota medicine man who forsees the end of his people. Told in 5 2-hour installments, it tracks the lives of Jacob and Loved by the Buffalo from the 1820s through Wounded Knee. Involved in both sets of stories is Thunder Heart Woman, the sister of Loved by the Buffalo and Jacob's wife.
When we first meet Thunder Heart Woman, she is essentially being traded by her father to a fur trapper in exchange for goods. She appears happy with her husband and daughter until a night raid by the Crow kills her husband, takes her daughter, and leads to rape and abuse for Thunder Heart Woman. Eventually she ends up being auctioned off to a collection of mountain men, and Jacob "wins" her with the sole goal to returning her to her family. She and Jacob fall in love and wed, eventually having 3 children: Margaret Light Shines, Abraham High Wolf, and Jacob Junior High Cloud. Jacob brings Thunder Heart Woman home to Virginia, but Jacob's family is nowhere near as accepting of Thunder Heart Woman as her family was of Jacob. They decide to return West, this time with Jacob's brother Jethro and his three female cousins. Jacob falls ill with cholera, and they have to leave him behind. With three children and without real protection, Thunder Heart Woman marries Jethro and has another daughter Corn Flower before eventually being reunited with Jacob. The miniseries eventually begins to follow the children of Jacob and Thunder Heart Woman as well as her brothers, but Thunder Heart Woman is frequently at the heart of the story.
What I love about Thunder Heart Woman is her resilience. Throughout her life, she experiences incredible challenges: being separated from her family and culture, abused by men, her infant daughter stolen from her, her first husband murdered in front of her eyes, having to navigate Jacob's world in Virginia and being discriminated against, trying to raise her children with little help from Jethro, Abraham running away and never seeing him again, Jacob Junior's death, a long separation from Margaret; we also see the way she aches for her children's struggles, being biracial at a time when to be so meant being ostracized. For Margaret, who appears more Native than white, and Abraham, who embraces his Native heritage, it makes life difficult for them; it is only Jacob Junior who can "pass" for white who has any degree of success and it gets him killed by his own Native relatives. Thunder Heart Woman understands this far better than Jacob ever does, and it is she who holds together the Wheeler family. Without Thunder Heart Woman's perseverance and strong will, the Wheelers would not have survived so long as they did, and she managed to maintain her culture and pass it down to her children in the process.
And that's wonderfully kick-ass.
I'm fascinated by Native stories. I don't think there are any groups of people who are more marginalized and treated deplorably, especially in the US. I live in Pennsylvania, a little over an hour away from the Seneca reservation in Salamanca. Most people I know go up there to go to the casino or to buy cigarettes, but one year, we were returning from visiting my uncle in New York when we happened to be passing by reservation during their annual Pow Wow. They open it up to the public so people can see their crafts and dances, and I remember being fascinated by how beautiful everything seemed. I was still in elementary school, and I didn't fully understand the depth of what had been done to the tribes then. It wasn't until I was older I saw how terribly the people who went to the reservation for cigarettes and gambling really treated those who lived on the reservation, and it became clear to me why they didn't like us either. I think it's so easy to romanticize the Native experience because generally, when we see it depicted in books and movies, it's all Dances With Wolves and Pocahontas and not the ugly reality of what was really done.
Into the West, by no means, is a perfectly accurate representation of the Native experience (especially since it was written and directed by white people), but it showed in gritty, bloody detail what happened in the last 19th century. The miniseries follows the lives of 2 families: that of Jacob Wheeler, a white wheelwright who travels West for adventure, and that of Loved by the Buffalo, a Lakota medicine man who forsees the end of his people. Told in 5 2-hour installments, it tracks the lives of Jacob and Loved by the Buffalo from the 1820s through Wounded Knee. Involved in both sets of stories is Thunder Heart Woman, the sister of Loved by the Buffalo and Jacob's wife.
When we first meet Thunder Heart Woman, she is essentially being traded by her father to a fur trapper in exchange for goods. She appears happy with her husband and daughter until a night raid by the Crow kills her husband, takes her daughter, and leads to rape and abuse for Thunder Heart Woman. Eventually she ends up being auctioned off to a collection of mountain men, and Jacob "wins" her with the sole goal to returning her to her family. She and Jacob fall in love and wed, eventually having 3 children: Margaret Light Shines, Abraham High Wolf, and Jacob Junior High Cloud. Jacob brings Thunder Heart Woman home to Virginia, but Jacob's family is nowhere near as accepting of Thunder Heart Woman as her family was of Jacob. They decide to return West, this time with Jacob's brother Jethro and his three female cousins. Jacob falls ill with cholera, and they have to leave him behind. With three children and without real protection, Thunder Heart Woman marries Jethro and has another daughter Corn Flower before eventually being reunited with Jacob. The miniseries eventually begins to follow the children of Jacob and Thunder Heart Woman as well as her brothers, but Thunder Heart Woman is frequently at the heart of the story.
What I love about Thunder Heart Woman is her resilience. Throughout her life, she experiences incredible challenges: being separated from her family and culture, abused by men, her infant daughter stolen from her, her first husband murdered in front of her eyes, having to navigate Jacob's world in Virginia and being discriminated against, trying to raise her children with little help from Jethro, Abraham running away and never seeing him again, Jacob Junior's death, a long separation from Margaret; we also see the way she aches for her children's struggles, being biracial at a time when to be so meant being ostracized. For Margaret, who appears more Native than white, and Abraham, who embraces his Native heritage, it makes life difficult for them; it is only Jacob Junior who can "pass" for white who has any degree of success and it gets him killed by his own Native relatives. Thunder Heart Woman understands this far better than Jacob ever does, and it is she who holds together the Wheeler family. Without Thunder Heart Woman's perseverance and strong will, the Wheelers would not have survived so long as they did, and she managed to maintain her culture and pass it down to her children in the process.
And that's wonderfully kick-ass.