A Council of Dolls

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of illness, child abuse, physical abuse, substance use, addiction, pregnancy loss, child death, graphic violence, and religious discrimination.

Lillian—Sissy’s mother—narrates the story of her own childhood, which takes place in the 1930s. Her earliest sense of self revolves around being told she was born with a hole in her heart. Later, the doctor tells her the hole has healed, but she doesn’t believe him. By age four, Lillian teaches herself to read with a book on child labor that a Wobbly—a member of the Industrial Workers of the World labor union—left as a parting gift after staying with them for a few weeks.

Lillian has two older sisters, Alvina and Blanche, and two younger brothers, Oscar and Teddy. The family has a pet magpie named Fairbanks that they teach to speak English words. Lillian refers to her mother, Cora, as Iná, but she only calls her father “him” or Jack. He becomes mean and abusive when he drinks, and Lillian and Blanche both fear and hate him. The two girls make a mud figure of their father in order to symbolically bury him so that their mother won’t have to endure endless pregnancies and miscarriages. When he’s drunk, Jack often laments the death of his sister when they were children, an event that still seems to haunt him.

One day, Jack drinks what Lillian surmises was a bad batch of alcohol and becomes delirious. He thinks Blanche and Lillian are government men trying to force him back to Pennsylvania in order to “kill the Indian part of him, turn him into a white man” (76). In his delirium, he threatens the girls with his shotgun. Alvina runs to get Grandpa Little Soldier, a family friend, who calms Jack down and resolves the dangerous situation. Jack is penitent when he sobers up and vows to stop drinking. He spends several days sick in bed as he goes through withdrawal. When he’s better, he tells his daughters about losing his language. As a boy, he explains, he was whipped for continuing to speak his native language. That’s why he always speaks to the children in English.

Cora tells the children about how Jack learned to make furniture. He made all the furniture in their home, and it’s of exceptional quality. She and Jack went to boarding school together as children, where they were made to learn a trade of the school’s choosing. Jack wanted to work for the student-run publication, but instead he was trained in carpentry. Cora tells them about a treasured gift Jack whittled for her. When she was a child, her family rescued an injured baby buffalo and nursed it back to health. Its herd didn’t return, so the baby buffalo stayed with them. When the buffalo was fully grown and no longer safe to keep, Cora was heartbroken, but Jack carved her a tiny buffalo figurine to cheer her up. She still keeps the figurine in a bundle of what she calls her treasures.

Lillian and Blanche have to attend a different boarding school than their other siblings. This year, two new boys, Luther and Cornelius Holy Thunder, are attending their school in Bismarck because their last school in South Dakota closed after too many students died of consumption (tuberculosis). The brothers quickly make friends with Blanche and Lillian. Sister Frances, the nun that the girls hate the most, tries to break up the friendship. She threatens to whip them if the girls ever let the boys touch them. The four students decide on an act of rebellion inspired by a story about the boys’ uncle. They sneak out at night and steal the tabernacle—which holds the Holy Eucharist, or as they call it, the Holy Cracker—from the chapel. They put it in the branches of a nearby tree, hoping to shake things up and make a statement. The next day, however, they find the tabernacle has been returned to the chapel without a fuss, the whole incident hushed up.

Sister Frances sends the girls home for Christmas with a letter to their parents saying they’re “incorrigible” and implying that their relationship with the boys is inappropriate. Instead, they give the letter to Jack. He applauds the girls and writes a snarky response to Sister Frances, praising the girls’ independence and calling the nun’s mind limited and unimaginative. Over the holiday break, Lillian plays Tiny Tim in the community production of A Christmas Carol. At the end of the play, the white teacher acting as the play’s director has Lillian read aloud to the audience from A Tale of Two Cities. His intent, as he says, is to honor her for her impressive reading ability, but Lillian only feels embarrassed.

Lillian receives a doll as a gift from the Catholic mission ladies, who admired how well she read after the play. She’s long dreamed of having a doll but doesn’t feel she deserves it, so she feels guilt and shame upon accepting it. Lillian can hear the doll talk to her in her head. The doll addresses her as Lily and says she loves her. Though the doll resembles Shirley Temple, Lillian asks the doll what she wants to be named. The doll chooses the name Mae.

When Cora receives a gift of meat from Little Soldier, she chooses to share it with the community. Lillian accompanies her as she delivers it to other households, including one family with a six-year-old girl, Ada, who has consumption. Lillian loves Ada and doesn’t want to make her envious of her doll, so she leaves Mae at home. Two weeks later, Lillian learns Ada is dying and feels compelled to give Mae to her. When Ada dies a few days later, her parents bury her with the doll, so Lillian doesn’t get Mae back.

Back at school after the holiday, Cornelius gives Lillian a beautiful fan he made from feathers. She senses that he and his brother are both in love with her. Cornelius, she senses, worships her and will love her forever. For Luther, the feelings seem more temporary. This temporary love feels safer to Lillian, so she chooses Luther.

One day, Sister Frances locks Lillian in the punishment box (a closet used for solitary confinement), but magic brings Mae to her there. The doll explains how she escaped Ada’s coffin and found her way to the school. She says she’s invisible to everyone but Lillian now. Mae’s presence helps Lillian endure her time in the punishment box. Later, Blanche tells Lillian that Sitting Bull visited her in a dream. The next morning, the priest gives a sermon railing against Sitting Bull and urging the students to denounce him and his influence. This angers Blanche so much that while she does her chores afterward, she breaks out in a Lakhóta song that pays tribute to Sitting Bull. Several nuns try to stop her from using the forbidden language, chasing and then tackling her. Mae keeps Lillian safe from the fray by using magic to help her float to safety. From high above, Lillian watches Sister Frances heat a mixture of lye soap and water and then pour it into Blanche’s mouth. The caustic mixture kills her.