Seed Keeper is an unforgettable novel that spans several generations and follows a Dakota family's struggle to preserve their way of life and the sacrifices they make to protect what matters most.
Rosalie Ironwing grows up in the woods with her father, Ray, a former physics professor who tells her stories about plants, stars, and the origins of the Dakota Native American tribe. One morning, Ray leaves to check his traps and never returns. Rosalie is told that she has no other relatives and is sent to foster care in the nearby town of Mankato – where the withdrawn, bookish teenager meets rebellious Gabby Peacemaker, and a friendship is born that transcends the problems they both have inherited.
One winter day, after many years, Rosalie returns to her childhood home. As a widow and mother, she has spent the previous twenty years on her white husband’s farm, finding solace in the garden, even as the farm is threatened first by drought and then by a predatory chemical company. Grieving, Rosalie begins to confront her past and sets out in search of a family, an identity, and a community to which she can finally belong. In the process, she learns what it means to be the descendant of women with steely souls—women who, through years of hardship and loss, through wars and the insidious trauma of boarding schools, managed to protect their families, their traditions, and a precious pit of seeds.
Weaving together the voices of four inimitable women, Seed Keeper is a beautifully told story of reawakening, of remembering our primal connection to seeds, and, through them, to our ancestors.
