Susan Power uses the aspect of relationships as a sub-primary theme throughout The Grass Dancer. Harley and Pumpkin relationship in the beginning of the story which brings out the jealousy of Charlene Thunder. Crystal Thunder’s (daughter to Charlene Thunder) love for a non-native Indian, Martin Lundstrom. Mercury Thunder uses her “bad magic” out of revenge against Calvin Wind Soldier because he is wearing a belt that repels her spells to make him fall in love with her. Instead, Mercury Thunder casts a spell that makes him have an affair with his wife’s sister, Evelyn. Power uses the idea of marriage as an end result throughout the book. Lydia Wind Soldier marries Calvin Wind soldier after two months of dating. Power continues the struggle of power in relationships between “love, revenge, and jealousy.”
Susan Powers deals with the theme of non-Indian ideals throughout The Grass Dancer . Whether or not this is because she was not raised on the reservation is unknown, but there are many elements that point towards the theme of leaving the reservation and issues that are non-native Indians. Jeannette McVay coerces her students to share their real cultural stories with the class. Powers flirts with the notion of non-native Indian relationships with white partners throughout the story. Jeanette McVay and her husband have a baby that doesn’t look white at all and Herod has an affair with a white woman named Clara Miller. Crystal Thunder (daughter of Charlene Thunder) also falls in-love with a white boy named Martin Lundstrom. Powers also deals with the notion of the end result of leaving the reservation. Charlene Thunder (1981) leaves the reservation after she tries to work some love magic to get Harley to fall in-love with her. She ends up leaving the reservation to go to Chicago to find her parents.
Throughout the novel the reader is presented with two legends of two fabled spirits, Red Dress and Ghost Horse. Red Dress became a spirit according to the legend to protect her descendants and was projected to be the start of the magical medicine of the Thunder family. While ghost horse is a warrior who chose to become a heyoka, or sacred clown, after his love Red Dress passed away. His spirit was said to guard over her body for one year. The legends states that both spirits are constantly seeking one another in the generations that follow. However towards the end of the novel it becomes clear that Red Dress is the only supernatural force influencing the novel, since Ghost Horse has left the earth in spirit form after he died on the battle field. Yet the legend does hold truth, since Charlene Thunder constantly seeks out the love of Henry both of which are descendants of Red Dress and Ghost Horse.
Within the novel Charlene Thunder is faced with the problem of overcoming adversity imposed by the family tradition of magical medicine. Charlene’s connection to Red Dress is through her grandmother, who refuses to allow Charlene to act on what she believes in and instead wants Charlene to follow in her footsteps of being the tribes witch. The connection to witchcraft ultimately creates more problems for Charlene of which she has no control, although the community recognized her lineage of holding great power ultimately she is shunned by association. Ultimately Charlene is faced with either becoming the witch that her family has destined her to be, or overcoming all adversity and living her life free and how she wants. Charlene chooses to be free and live her life away from the imposed tradition of her family’s magical ties.
Magical realism is found throughout Susan Power’s novel The Grass Dancer . Magical realism blends the natural with the supernatural. Magical realism in The Grass Dancer makes its appearance during certain rituals performed by the Dakota tribe, such as when Frank Pipe retells the story of when someone was killing reservation dogs and shooting coyotes. The tribe decided to perform a Yuwipi ceremony in order to discover who the killer was. During the ceremony, coyote spirits appeared and exposed the killer by carrying off one of the tribe members through the window of the gymnasium. The tribe members later found his body abandoned at Angry Butte with bite marks on his body. The coyotes not only identified the criminal, but they also sought justice.
According to Roland Walter who wrote“Pan-American (Re)Visions: Magical Realism and Amerindian Cultures in Susan Power's The Grass Dancer , Gioconda Belli' s La Mujer Habitada , Linda Hogan's Power , and Mario Vargas Llosa's El Hablador ,”
“Magical realism realizes the hybridization of the natural and the supernatural by focusing on specific histori- cal moments in order to problematize present-day disjunctive reali- ties” (Walter 66). When Margaret Many Wounds passes away in 1969, Harley Wind Soldier witnesses through a television screen his grandmother’s spirit dancing on the moon while Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin first set foot on the its surface. Margaret Many Wounds’ spirit calls out to her grandson, “Look at me, look at the magic. There is still magic in the world” (Power 121).
The Grass Dancer often describes a Yuwipi ceremony where tribe members gather together to call on the spirits for answers. An example of this ceremony happens in chapter 3 when Archie Iron Necklace has a dream about a medicine hole. During the Yuwipi ceremony, the spirits of Sioux ancestors guide the tribe members on a vision where Archie Iron Necklace, Herod Small War, Frank Pipe, and Harley Wind Soldier appear as young Sioux Indians riding their horses on the plain in the year 1877. On this day, one year after the Custer battle, four young warriors were trapped in the valley by white soldiers out for revenge. They prevented the warriors from escaping the valley, forcing their horses to die of starvation. When the soldiers discovered the corpses of the horses, the young warriors seemed to have vanished. The Yuwipi vision revealed how the four warriors managed to escape. The earth opened a hole and the four men were able to escape. (Power 85).
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