The novel is by Mona Susan Power (Standing Rock Sioux), PEN Award-winning author of several works related to Native identity, such as The Grass Dancer.
[6] A Council of Dolls was published nearly thirty years after the success of Mona Susan Power's debut novel The Grass Dancer.
[13] Power was guided by her family's own history with unwelcome government intervention into Native society and multigenerational experiences with Indian boarding schools.
The character of Lillian is based on her mother, activist Susan Kelly Power, one of the founders of the American Indian Center in Chicago, Illinois.
While writing another novel in 2014 entitled Harvard Indian Seance at Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast, Power felt compelled to tell the story of boarding school survivors.
[14] For Writer's Digest she explained: "My concern that the mother character will be judged and disliked for her woundedness, the dangers it creates, leads me to include two more generations of girls and their stories.
Publisher Harper Collins chose an existing piece for A Council of Dolls: floral appliqué beadwork sewn onto blue velvet cloth in traditional Dakota style.
[29] A starred review by Publishers Weekly calls it a "story of survival that shines brightly," and says Power reveals a "deep knowledge of Indigenous history" and the book is a "keen" and "wrenching" depiction of boarding schools.
This story describes the results of 150 years of stress, anguish, and feelings of powerlessness of parents, the tiwahe [family] and the Oyate [nation] due to the loss of their cherished children to inhumane educational institutions.
These schools were places where wakaneja should have been protected, educated and nurtured.Centers for the Book of the Library of Congress selected A Council of Dolls as one of Minnesota's "Great Reads for Adults".
[52][53][54] Although A Council of Dolls was not selected by the jury for the 2025 Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) Listen List for outstanding audiobook narration, it was highlighted with the winners.