Dorothy Lee Mack passed away June 15, 2024, in Eureka. Dorothy was born on Christmas Eve, 1934 and grew up in upstate New York. She was the second child born to Guilford and Dorothy Mack. She had an older sister named Helen who died in early childhood, and a younger brother Guilford, now deceased. She was married twice, so also took the names Lambert and Blackcrow.

She was a rebel, a tomboy and a rule breaker. She didn’t like dresses or dolls and preferred to play with boys or play the violin. She was an excellent student and a trailblazer, being one of the first women to attend college at Oberlin, get a PhD in linguistics and teach at the university level. She was proud to turn down an offer of graduate school admission at Harvard for a place at Yale, and that is where she met her first husband Robert Lambert. Dorothy and Robert had three children — two biological and one adopted — and named them after great poets: Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost and David Elliot King. Unfortunately the marriage did not last and Dorothy raised the children as a single parent.

Dorothy taught English to engineering students first in Chicago at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and then at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She was one of the few female faculty in those days, part of the first generation of women to move out of the world of homemaking and into high level careers.

She was a Quaker activist who protested against nuclear proliferation and worked towards prison reform. She heard Martin Luther King Jr. give his famous “I have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, with her first child, Emily, in tow.

In 1977 she made a major life change and left her post at the University of Michigan to marry Selo Blackcrow, a Lakota Sioux spiritual leader. She loved learning about Native American customs and culture and this became her passion. She discovered quiltmaking and made many native style star quilts. After a decade on the Pine Ridge Reservation she moved to Oregon to care for her elderly father and stayed on after his death in a little coastal community called Mirocco. Gardening was another of her interests, and she became certified as a master gardener.

Once in the Pacific Northwest Dorothy joined the Red Cedar Circle led by Johnny Moses, a Tulalip Native American storyteller and spiritual leader.

She enjoyed participating in writing seminars under the tutelage of Jim N. Frey, and published a memoir called Belonging to the Blackcrows and several native american murder mysteries including The Handless Maiden. Her love of adventure took her rafting along the Colorado River and kayaking in New Zealand in her 80s.

A lifelong Democrat, she volunteered as the precinct captain for her beloved Depoe Bay. When she passed away she had over 2,500 unread text messages from the Dems. Her spirit was generous and she gave away money and possessions freely to those she felt needed them more.

After decades on the Oregon Coast she moved to Eureka in 2021 to be closer to her daughter and grandson. She lived in The Meadows senior housing for three years and grew to love the community and my neighbors very much. Her cat, Maxi, was a great comfort to her.

She is survived by her three children, Emily Dalton, Robert Lambert Jr. and David Lambert and many grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held on August 10 in the afternoon near the Swinomish Reservation in Western Washington State. Contact Emily at dremily2@gmail.com for details.

Donations in her memory can be made to the

Red Cedar Circle Society
Care of Brett Clippingdale
3041 West Lake Sammamish Parkway NE
Redmond, WA 98052