Stealing Indians by John Smelcer

Heartbreaking.  There is no other word for this dark part of American history.

Imagine the government authorizing you being taken from your home.  You are placed in a boarding school with other kids who look like you, but are not from the same culture.  You are beaten, abused, tormented to be more white.  You are expected to forget the culture you came from.

This is not dystopian literature.  This is not some far off land.  This is right here, in our past.

The four teens are blends of real people, created from actual children Smelcer learned about in interviewing elders.  These children were American Indians.

I have done a lot of reading about the Indian boarding schools, much of it when I was working on my Master's.  It still makes me want to throw up, even now.  Sadly, this cultural genocide is usually swept under the rug in our U.S. History classes, as if it never happened.  Happened it did, and the ending is not happy.

This will be added to the WHHS LMC collection when we get back.  Currently there is no fiction included in our American Indian history section, but I may be putting this there.  Because every word of it is true.

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All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.