This is the spirited story of the author, an accomplished & inspiring educator in Indian boarding schools. Born in 1909, she grew up attending Haskell Indian Institute in Lawrence, Kansas, & often visited relatives on the Shoshone Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Motivated by teachers like Ella ...
This is the spirited story of the author, an accomplished & inspiring educator in Indian boarding schools. Born in 1909, she grew up attending Haskell Indian Institute in Lawrence, Kansas, & often visited relatives on the Shoshone Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Motivated by teachers like Ella Deloria & Ruth Muskrat Bronson, she devoted her life to teaching other Indian children. She began teaching at Wahpeton Indian School in Wahpeton, North Dakota, in 1930 & has remained active in education to the present day. Her experiences as student & teacher have enabled her to provide a detailed portrait of Indian boarding schools. We learn about daily life at Haskell & about the challenges & rewards of teaching for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Wahpeton. Above all, her life illuminates the ongoing struggle by Native teachers & students to retain their cultural identities within a government educational system designed to assimilate them. The authors developed this life history in a truly collaborative manner. They carefully document both personal history & the creation of this work. What emerges is an engaging & informative narrative about education & identity.