Take a minute and forget most of what you’ve heard about Native Americans. Forget the sweeping John Ford westerns and the class Pilgrim play where someone who was most likely not Native American, much less Pawtuxet, pretended to be Squanto. Forget about Disney’s Pocahontas and copycat little girls in braids and beaded moccasins. Just come and sit with this collection of work from indigenous artists and let new images, new understandings unfold.
The collection is loosely grouped. It’s best to approach each set of pages on their own as there is not continuity between them, but rather a shared feeling that emerges as you go through. It’s almost difficult to read straight through, jumping between stories, poems and art work. But the structure makes it ideal for excerpting. Pull what you need to share and share it. Teachers especially, take the time to hunt out what might interest your students , or if your class is mature enough, leave control in their hands. You could allow groups of students to select which piece or pieces spoke to them the most and share why.
There are not enough Native American voices in literature today. The recognition this volume is getting will hopefully open doors for more to be heard in the future.
Age Recommendation: Taken as a whole, this is a book best suited for high school students. It deals with complex issues and mature problems. However, individual stories, poems and personal tales could be appropriate for students as young as fifth grade if carefully selected.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – One author mentions his grandmother’s Irish husband abandoning her and talks about what kind of woman he wants to end up with. There’s a poem that deals with gender. A story describes a girl’s work as a prostitute. A teen talks about love and how his heart was broken. A photo shows a couple kissing.
Profanity – “ass”,
Death, Violence and Gore – Animal skins are softened by soaking them in brains (presumably, also from animals). A girl is bullied which included kicking, slapping, shoving and punching in addition to verbal assaults. Students in residential schools faced physical, emotional and sexual abuse which often led to violence or suicide. Sexual abuse is described. One girl stabbed her abuser. Suicide is mentioned multiple times. A father would “blacken” his son’s behind for skipping school to go to an arcade. An author hunts and kills animals. There are a few black and white photos of his kills. A girl is beaten up by other girls. A girl was injured in a standoff with the government.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – Abuse at the residential schools sometimes led to addictions. A young man is shown smoking a cigarette. One author talks about narcotics. An author smoked weed and drank alcohol and did ecstasy, all while a teen. She also used a fake ID to go to clubs underage.
Frightening or Intense Things – People have gone without food. Students went to residential school, living away from their family, being denied their religion with the intention of destroying tribal society and assimilating “Indians”. Some work dumping nuclear waste. One author had friends who were associated with gangs. In 1990 the Mohawks had a standoff with the Canadian government over land. A mother reunited with the girl she gave up for adoption. She talks about wishing she could “push her back inside me”.
