In Our Own Words

Learn the true stories of Indian boarding school students and their families in this moving nonfiction book for young readers, filled with acts of hope and resistance. During the boarding school era, Native children were taken from their families to attend boarding schools, a devastating policy that threatened the wellbeing of Native people and their cultural practices. Far from home, students suffered from illnesses, poor living conditions, homesickness, and the suppression of their Native languages. With a special focus on the Haskell Institute in Kansas, the Flandreau School in South Dakota, and the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, this in-depth history offers an unfiltered look at letters written by parents, children, and school officials that reveal how profoundly entire families were affected. Their accounts are also filled with precious memories of friendship, football, and love.In Our Own Words is a powerful record of the rebellion and hope of young Indigenous people in the face of segregation and disastrous assimilation policies spanning 1870 to 1940.