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speculativebecky's review against another edition
4.0
This collection was a challenging and powerfully educational read for me, learning from Zitkála-Šá about her disparate experiences growing up, her childhood cut short when she’s taken East from het family to a white Christian-run school. This is such a small volume, but it packs in so much, and I’m deeply appreciative of the opportunity to learn from Zitkála-Šá about history and identity in her own words. This sort of first person #ownvoices account is what I wish I’d been taught in American History in school. Recommended.
noskills's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Zitkala-sa was the rare multipotentialite, creating critical space for Native Americans in literature, education, music, and politics. Little surprise that her classic work American Indian Stories draws on several forms -- memoir, prose, poetry -- to paint pictures of Native American life in the early 20th Century and the struggle of Native identities against settler colonialism. A seminal work from a true iconoclast.
neverwithoutabook's review against another edition
4.0
In American Indian Stories, Zitkala-Sa gives us a glimpse of her early life on the Yankton Indian Reservation and her time as a student at White's Manual Labour Institute and Earlham College. The second half of this book is a collection of various essays and traditional stories.
I enjoyed all the stories in this collection but “The School Days of an Indian Girl” broke me. In this story Zitkala-Sa talks about the missionary school that was designed to strip children of their tribal cultures and replace these cultures with knowledge of the dominant one. At first Indians such as her mother thought that the offer of education began "to pay a tardy justice" for the theft of Indian lands and was necessary if their children were to advance in the white world; from
the white culture, however, Gertrude Simmons discovered no compensation for her loss of Sioux culture and habits. Left angry and isolated, she was alienated from her family and decided to create her own name: Zitkala-Sa.
There is so much to learn from these stories I highly recommend you check them out.
I enjoyed all the stories in this collection but “The School Days of an Indian Girl” broke me. In this story Zitkala-Sa talks about the missionary school that was designed to strip children of their tribal cultures and replace these cultures with knowledge of the dominant one. At first Indians such as her mother thought that the offer of education began "to pay a tardy justice" for the theft of Indian lands and was necessary if their children were to advance in the white world; from
the white culture, however, Gertrude Simmons discovered no compensation for her loss of Sioux culture and habits. Left angry and isolated, she was alienated from her family and decided to create her own name: Zitkala-Sa.
There is so much to learn from these stories I highly recommend you check them out.
ectoplasmjames's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
christytidwell's review against another edition
3.0
This is a collection of several different kinds of writing (autobiography, storytelling, and political activism). It clearly illustrates the ways in which Native Americans have been disenfranchised and their culture dismantled--among which are the creation of reservations, the imposition of missionaries, compulsory schooling in which children are separated from family and tribe and taught to be "white," struggles over land ownership and identity, and the general voicelessness and powerlessness of the Native American within the United States. And all of this is without even discussing the outright violence that was perpetrated against Native Americans.
Occasionally, Zitkala-Sa indicates that there is a hope for the Native American. "A Dream of Her Grandfather" ends with a vision that includes an exhortation to "Be glad! Rejoice! Look up, and see the new day dawning! Help is near! Hear me, every one," followed by the protagonist's joy at this "new hope for her people" (142). Similarly, "The Widespread Enigma Concerning Blue-Star Woman," a story in which Native Americans are taken advantage of by other Native Americans who have been trained in white ways, ends with some hope even in the midst of this abuse of power. Chief High Flier, after having been arrested on trumped up charges, has a vision while in jail:
"A vast multitude of women, with uplifted hands, gazed upon a huge stone image. Their upturned faces were eager and very earnest. The stone figure was that of a woman upon the brink of the Great Waters, facing eastward. The myriad living hands remained uplifted until the stone woman began to show signs of life. Very majestically she turned around, and, lo, she smiled upon this great galaxy of American women. She was the Statue of Liberty! It was she, who, though representing human liberty, formerly turned her back upon the American aborigine. Her face was aglow with compassion. Her eyes swept across the outspread continent of America, the home of the red man.
"At this moment her torch flamed brighter and whiter till its radiance reached into the obscure and remote places of the land. Her light of liberty penetrated Indian reservations. A loud shout of joy rose up from the Indians of the earth, everywhere!" (153)
This "secret vision of hope born in the midnight of his sorrows" gives him the strength to bear the rest of his jailtime and to do so "with a mute dignity" (154).
Zitkala-Sa is able to gesture toward a hopeful future in this way because she is writing a political book in this amalgam of autobiography, storytelling, and activism. The final chapter, "America's Indian Problem," builds on the details provided in earlier chapters to suggest a solution, to show America what should be done to solve the problems she has clearly pointed out. She writes, "Now the time is at hand when the American Indian shall have his day in court through the help of the women in America. The stain upon America's fair name is to be removed, and the remnant of the Indian nation, suffering from malnutrition, is to number among the invited invisible guests at your dinner tables" (156). She attempts here to mobilize a specific group to act on behalf of oppressed Native Americans and to show how improving the lot of Native Americans by according them citizenship and equal rights ("Wardship is no substitute for American citizenship, therefore we seek his enfranchisement," she argues [156].) will also improve the United States as a whole by removing this stain.
Occasionally, Zitkala-Sa indicates that there is a hope for the Native American. "A Dream of Her Grandfather" ends with a vision that includes an exhortation to "Be glad! Rejoice! Look up, and see the new day dawning! Help is near! Hear me, every one," followed by the protagonist's joy at this "new hope for her people" (142). Similarly, "The Widespread Enigma Concerning Blue-Star Woman," a story in which Native Americans are taken advantage of by other Native Americans who have been trained in white ways, ends with some hope even in the midst of this abuse of power. Chief High Flier, after having been arrested on trumped up charges, has a vision while in jail:
"A vast multitude of women, with uplifted hands, gazed upon a huge stone image. Their upturned faces were eager and very earnest. The stone figure was that of a woman upon the brink of the Great Waters, facing eastward. The myriad living hands remained uplifted until the stone woman began to show signs of life. Very majestically she turned around, and, lo, she smiled upon this great galaxy of American women. She was the Statue of Liberty! It was she, who, though representing human liberty, formerly turned her back upon the American aborigine. Her face was aglow with compassion. Her eyes swept across the outspread continent of America, the home of the red man.
"At this moment her torch flamed brighter and whiter till its radiance reached into the obscure and remote places of the land. Her light of liberty penetrated Indian reservations. A loud shout of joy rose up from the Indians of the earth, everywhere!" (153)
This "secret vision of hope born in the midnight of his sorrows" gives him the strength to bear the rest of his jailtime and to do so "with a mute dignity" (154).
Zitkala-Sa is able to gesture toward a hopeful future in this way because she is writing a political book in this amalgam of autobiography, storytelling, and activism. The final chapter, "America's Indian Problem," builds on the details provided in earlier chapters to suggest a solution, to show America what should be done to solve the problems she has clearly pointed out. She writes, "Now the time is at hand when the American Indian shall have his day in court through the help of the women in America. The stain upon America's fair name is to be removed, and the remnant of the Indian nation, suffering from malnutrition, is to number among the invited invisible guests at your dinner tables" (156). She attempts here to mobilize a specific group to act on behalf of oppressed Native Americans and to show how improving the lot of Native Americans by according them citizenship and equal rights ("Wardship is no substitute for American citizenship, therefore we seek his enfranchisement," she argues [156].) will also improve the United States as a whole by removing this stain.
lieslindi's review against another edition
Bookriot Read Harder 2015: A book that is by or about someone from an indigenous culture (Native Americans, Aboriginals, etc.)
sookieskipper's review against another edition
4.0
Zitkala-Ša leaves her home in Dakota and joins a missionary school in the east. In this book she gives a bird eye view of her childhood and brief look into her entry to western society.
She writes about religion, politics and the future she sees for her people.
She writes about religion, politics and the future she sees for her people.
surefinewhatever_'s review against another edition
3.0
I just wanted more of the nonfiction! Zitkala-Sa’s story is heartbreaking, fascinating, and illuminating. I’d love to have read an entire book about it. I did, however, enjoy the short stories as well and seeing what she was saying with these fictional tales, but the nonfiction is really what grabbed my heart here. I just wanted more!
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