That was the beginning of an excruciating period of abandonment, abuse, and heartbreak. She never forgave her own mother for allowing it to happen. But there’s more to the story. As the author researched her mother’s history and the history of the schools that were created to force Indigenous Americans to “assimilate” she found compelling evidence that the system was designed with one main goal, a systematic sociocide they hoped would erase tribal cultures.
There were hundreds of these schools. Children could be sent off to places so far away they didn’t see their families again for years. They were prohibited from speaking their own languages. The education they received was minimal, these were mostly places where they were forced to work, often just to grow food for themselves.
We learn about a system designed to wipe out their nativeness and further impoverish tribes. Tribal lands were confiscated to subsidize the education they were supposedly receiving. Many schools were like the “Sister School” where Bernice went, run by the Catholic Church, which still owns large swaths of these formerly tribal lands.
The recent discoveries of the graves of children who died in these schools has brought more attention to this dark enterprise. Pember’s book reveals horrors that took place. There are also some uplifting aspects to this book which is a history and also the author’s memoir. We learn how some clever residents of these places were able to preserve their culture.
And we travel with Pember on her long journey to find out how her mother became the woman she was. One talent she acquired was how to survive in a world controlled by white people. She taught her daughter how to do it. This is the story of three women; Pember, her mother Bernice, and her mother’s mother, the woman Bernice could never forgive.
All three of these women went on to marry supportive white men who loved them. This was yet another factor in their survival in a world in which obstacles seemed arrayed in their paths. The author is a long-time journalist. She lives in Cincinnati and is currently working on a book about the under-reported ongoing epidemic of homicides among Indigenous women.
Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www.wyso.org/programs/book-nook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.
About the Author