Mary Annette Pember's mother was angry and defensive, but also highly intelligent with a devilish sense of humor. Pember wanted to understand how her mother became that way — what had formed her? She studied her mother's past and realized the time spent in a Wisconsin boarding school run by Catholic sisters profoundly impacted who her mother became.
This book takes readers inside the boarding school system that separated and isolated Indigenous children from their families. Children were often used as a labor force, and any education they received was designed to train them as laborers — getting a decent education was rarely the objective. The schools forced assimilation into the world of white people who had taken their ancestral lands. Children were not allowed to speak their native languages and were often mistreated. There were numerous fatalities.
This is also a story of hope. Despite five centuries of oppression, they endured. Some were able to survive. Pember's powerful history is also her memoir. This book is a must-read.
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