2018 Outstanding Academic Title, selected by Choice
Recovering Native American Writings in the Boarding School Press is
the first comprehensive collection of writings by students and
well-known Native American authors who published in boarding school
newspapers during the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. Students used their acquired literacy in English
along with more concrete tools that the boarding schools made
available, such as printing technology, to create identities for
themselves as editors and writers. In these roles they sought
to challenge Native American stereotypes and share issues of
importance to their communities. Writings by Gertrude Bonnin
(Zitkala-Ša), Charles Eastman, and Luther Standing Bear are paired
with the works of lesser-known writers to reveal parallels and
points of contrast between students and generations. Drawing
works primarily from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School
(Pennsylvania), the Hampton Institute (Virginia), and the Seneca
Indian School (Oklahoma), Jacqueline Emery illustrates how the
boarding school presses were used for numerous and competing
purposes. While some student writings appear to reflect the
assimilationist agenda, others provide more critical perspectives
on the schools' agendas and the dominant culture. This
collection of Native-authored letters, editorials, essays, short
fiction, and retold tales published in boarding school newspapers
illuminates the boarding school legacy and how it has shaped, and
continues to shape, Native American literary production.