My Heart is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl, Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania, 1880 by Ann Rinaldi (Dear America Series)

★★

*** Warning: This review contains spoilers! ***

Ken picked this book up randomly from the library. Isabelle and I read it separately, and then together decided to give it 4 or 5 stars. Then, I went online... Now, I can't in good conscious give this book more than 2 stars. I am giving it 2 stars, instead of just 1, only because I really did enjoy reading it, and I have to admit, I liked the story.

To summarize the plot: Nannie Little Rose is a 12-year-old Sioux girl who is sent to a boarding school for Native Americans in Pennsylvania. The entire book is presented as the text of her private diary. It's an interesting perspective that makes for compelling reading, especially for the young target audience of 9-to-12-year-olds. We follow Nannie Little Rose's journey as she grows from being a scared new student who longs for her Native American ways to an educated and contributing member of the school community who still holds her Native American ways dear. I especially liked one particular message comparing large acts of bravery that make people proud to small acts of kindness that make people beautiful (page 141 in my edition).

So, what's the controversy here? Basically,the way Native Americans feel about this book is the way I, as a Chinese-American, feel about Tikki Tikki Tembo.

Here is an article that clearly delineates the problems with this book:

Fiction Posing As Truth: A Critical Review of Ann Rinaldi's My Heart Is on the Ground: The diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl

And, for good measure, here is an article I wrote about the problems with Tikki Tikki Tembo:

Rethinking Tikki Tikki Tembo

In one respect, I am almost more forgiving of Tikki Tikki Tembo, which was published in 1968, before there was widespread appreciation of cultural diversity in the United States. (Still, I resent the way the book continues to be considered a "classic" and to be used as an example of Chinese culture.) My Heart is on the Ground, however, was published in 1999, well after the widely acclaimed book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee publicized the injustices and humiliations suffered by Native Americans. To publish such a whitewashed account of Native American history at this point in American history - and to do so with seemingly good intentions! - just goes to show how deeply ignorant and racist (even if unintentionally racist) people can be.

Of course, keeping in mind this book's target audience, I can understand toning down some of the information. For example, in describing these Native American boarding schools, perhaps it is age-appropriate to simply say that the United States government required Native American children to attend these schools, that many children did not want to go at all, and nor did their parents want them to go. Maybe third graders don't need to know that school officials, working for the federally funded boarding schools, actually kidnapped children to populate their schools. Maybe it's enough to tell them that students who clung to Native American ways, perhaps by speaking their native language, were "punished". Do they need to know that punishment consisted of severe beatings? Maybe it's understandable these types of details would be more appropriate in a young adult book or in middle or high school lessons on Native American history.

Still, there is no excuse for the factual errors listed in the above article. Nor should the history be so whitewashed that the reader leaves with the impression that Captain Pratt was a kind of father figure (his actual motto: "Kill the Indian, save the man.") or that the boarding school was wholly beneficial for all who attended.

To find out about the true impact and long-lasting damage done by these boarding schools, this article from The Seattle Times is as distressing as it is informative.

After doing my research, I had to have a small follow-up discussion with Isabelle about how not everything in the book was accurate, and that even though it was a good story, it didn't really show the typical boarding school experience that actual Native Americans had.

One final thought. If you still plan on reading this book, or giving it to an elementary school-aged child to read, you should be aware that this book does include death, and in particular, one rather disturbing death in which a girl is possibly buried alive.

1/27/14 Update: I just came across another article about American Indian boarding schools.