Indian Schools

Like thousands of Aboriginal children in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere in the colonized world, Xatsu'll chief Bev Sellars spent part of her childhood as a student in a church-run residential school. These institutions endeavored to "civilize" Native children through Christian teachings; forced separation from family, language, and culture; and strict discipline. In this frank and poignant memoir of her years at St. Joseph's Mission, Sellars breaks her silence about the residential school's lasting effects on her and her family and eloquently articulates her own path to healing.

When superstar athlete Jim Thorpe and football legend Pop Warner met in 1904 at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, they forged one of the winningest teams in American football history. Called "the team that invented football," they took on the best opponents of their day...

Finalist for the 2026 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction A Time Must-Read Book of 2025, An NPR Books We Love Most pick, A Tribal College Best Native Studies Book of 2025, and a 2026 Great Reads from Great Places Pick From award-winning journalist Joseph Lee, a sweeping, personal...

Little Moon There Are No Stars Tonight was four years old when armed federal agents showed up at her home and took her from her family. Under the authority of the government, she was sent away to a boarding school specifically created to strip her of her Ponca culture and teach her the ways of white society. Little Moon was one of thousands of Indigenous children forced to attend these schools across America and give up everything they'd ever known: family, friends, toys, clothing, food, customs, even their language.

The last "Indian War" was fought against Native American children in the dormitories and classrooms of government boarding schools. Only by removing Indian children from their homes for extended periods of time, policymakers reasoned, could white "civilization" take root while childhood memories of "savagism" gradually faded to the point of extinction. In the words of one official: "Kill the Indian and save the man."

WINNER: Canada Reads 2022 WINNER: Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction WINNER: Amazon First Novel Award WINNER: Kobo Emerging Author Prize Finalist: Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalist: Atwood Gibson Writers Trust Prize Finalist: BC & Yukon Book Prize Shortlist: Indigenous Voices Awards...

A sweeping and deeply personal account of Native American boarding schools in the United States, and the legacy of abuse wrought by them in an attempt to destroy Native culture and life FINALIST FOR THE PEN OPEN BOOK AWARD A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, TIME, Smithsonian, The History Channel...

A college professor debunks the myths that have infiltrated America's school curricula. In 1995, James W. Loewen penned the classic work of criticism Lies My Teacher Told Me, a left-leaning corrective that addressed much of what was sanitized and omitted from American history books. But in the...

Best known as a leader of the Indian takeover of Alcatraz Island in 1969, Adam Fortunate Eagle now offers an unforgettable memoir of his years as a young student at Pipestone Indian Boarding School in Minnesota. In this rare firsthand account, Fortunate Eagle lives up to his reputation as a "contrary warrior" by disproving the popular view of Indian boarding schools as bleak and prisonlike. Although Fortunate Eagle recognizes Pipestone's shortcomings, he describes his time there as nothing less than "a little bit of heaven."

The sixth book in the Charles Bloom Murder Mystery series… In 1961, two Navajo boys must bet each other’s lives - and risk their most prized possessions - to escape the wrath of the sadistic headmaster of a Gallup Indian boarding school. The white devil and his spawn will stop at nothing - not even murder - to acquire the objects of their desire. Fifty years later, a brush with death draws Rachael Yellowhorse and Charles Bloom back to the Navajo reservation, where they unwittingly stumble on a decades-old secret of child abuse and stolen heirlooms.

Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian...

What if the secret in the attic was never meant to stay hidden? When Mara Caldwell opens a weathered trunk in the house she has inherited, she finds journals, beadwork, and a map tied to a young Kiowa boy living through the violence of the late 1800s. Every page pulls her deeper into a past her family tried to erase, and every clue points to a lie buried in the land beneath her feet. A dual-timeline mystery that links one woman's search for answers to a boy's fight to preserve memory. A haunting Native American historical novel rich with family secrets, archival clues, and emotional stakes....

The New York Times bestselling author of the book club classics The Kitchen House and Glory Over Everything returns with a sweeping and “richly detailed story of a woman caught between two cultures” (Sandra Dallas, New York Times bestselling author) inspired by the real life of Crow...

A biography of Jim Thorpe, the Native American sports icon and Olympic champion, that “goes beyond the myth and into the guts of Thorpe’s life, using extensive research, historical nuance, and bittersweet honesty” (Los Angeles Times), by the bestselling author of the classic biography When...

1952. Chicago socialite Elizabeth “Bettye” Grafton flees her abusive husband for a Nevada divorce. She holes up on a gritty-glamorous Reno dude ranch at the foot of the Sierra Nevada to endure the state’s six-week residency in a menagerie of wealthy ex-wives-in-waiting. By day, she finds solace riding the High Sierra—and by night, in a bottomless bottle of bourbon and a stack of books. But she’s back in the land she left behind as an Indian School runaway, and the past is not done with her. Nor are her powerful husband and his Las Vegas mob cronies. Just days before her divorce ...

A groundbreaking and deeply personal exploration of Tribal enrollment, and what it means to be Native American in the United States “Candid, unflinching . . . Her thorough excavation of the painful history that gave rise to rigid enrollment policies is a courageous gift to our understanding of...

A Good Morning America Book Club Pick! From the instant New York Times bestselling author of Firekeeper’s Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed comes a daring new mystery about a foster teen claiming her heritage on her own terms. Ever since Lucy Smith’s father died five years ago; “home”...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER "Fred Sasakamoose played in the NHL before First Nations people had the right to vote in Canada. This page turner will have you cheering for 'Fast Freddy' as he faces off against huge challenges both on and off the ice--a great gift to every proud hockey fan, Canadian, and...

Winner of the U.P. Notable Books Award (2025) The impact of Indian boarding schools has been devastating for generations of Native Americans, and the aftershocks continue to affect their descendants today. Michigan was home to three: in Baraga, Harbor Springs and Mt. Pleasant. The last to close was Holy Childhood School of Jesus, in Harbor Springs, in 1983. Sharon Marie Brunner set out to intensively study the family history and boarding school experience of nine Native American survivors who attended either the Mt. Pleasant or Harbor Springs institutions. Each faced problems linked to the ...

Unfortunately, schools don’t teach it. An average man everyday finds himself in at least 5-10 situations where he is in some disagreement with another. Thus, this requires him to have the essential life skill of arguing successfully to get his point heard, to get his opinion or perception understood, and to get his view implemented. Knowing how to argue successfully can be the difference between success and failure Have you been in an argument with your parents whom you love so much but yet you want to live your life on your own terms rather than what your parents think is right for you? ...