Children of the Dragonfly: Native American Voices on Child Custody and Education [Hardcover]

Robert Bensen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2001

Sometimes the losses of childhood can be recovered only in the flight of the dragonfly.Native American children have long been subject to removal from their homes for placement in residential schools and, more recently, in foster or adoptive homes. The governments of both the United States and Canada, having reduced Native nations to the legal status of dependent children, historically have asserted a surrogate parentalism over Native children themselves. Children of the Dragonfly is the first anthology to document this struggle for cultural survival on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border. Through autobiography and interviews, fiction and traditional tales, official transcripts and poetry, these voices— Seneca, Cherokee, Mohawk, Navajo, and many others— weave powerful accounts of struggle and loss into a moving testimony to perseverance and survival. Invoking the dragonfly spirit of Zuni legend who helps children restore a way of life that has been taken from them, the anthology explores the breadth of the conflict about Native childhood. Included are works of contemporary authors Sherman Alexie, Joy Harjo, Luci Tapahonso, and others; classic writers Zitkala-Sa and E. Pauline Johnson; and contributions from twenty important new writers as well. They take readers from the boarding school movement of the 1870s to the Sixties Scoop in Canada and the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 in the United States. They also spotlight the tragic consequences of racist practices such as the suppression of Indian identity in government schools and the campaign against Indian childbearing through involuntary sterilization.

CONTENTS
Part 1. Traditional Stories and Lives
Severt Young Bear (Lakota) and R. D. Theisz, To Say "Child"
Zitkala-Sa (Yankton Sioux), The Toad and the Boy
Delia Oshogay (Chippewa), Oshkikwe's Baby
Michele Dean Stock (Seneca), The Seven Dancers
Mary Ulmer Chiltoskey (Cherokee), Goldilocks Thereafter
Marietta Brady (Navajo), Two Stories
Part 2. Boarding and Residential Schools
Embe (Marianna Burgess), from Stiya: or, a Carlisle Indian Girl at Home
Black Bear (Blackfeet), Who Am I?
E. Pauline Johnson (Mohawk), As It Was in the Beginning
Lee Maracle (Stoh:lo), Black Robes
Gordon D. Henry, Jr. (White Earth Chippewa), The Prisoner of Haiku
Luci Tapahonso (Navajo), The Snakeman
Joy Harjo (Muskogee), The Woman Who Fell from the Sky
Part 3. Child Welfare and Health Services
Problems That American Indian Families Face in Raising Their Children, United States Senate, April 8 and 9, 1974
Mary TallMountain (Athabaskan), Five Poems
Virginia Woolfclan, Missing Sister
Lela Northcross Wakely (Potawatomi/Kickapoo), Indian Health
Sherman Alexie (Spokane/Coeur d'Alene), from Indian Killer
Milton Lee (Cheyenne River Sioux) and Jamie Lee, The Search for Indian
Part 4. Children of the Dragonfly
Peter Cuch (Ute), I Wonder What the Car Looked Like
S. L. Wilde (Anishnaabe), A Letter to My Grandmother
Eric Gansworth (Onondaga), It Goes Something Like This
Kimberly Roppolo (Cherokee/Choctaw/Creek), Breeds and Outlaws
Phil Young (Cherokee) and Robert Bensen, Wetumka
Lawrence Sampson (Delaware/Eastern Band Cherokee), The Long Road Home
Beverley McKiver (Ojibway), When the Heron Speaks
Joyce carlEtta Mandrake (White Earth Chippewa), Memory Lane Is the Next Street Over
Alan Michelson (Mohawk), Lost Tribe
Patricia Aqiimuk Paul (Inupiaq), The Connection
Terry Trevor (Cherokee/Delaware/Seneca), Pushing up the Sky
Annalee Lucia Bensen (Mohegan/Cherokee), Two Dragonfly Dream Songs

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A wonderful collection of stories, poems, songs, dreams and interviews, shining a bright light on the dark practice of removing Native American children from their homes and families to send them away to boarding schools or adopting them out. . . both informative and thought-provoking." —Access Genealogy Native American Book Review "Together, the essays in this compilation provide one of the most creative and thought-provoking analyses yet published of the trauma that has been inflicted on Native American children by the governments of the U.S. and Canada. . . . It is an excellent work and essential reading for anyone concerned with children and social policy." —Readings: A Journal of Reviews and Commentary in Mental Health "The collection honors and encourages a spirit of renewal, hope, and pride in traditional cultures focusing on children, community, and family. . . . Those interested in American Indian life, literature, and history as well as educators will find Children of the Dragonfly to be insightful and enriching." —Multicultural Review "This beautifully organized and inclusive anthology provides a vital contribution to understanding the harmful policies aimed at destroying Indian cultures and to remembering the often creative resistance to these efforts. . . . This anthology adds essential voices to 'the long story of the people.' " —SAIL "Recommended reading for anyone who seeks more knowledge about the Native American experience with forced displacement caused by the government, or simply those who enjoy reading about Native American culture in all its forms." —Red Ink

About the Author

Robert Bensen is coeditor of Iroquois Voices, Iroquois Visions: A Celebration of Contemporary Six Nations Arts and has authored numerous essays on Native literature and child custody. He is Professor of English and Director of Writing at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, where he also teaches American Indian law and literature.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press (March 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816520127
• ISBN-13: 978-0816520121
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,956,465 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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4.0 out of 5 stars It was a required text..., October 12, 2011

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This review is from: Children of the Dragonfly: Native American Voices on Child Custody and Education (Paperback)

I can't say that this book was horrible and rate it as such, because it has good content in it. Personally, I would never have read this if I didn't have to for school. The content was good, though, showing the views of Native Americans and boarding schools, and their relationship with our government. There were many short stories and essays inside, so not your typical novel-style book. Even for an educational book, this seemed a little boring. Maybe that's just me...