3 h 38 minAudiobook5 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does a child lose when a school asks her to leave her own world behind?
Zitkala-Sa begins with childhood on the Great Plains: open grass, Dakota life, and the steady presence of her mother. Then missionaries arrive, seeking children for a school in Indiana. For the young girl, the journey brings strict routines and a struggle to hold on to herself.
American Indian Stories gathers childhood memories, missionary school experiences, accounts of teaching, short fiction, and essays. Zitkala-Sa writes with tenderness and anger, preserving Dakota life while showing what schooling and government policy do to Native families. Her stories follow people caught between two ways of life.
What you’ll discover
- A childhood close to home Enter a child's world of tents, open prairie, and her mother's steady presence.
- The meaning of her hair Discover why a forced haircut becomes a painful struggle over identity and belonging.
- Learning at a cost Feel the pressure of bells and schedules as school wears away a girl's sense of self.
- A teacher sees the harm Follow Zitkala-Sa into teaching, where her account exposes the harm done by boarding schools.
- Memory turns to protest Explore fiction and essays that bring Native lives and the effects of government policy into focus.
Who will love it
For readers who love memoir with a poet's eye, for anyone curious about Native American life and history, and for listeners who enjoy firelight tales, vivid scenes and honest, personal testimony.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A free childhood shaped by mother and legend
- A promise of apples draws her east
- At school, rules replace freedom and comfort
- Caught between two worlds, she wins on stage
- Teaching Indian children shows her the system's flaws
- Spirit, stories and tales from Dakota life
- Lost identity and a call to American women
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Read and hear American Indian Stories in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
American Indian Stories
by Zitkala-Sa · 1921
A Dakota girl follows a promise of red apples onto an iron horse and into a school that cuts her hair.
Medium level2–5 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What does it cost a child to trade a prairie for a schoolroom? Zitkala-Sa, a Dakota writer, answers in American Indian Stories, a book of memoir, tales and protest.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A free childhood shaped by mother and legend
The book opens with the author's earliest memories on the Dakota plains. She is a wild little girl of seven who runs beside her mother to the Missouri River. Her mother teaches her one fear only, the fear of intruding on others.
Every scene teaches something. At the evening meal, old men and women gather to tell Iktomi legends while the child rests her head in her mother's lap. In beadwork lessons she must invent her own designs and finish every one she starts. When she serves an old warrior muddy water as coffee, he drinks it politely, and the adults spare her any embarrassment.
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What is American Indian Stories about?
It combines memoir, tales and essays. Zitkala-Sa recalls her Dakota childhood, her years at Eastern schools and her work as a teacher. Then come stories of Dakota life, a tale about land and identity, and a closing call for Native citizenship.
Is American Indian Stories a true story?
The first three sections are autobiographical, drawn from the author's own life. The later tales mix legend, invention and social critique, while the final essay is an argument based on reports about Indian affairs.
Who is Zitkala-Sa?
She is a Dakota writer and teacher. She writes about her people and calls for their rights.
The author
Zitkala-Sa
1876–1938 · Yankton Dakota writer
Zitkala-Sa (1876–1938) was a Yankton Dakota writer, also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin. She was born on the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota and died in Washington, D.C. She published Old Indian Legends in 1901 and American Indian Stories in 1921. She also worked for Native American rights.
More by Zitkala-Sa
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