American Indian Stories (Modern Library Torchbearers)

A groundbreaking Dakota author and activist chronicles her refusal to assimilate into nineteenth-century white society and her mission to preserve her culture--with an introduction by Layli Long Soldier, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award for Whereas Bright and carefree, Zitk�la-S� grows up on the Yankton Sioux reservation in South Dakota with her mother until Quaker missionaries arrive, offering the reservation's children a free education. The catch: They must leave their parents behind and travel to Indiana. Curious about the world beyond the reservation, Zitk�la-S� begs her mother to let her go--and her mother, aware of the advantages that an education offers, reluctantly agrees. But the missionary school is not the adventure that Zitk�la-S� expected: The school is a strict one, her long hair is cut short, and only English is spoken. She encounters racism and ridicule. Slowly, Zitk�la-S� adapts to her environment--exc