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

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.

Table of 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

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