Runs With Courage - Hardcover

Wolf, Joan M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1585369845 ISBN 13: 9781585369843

Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press, 2016

Synopsis

Ten-year-old Four Winds is a young Lakota girl caught up in the changes brought about by her people's forced move to the reservation. Set in the Dakota Territory, it is the year 1880. Four Winds has been taken away from her family and brought to a boarding school run by whites. It is here she is taught English and learns how to assimilate into white culture. But soon she discovers that the teachers at this school are not interested in assimilation but rather in erasing her culture. On the reservation, Four Winds had to fight against starvation. Now she must fight to hold on to who she is.

About this title

From School Library Journal

Gr 4–6—Set in the Dakota Territory in 1880, this historical novel follows a 10-year-old Lakota girl, Four Winds, of the Great Sioux Reservation. She is taken from her tribe to live in a U.S. government residential boarding school for girls. The boarding school program was designed to force American Indians to assimilate while newcomers took possession of their homelands. This fictional account is a sincere attempt to depict this tragic federal policy of assimilation and make it accessible to children. As the story unfolds, Wolf portrays several realistic situations and historical facts about residential school life (the destruction of all indigenous items, cutting of children's hair, prohibition of Native language, and verbal and physical abuse). The adults at the school are Christians who view the girls as "uncivilized savages." The only exception is Miss Beatrice, who notices Four Winds as a leader. The universal emotions of anger, frustration, loneliness, and resentment of unfair treatment are realistically conveyed. By the end of the book, Four Winds is given a new name, "Runs with Courage," as she decides to become a teacher and help her people. Unfortunately, some of the dialogue and descriptions do not authentically reflect indigenous ways of being. For example, scenes of the children discussing how "warrior-like" fellow classmates will be reveal a stereotypical and incorrect understanding of status in Native communities. VERDICT As a first impression of the American Indian residential boarding school experience, this lacks authenticity and reinforces some stereotypes. Readers would do better by picking up Shirley Sterling's My Name Is Seepeetza.—Naomi Caldwell, Alabama State University, Montgomery, AL

Review

Four Winds is a 10-year-old Lakota girl who must find courage after being forced to leave her tiospaye, family community, and attend a boarding school. The novel is set in 1880, and it is evident to the reader from the beginning that white settlers have displaced and coerced the Lakota people. Four Winds quickly, and painfully, learns that the boarding school has no interest in preserving her culture. Readers and educators should start with the appended author s note, which provides brief historical context for this story, in order to better understand the complexity of boarding-school narratives within Native American culture. Although Wolf s characters endure a variety of violence, such as being physically punished for speaking their native tongue, they also refuse to forget their Lakota traditions. Their resilience and resistance is apparent throughout this dark yet moving piece of historical fiction. Consider pairing with Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer s I Am Not a Number (2016) or Nancy Bo Flood s Soldier Sister, Fly Home (2016). Sonia Alejandra Rodríguez --Booklist

Edition details

• Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1585369845
• ISBN 13: 9781585369843
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 224