A critical review of Ann Rinaldi's My Heart Is on the Ground: The diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux girl

Multicultural Education, Fall 1999 by Atleo, Marlene, Caldwell, Naomi, Landis, Barbara, Mendoza, Jean, Et al

MY HEART IS ON THE GROUND BY ANN RINALDI NEW YORK: SCHOLASTIC, DEAR AMERICA SERIES,1999, 203 PAGES, AGES 9-12

Introduction

There is a story behind this review and how it came to be. In March, Debbie Reese (Nambe), a doctoral student at the University of Illinois, saw My Heart Is on the Ground in a local bookstore. She picked it up, skimmed it, and put it down in distaste. She walked away from it, took a few steps, and felt it couldn't be ignored. Reading through the book, she was outraged and called Beverly Slapin of Oyate in Berkeley, California, and read excerpts to her. Beverly had already ordered a review copy from Scholastic and was not looking forward to reading it. A day later and equally outraged (or "stunned but not surprised" as she said), Beverly called it the "worst book she had ever read." Both women began talking about this book to colleagues.

Debbie contacted Barb Landis, a research specialist in this area. Barb had also read the book and felt it was an outrageous depiction of a tragic period in Native American history. A series of Internet and telephone discussions followed. The circle came to include Marlene Atleo (Nuu-chahnulth), Naomi Caldwell (Ramapough), Jean Mendoza, Deborah Miranda (OhloneCostanoan Esselen), LaVera Rose (Lakota), and Cynthia Smith (Creek). We quickly drew up a first draft of what came to be this review, with each of us contributing particular areas of knowledge about Carlisle Indian School, Lakota culture and history, and critical evaluation of children's books; a few days later, Debbie raised the issues it contained at a children's literature conference at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

As individuals, we write and speak in many voices, but we feel that our collective authorship of this piece adds to its strength. This piece represents a first-time collaboration among nine women. Some of us are Indian and some of us are not. Some of us are parents and grandparents and some of us are not. We all call ourselves teachers in some way; as well, we are learners. For purposes of practicality, we are listing our names alphabetically.

We do this for our children and grandchildren-Elizabeth, Carlos, Will, Michael, Michele, Stephanie, Miranda, Danny, William, Thomas, Terri, Jamal, Kiana, Rose, Brittany, Shelena, Noah, Kevin, Tyson, Tara, Alexandria-and for their children and the next seven generations.

A Brief Digression about Pratt, Carlisle, and the Boarding School Experience

Because Captain Richard Henry Pratt figures so prominently in this book, it might be a good thing to stop for a moment and look at who he was and what his relationship was to Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Born in 1840, Pratt began his military career by enlisting in the Union army in 1861. As a young cavalry officer, Pratt commanded a regiment of Buffalo Soldiers. The Buffalo Soldiers were a Black regiment, that, along with hired Indian scouts, were used as mercenary Indian-fighters for the benefit of White expansionism during the post-Civil War period. In 1875, Pratt was assigned the command of Fort Marion, the notorious prisoner-of-war camp in Saint Augustine, Florida, where Kiowa, Comanche, and Cheyenne prisoners were taken as hostages to ensure the subjugation of their people.

A decade later, Chiricahua Apache men, women, and children were also sent to Fort Marion, where the children were separated from their parents and sent on to Carlisle. It was at Fort Marion that Pratt began to formulate his early ideas about "civilizing" the Indians: he cut off their hair, replaced their traditional clothing with military uniforms, organized them into hierarchical-structured regiments, and taught them English. After enrolling several of the Fort Marion prisoners at the Hampton School for Negro Children in Virginia, Pratt recruited young children from the Standing Rock Agency and his ideas about Indian "education" began to take shape.

In 1879, Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which he ruled with an iron hand, his stated philosophy being "Kill the Indian and save the man." Carlisle, and the Indian boarding schools that followed, were set up to break spirits, destroy traditional extended families and cultures, obliterate memories and languages, and, especially, make the children deny their Indianness inside and out.

Sun Elk, from Taos Pueblo, told of his experiences at Carlisle in 1890:

They told us that Indian ways were bad. They said we must get civilized. I remember that word, too. It means "be like the white man." I am willing to be like the white man, but I did not believe Indian ways were wrong. But they kept teaching us for seven years. And the books told how bad the Indians had been to the white men-burning their towns and killing their women and children. But I had seen white men do that to Indians. We all wore white man's clothes and ate white man's food and went to white man's churches and spoke white man's talk. And so after a while we also began to say Indians were bad. We laughed at our own people and their blankets and cooking pots and sacred societies and dances. I tried to learn the lessons-and after seven years I came home.... (Nabokov, 1991, p. 222)