Stealing Little Moon: The Legacy of the American Indian Boarding Schools

This is a hauntingly painful, yet occasionally hopeful memoir and study of the intergenerational trauma inflicted on Indigenous children by the American Indian Boarding Schools at the behest of the United States government. Author Dan SaSuWeh Jones relates the stories of four generations of his family, including himself, who were affected by the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, opened in Oklahoma in 1884.

Dan SaSuWeh Jones’s grandmother, Little Moon There Are No Stars Tonight, was stolen from her family by armed federal agents in 1885 when she was 4 years old and eventually enrolled in Chilocco Indian Agricultural School. The school and all others like it were created to “kill the Indian in him, and save the man.” Not only did Little Moon lose her family, she was stripped of her language, culture, and religious beliefs.

About his grandmother and other Indigenous children who were kidnapped during that time period, SaSuWeh Jones writes, “They had been abducted from their families on a scale the world had never seen. It was happening across the United States and Canada, with tens of thousands of Indigenous and First Nations children stolen.”

Reflecting on the horror and unspeakable injustice of what happened, SaSuWeh Jones adds, “Think about this tragedy. We are two different cultures that both revere our stories, our families, our celebrations and traditions, and our sense of self. Why couldn’t white society appreciate those Indian traditions instead of destroying them? Why couldn’t they incorporate our traditions into white practices to make a richer and more universal society?”

Besides his family’s stories, SaSuWeh Jones shares the narratives of numerous boarding school survivors. His chapter titled “Hateful Things” is especially grievous and disturbing to read as stories of extreme punishment, sexual abuse, peer abuse, hunger, epidemics, religious abuse, and more are recalled and shared. SaSuWeh Jones writes, “It will take generations for American Indians to recover. It will take generations more for us to freely share our world again.”

SaSuWeh Jones’s description of the role the church played in this government-approved movement is a painful, yet fair indictment of how, in the name of God, religious leaders failed in their responsibility to follow Jesus’ command to love children.

Though Stealing Little Moon is recommended for ages 9-12, it is better suited to ages 13 and older because of the difficult subject matter. Even then, the involvement of an adult reader would be helpful to help younger readers come to terms with this dark period in American and Canadian history. (Scholastic Focus)