This is my next book review.  The book I am going to review today is a
rather old one, and is probably out of print, which is likely a
good thing. I was at a church waiting for a meeting, and discovered
their church library. I make a habit of discovering libraries.  They had
this very old, very dusty book there: Stiya, a Carlisle Indian Girl at
Home by Embe.  I picked it up, scanned it, and asked if I could borrow
it. "Sure thing," I was told.
Stiya was published in 1891 in Cambridge by the Riverside Press.  It is
written in very simple sentences, and could probably be read
independently by an eight year old child.  Whether I would recommend
that an eight year old child read it independently is quite another
thing.  It's intent is clearly to show that the Indian way of life is
inferior to the white way of life, and that acculturation is the only
proper and beneficial way for the Indian to go.
The story begins with Stiya, a young girl, returning to her Hopi
reservation after five years of attending Carlisle.  She has forgotten
most of the Hopi language (having not been home for five years, and
having been compelled to speak English during all that time).  However,
the book doesn't say she has forgotten the "Hopi" language, but that she
has forgotten how to speak "Indian".  The following is the quote from
the book when Stiya gets off the train and encounters her parents for
the first time:
"My father and mother, who were at the station waiting for their
daughter, rushed in my direction as soon as they saw me, and, talking
Indian as fast as they could, tried to help me from the train.
"My father took my valise, and my mother, seizing me by the arm, threw
her head upon my shoulder and cried for joy.,
"Was I as glad to see them as I thought I would be?
"I must admit that, instead, I was shocked and surprised at the sight
that met my eyes.
" '*My* father?  *My* mother?' I cried desperately within.  'No, never!'
I thought, and I actually turned my back upon them.
"I had forgotten that home Indians had such grimy faces.
"I had forgotten that my mother's hair always looked as though it had
never seen a comb."
If this was the beginning of the story of a child who would reaffirm her
ties with her community, this might have been acceptable.  After all, in
the 1880s, when this story took place, poverty, starvation, and disease
would have marked the faces of the reservation Indians (Stiya had lost
five siblings to diptheria and small pox, for example); and real shock
would have been inevitable for a returning child.
But the book continues in this vein: condemning the tribal governmental
system as being brutal and dictatorial, expressing the hope that these
"circumstances gives those interested in Indian education the hope that
a brighter day may now be dawning, when the home conditions will be so
changed that there will be no more tribal tyranny, but all will be under
the protection and enjoy the priviledges of our good government."  It
condemns the Hopi dances as being evil.  And, in the end, our heroine
persuades her family to leave the pueblos, and build a small, white
style house, elsewhere; so they could live in a more healthy and more
cultured way.
Yet, despite all the negativity of this book, I do recommend it to you
for reading.  In its 115 pages, it manages to give one of the best
pictures I have read of how the "liberals" of the 1880s, who were out to
"save the Indians", really felt about Indians.  If you are an Indian,
prepare to be angry when you read this; although you will not be
surprised.  You already know the story of what happened then.  I would
also recommend it to Indian parents homeschooling their kids, as long as
you are willing to spend time discussing with them how the ideas
expressed in this book is an example of an attempt at cultural genocide.
I would not recommend it at all for white kids, because I do not believe
that most white parents would have the energy, the love, or the
knowledge to offset the damage this book could do to their children's
already distorted image of "Indianness."
               Sondra
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 þ SLMR 2.1a þ I appoint you ambassador to Fantasy Island.
--- Opus-CBCS 1.7x via O_QWKer 1.7 
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