Includes bibliographical references and index.

"From the mid-19th century to the late 1930s, tens of thousands of Native children were pulled from their families to attend boarding schools that claimed to help create opportunity for these children to pursue professions outside their communities and otherwise 'assimilate' into American life. In reality, these boarding schools--sponsored by the US Government but often run by various religious orders with little to no regulation--were an insidious attempt to destroy tribes, break up families, and stamp out the traditions of generations of Native people. ... Ojibwe journalist Mary Pember's mother was forced to attend one of these institutions, ... and the impacts of her experience have cast a pall over Mary's own childhood and her relationship with her mother. Highlighting both her mother's experience and the experiences of countless other students at such schools, their families, and their children, [this book] paints a stark portrait of communities still reckoning with the legacy of acculturation that has affected generations of Native communities"--