A New Book That Is Close to My Heart
I am excited. Last week I went through proofs for a new children’s literature title, Growing Up Dakota. For each of our curriculum sets, we choose 7-12 literature titles that enhance what children learn. This new book goes along with the updated America the Beautiful which we began taking orders for on Monday.
Growing Up Dakota contains excerpts from two books by Charles Alexander Eastman, plus some notes from me. Eastman was born in a buffalo-skin teepee in 1858. By the mid-1870s (in his own words, speaking in third person) :
He found himself with the diplomas of a famous college and a great university, a Bachelor of Science, a Doctor of Medicine, and a doubly educated man—educated in the lore of the wilderness as well as in some of the deepest secrets of civilization.
Today I want to share with you mamas the introduction I wrote for Growing Up Dakota. This book means a great deal to me. The introduction will explain why. The introduction is between this row of hearts and another row at the bottom.
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WHY I WRITE ABOUT NATIVE PEOPLE
I was born in 1953 in a small town in Tennessee. My only contact with Native Americans when I was a child was when our family visited the Great Smoky Mountains. We did this several times during my childhood. On some trips, we drove across the mountains from Gatlinburg, Tennessee, to Cherokee, North Carolina, which is home to many Overhill Cherokees. One time we went to Cherokee with my parents, brother, grandparents, and young aunt, just a year and a half older than I. We saw a Cherokee man dressed up in a warbonnet. He was offering to pose for pictures. Someone in our family paid for him to have his picture made with my aunt and me. On one trip I brought home a small beaded doll as a souvenir, and another time I brought home a beaded headband.
By 1986 I was all grown-up with a husband and three young children. We went on a family camping vacation to see Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota. One evening a few native people came to our campground to dance native dances with us. Though I don’t know for sure, they were likely members of a Dakota nation. Our two-year-old daughter was standing beside one of the young men when we all took hands to form a circle. We have a wonderful photograph of her looking up at him. I remember feeling that I should say, “I am sorry for all of the ways that white people have mistreated your people.”
When I began to write about history for children, I made a conscious decision to honor native people in my writing. I am happy to share with you some of Charles Alexander Eastman’s memories of his childhood.
Eastman was born in 1858 in a native village in Minnesota. His father, Ite Wakanhdi Ota (which means Many Lightnings), was a full-blooded Dakota. His mother, Wakan Tanka Win, was half-Dakota. Her mother was a full-blooded Dakota. Her father was a U.S. Army officer.
Wakan Tanka Win died when Eastman was an infant. He was given the name Hakadah which means “The Pitiful Last.” His grandmother lovingly cared for him after his mother’s death. A war between the United States Army and the Dakota people separated Hakadah from his father when Hakadah was about four years old. While Hakadah was a boy, his name was changed to Ohiyesa, which means “winner.”
When Ohiyesa was fifteen years old, his father got a native guide to help him search for Ohiyesa. After they found him, his father brought him to live on his homestead in South Dakota. He told Ohiyesa that they were going to live like the white men. He told him to choose a new name. His father had chosen Jacob Eastman for his own name. Ohiyesa chose Charles Alexander Eastman. Charles started to school and liked it. He continued his education until he graduated from Dartmouth College and Boston University’s medical school. He became a physician.
Charles Eastman had respect for native ways and for white ways. Eastman wrote eleven books. I have chosen excerpts from his books Indian Child Life (1913) and Indian Boyhood (1902) to create Growing Up Dakota.
Many of Eastman’s stories are about his own life, but he also tells stories about his grandmother and a girl named Winona. Both boys and girls will enjoy Growing Up Dakota.
Eastman lived from 1858 to 1939. He wrote in ways that communicated well to the readers of his time. He used words that are offensive to us today, words such as pale-face, savage, half-breed, red man, and primitive. However, Eastman loved and respected his people. He meant what he wrote to be respectful of them. The words that people find acceptable change over time.
Eastman lived through the American Civil War. He wrote about the terrible shame of slavery.
All of the words in Growing Up Dakota are the original words of Charles Eastman, except when you see lines and type like this:
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The italicized words between the lines are mine.
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I have also left Eastman’s spelling and punctuation.
The Dakota people had a longstanding conflict with the Ojibwe nation (Eastman spelled it Ojibway) and also with white people. You will read about those conflicts in this book. These are sad stories, but they are a real part of history. Eastman refers to his people as Sioux. Today many members of Eastman’s native nation prefer to call themselves Dakota.
I have not changed the words that Eastman chose because I want you to be able to read this story in the words of the real Dakota man who wrote them. I did, however, change some of the chapter titles.
With great respect for the Dakota, the Ojibwe, and white Americans, I offer to you Growing Up Dakota — in Charles Alexander Eastman’s own words. He meant no disrespect and neither do I. He wanted people to understand. So do I.
It is quite a story. Enjoy.
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The process of writing during this politically charged time in history continues to be emotional and challenging for me personally. I gave myself a little present in the midst of it all. I fulfilled a personal dream and did all of the illustrations for the book myself, including the cover. Long before I ever had a dream of writing a book, I had a dream of illustrating them. I’ll give you a sneak peek inside with a couple of those illustrations.
I still remember a picture I drew of my little brother while I was a girl. I am grateful for past experiences that helped me draw that squirrel and snowshoe. I wonder what experiences your children will have today that will be an inspiration for them decades from now.
And concerning our politically charged time in history, we all need to remember . . .
. . . and He made from one man
every nation of mankind
to live on all the face of the earth,
having determined their appointed times
and the boundaries of their habitation . . .
Acts 17:26
Oops! I forgot that I told those at the webinar today that I would post our list of goals for our children. I’m sorry. I will plan to post those on Thursday.