Navaho Sister

by Evelyn Sibley Lampman, Paul Lantz (Illustrator)

Story of a lonely Navajo girl at the Chemawa school in Oregon.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

(1907-1980) Mrs. Lampman grew up in Dallas, Oregon, granddaughter of pioneers in that region. She graduated from Oregon State and worked for many years in radio. Her first book was published in 1948, and she was most recognized for sensitive books about racial minorities, especially Native Americans.

Reviews

[CatholicBibliophagist · Rating 3 out of 5]

Evelyn Sibley Lampman was a favorite author whose City Under the Back Steps and Shy Stegasaurus of Cricket Creek I read and reread when I was a little girl because in those days they were the closest thing to fantasy and science fiction to be found in the little library near the Navy housing project where we lived. Each time our family was transferred, I would check the local library to see if they had any more of Lampman's titles. I was able to read quite a few, but never realized how many books she wrote until the advent of the Internet.

Navajo Sister is one of Lampman's realistic books. Published in 1956, It's about a young Navajo girl who has been brought up by her grandmother. The two of them are pitied by other members of the tribe because they have no clan, no extended family. Worried about her granddaughter's future, Grandmother decides to send her away to school. (This book would probably not be published today because of its positive portrayal of the boarding school where Navajo children were sent to learn English and vocational training.)

I originally read this when I was quite young and recall liking it as I was always curious about people of other cultures, especially when they encountered cultures foreign to them. Vivid mental images from it have stayed with me all these years. I'll rate the book after I've finished rereading it.

Update: Yes, I liked it as much as I did when I was a kid. The author did a good job of presenting the dominant culture through the eyes of an outsider. Simultaneously, through the main character's thoughts and reactions, she conveyed information about Navajo culture to her readers. The emphasis of the book was on learning the English language and the Anglo technology and way of doing things in order to adopt those elements that would be useful in making a life in the modern world while acknowledging the value of Navajo culture.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published 1956.

When I was a kid, I was fascinated by this book about a Navajo girl who goes away to boarding school in Oregon.

Admittedly, it makes Indian boarding school sound pretty appealing, which is unfortunate--but there are a lot of rich cultural details and complex characters. Rose never stops preferring the Navajo way of doing pretty much everything. The portrayal of a family-centric culture is lovely, especially Rose's devotion to her grandmother.

[Laura O'keefe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Like other reviewers here, I read and enjoyed a lot of Evelyn Sibley Lampman's books when I was growing up, but this one from 1956 has not aged well in its largely positive depiction of a Navajo child going far from her home to a school that teaches assimilation. It includes an episode in which, unbelievably, the school shows its students a western movie where the white people triumph over the Indians. As clueless as I was as a kid, I recognized that there was something very wrong with that scenario.

And of course, the school in the book is the real-life Chemawa Indian School in Oregon, where in 2015, a researcher discovered hundreds of children's bodies in mass and unmarked graves. One wonders about the eventual fate of the kids in Lampman's books.

[Miki · Rating 1 out of 5]

Growing up, I loved this book and believed it to be a factual depiction of Indian life that wasn't so bad. Now, I can hardly stand to think that I enjoyed reading about a young girl being assimilated into a foreign culture. I'd like to believe that such practices are in the past, but they never are, are they?