Lands of our Ancestors

Lands of our Ancestors #1

by Gary Robinson

This historical novel tells the story of a twelve-year-old Chumash boy and his family who become captives in a California Spanish mission sometime more than 200 years ago. This is historical fiction based entirely on historical fact that reveals the devastating impact the missions had on California Native peoples. Written for fourth, fifth and sixth graders, the story ends on a hopeful note as a small group of Native children are able to escape their captors and begin a journey to join other Native escapees in a remote mountain village. As mandated by the California Department of Education, every 4th grader is taught the "Mission Unit," which perpetuates the "idyllic mission myth" that glorifies the priests, denigrates California Indians and fails to mention that Indians were actually treated as slaves held captive by a Spanish colonial institution. The manuscript has been reviewed and approved by the Director of the Santa Ynez Chumash Culture Department and a member of the California American Indian Education Oversight Committee. It has the endorsement of a fourth grade teacher in California who has shared the story with her class and a local librarian who is excited about sharing the story with elementary age children through the library. It has also been endorsed by the local library branch manager and a former professor of Anthropology within the University of California system.

Genres: Historical Fiction

210 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2020

Reviews

[Yapha]

I really wish that I had found this book sooner. I have been searching for a more authentic book about native Californians to add to the fourth grade curriculum for a while now and this one just might be the answer! It is told from the point of view of a 12 year old Chumash boy whose community is captured, held prisoner, and forced to work building the Santa Ynez mission. The harsh reality of how native Californians were enslaved by the Spanish priests is told in a way that fourth graders (and older) will be able to relate to. If you are studying the California missions in fourth grade, this is an important book to present an alternate perspective. It does not paint all of the priests badly. It shows the complexity of the situation, both with priests who disagreed with what was being done and native Californians who were complicit in the enslavement. The author is of Choctaw and Cherokee heritage and currently resides in central California.

Highly recommended for grades 4 & up.

[Caren Pantoja]

Lands of Our Ancestors Book One by Gary Robinson is the first book of a collection of three historical novels. Lands of Our Ancestors is a great tool to use in a fourth grade classroom to teach California History. All three books focus on a historical event but it is written through the perspective of the Natives and not the colonizers. Book One focuses on the lives of a Chumash family in the California missions. The book begins by engaging the readers in what the native life was like prior to the Spaniards arriving. The lives of the Chumash family were beautiful, free, and most important heavily connected to nature. After the strangers arrived, the Chumash people were forced to live and work in the California missions as slaves and not as “happy workers” as most American curriculum depicts it. Gary Robinson does a great job in amplifying the voices of natives during the mission era especially when it comes to learning about how natives cultures, languages, foods, traditions, and beliefs were taken away from them. Students learn about assimilation, identity, injustices, and colonization in this book. Lands of Our Ancestors is a great tool to expose children to real history in a more engaging way. Lastly, Lands of Our Ancestors allows students to think more critically about the history of the lands non natives are occupying.

[Su]

The content deserves a 5-star = Chumash experience before and through the Spanish / Mission destruction; the moments of "conquest" were palpable. The writing deserves the 3-stars as I felt it lacked deep and visual descriptions. However, could certainly be a reader for 4th.

[Megan]

Really great age-appropriate storytelling of the genocide, enslavement and resistance of Native Americans in California told from the perspective of Chumash kids who were stolen from their land.

[Kami Francis]

Compelling, informative, and heartbreaking. I'm thankful for this story from the perspective of the Chumash people. I'll never be able to think about bells in the same way again.