Chilocco Indian School: A Generational Story

by Julie Pearson-Little Thunder, Johnnie Diacon, Jerry Bennett

Jaya, ​a Native teen temporarily separated from her mom, accompanies her Grandmother and Aunt to a family reunion. Between chores and activities, the older women lead her through a story about Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, combining history and their own memories of attending the boarding school in northern Oklahoma. Their account arouses a range of emotions in the teen, from tears, to laughter, to anger, to compassion. The result: a new respect for her family and the resilience of Native peoples, along with insights into how Jaya might handle the changes in her own life. This story, set in present-day Oklahoma, was compiled from the experiences of real students who attended Chilocco, and their recollections were shared through oral history interviews, photographs, letters, and other archival sources. It engages students and adults in an often overlooked part of U.S. history and pushes back against stereotypes of Native identity.

28 pages, ebook

First published June 16, 2022

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a timely addition to literature around boarding schools. It looks at the complex generational relationships tribes and families have with boarding schools.

The Chilocco school was one of a few boarding schools that communities members fought to keep open and this book explains why that happened. This is one of the few books about a school settle in I.T. or Indian Country --and that is because many schools in the area were mission or religious schools. In general, the topics of boarding schools can be fairly traumatizing and horrific (and this title doesn't sugarcoat that history), but there is a complexity that gets lost in some of the horrifying/traumatizing stories. Places like Prairie Light where generations of Muscogee people felt like they had their own community and were not far from home are markedly different from the model that was set out by Pratt for places like the infamous Carlisle school.

This is an excellent addition to classrooms and there are resource and activity guides that are available to help explore the history discussed.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I think the book would make a good introduction to a study of Indian boarding schools, I don’t think the book itself is quality literature. The story is somewhat superficial. The art is inconsistent and the coloring is heavy-handed with little to no subtlety. I like the way the author attempted to use flashbacks to explain how the school changed over its lifetime and why some Native Americans felt that the school was in some instances beneficial. I wish the book had emphasized more about the misguided rationale behind the dominant culture’s education program for Indians. The book just begins to tell the story of the Indian schools, so don’t expect it to be more than that.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars for addressing a huge need we have in books about Indian boarding schools. I really liked how this graphic novel covered the shift of philosophy in boarding schools after the 1929 exposé but still drew attention to the fact that most native youth were pushed into vocations and not encouraged to go to college and seek more education until the very end. I didn't love the illustrations, the panels were a little busy to me but having the then panels in black and white and the now panels in color really showed the interconnectedness of the stories and experiences and I enjoyed that aspect of the book.