Release Date: 1921
Free ebook on Project Gutenberg
Free Librivox audiobook of a different Zitkala-Sa collection
This is not an upcoming release. This is a plea for more people to read an overlooked classic.
This book should be required reading in middle-school and high-school American history classes. Using flawless prose, the author conveys her life, first as a young girl on a Sioux reservation, then as a teenager in an Indian school, and lastly as a teacher-cum-activist. The writing is immediate and speaks clearly across the decades. The subjects and descriptions emphasize the universality of childhood and coming of age. This book eloquently and accurately depicts the predicament of the Sioux (and of most American Indians) at the beginning of the 20th century.
I fail to understand why this book is not heralded and taught as a classic. I pulled a chapter out of it almost at random and used it as a mentor text in my 8th grade writing classes. It exemplified everything good writers do- clear, descriptive language, deft pacing, small details that speak to larger issues, masterful organization, etc. The only thing I can think of that holds this book back is an increasing hostility toward white men (or "palefaces" as she calls them in the early chapters) and the "white man's religion." It is possible that this makes some readers uncomfortable, but the way that it is presented makes her perspective easy to empathize with.
It should be added that this book is a hodge-podge. The essential portion of it is the autobiographical chapters right at the beginning. After that, Sa or her editors filled out the remainder of the pages with short fiction, essays, speeches, and a fan letter from Helen Keller!
Go read the autobiography. You won't regret it. I double-recommend this book to fans of House on Mango Street.
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