Synopsis

September 1890. The academic year begins at the Carlisle school — a military-style boarding school for Indians run by Captain Richard Henry Pratt. Pratt’s motto, “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” is enforced in the classroom as well as the dorm: Speak English, forget your own language and customs, learn to be white.

While the students navigate survival, they hear rumours of sweeping tribal lands reservations in the west — the “ghost dance,” whereby desperate Native Americans engage in frenzied dancing and chanting hoping it will cause the buffalo will return, the Indian dead to rise, and the white people to disappear. Local whites panic, and the government sends in troops to keep the reservations under control. 

When legendary medicine man Sitting Bull is killed by native police working for government troops, each Carlisle resident is faced with multiple questions: Whose side are you on? And what will you risk to gain your freedom?

Review

In the UK we don’t really learn a lot about American history, so what I do know has been gleaned from books and films. The Wounded Knee Massacre was not something of which I was aware, but it seemed an important event to understand more about.

Although John Sayles is not a Native American, he handles the subject with dignity and understanding, giving a voice to different characters from across America who are brought together at the Carlisle School. It’s well-written and researched, immersing the reader in a time where people genuinely believed that they were doing the right thing to ‘save the man’.

The first characters we meet are children, but there’s no naivety at all. Some already speak English; others do not and the different perspectives are fascinating, as well as those as the different teachers. It’s also interesting to hear the rationale behind Antoine’s parents sending him away in the first place.

At first glance, characters are well-rounded, but as we read on we realise we know very little about them and their previous lives. There is also a lot of head hopping, which takes a while to get used to as you’re flung between characters with no real break and this jars.

Overall, it’s a fascinating story, but does feel as though it were written for the screen, rather for the reader.

Thanks to Melville House for the advanced copy. Opinions my own.