Changed Forever, Volume I: American Indian Boarding-School Literature (SUNY series, Native Traces)

The first in-depth study of a range of literature written by Native Americans who attended government-run boarding schools. Changed Forever is the first study to gather a range of texts produced by Native Americans who, voluntarily or through compulsion, attended government-run boarding schools in the last decades of the nineteenth and the first decades of the twentieth centuries. Arnold Krupat examines Hopi, Navajo, and Apache boarding-school narratives that detail these students’ experiences. The book’s analyses are attentive to the topics ( topoi ) and places ( loci ) of the boarding schools. Some of these topics are: (re-)Naming students, imposing on them the regimentation of Clock Time, compulsory religious instruction and practice, and corporal punishment, among others. These topics occur in a variety of places, like the Dormitory, the Dining Room, the Chapel, and the Classroom. Krupat’s close readings of these narratives provide cultural and historical context as well as critical commentary. In her study of the Chilocco Indian School, K. Tsianina Lomawaima asked poignantly, “What has become of the thousands of Indian voices who spoke the breath of boarding-school life?” Changed Forever lets us hear some of them. Arnold Krupat is Professor Emeritus, Sarah Lawrence College and the author of many books, including “That the People Might Live”: Loss and Renewal in Native American Elegy . Hopi boarding-school autobiographies -- Edmund Nequatewa's Born a chief -- Albert Yava's Big falling snow -- Don Talalyesva's Sun chief -- Polingaysi Qoyawayma's No turning back -- Helen Sekaquaptewa's Me and mine -- Fred Kabotie's Hopi Indian artist -- Navajo boarding-school autobiographies -- Frank Mitchell's Navajo Blessingway singer -- Irene Stewart's A voice in her tribe -- Kay Bennett's Kaibah -- Stories of traditional Navajo life and culture -- George P. Lee's silent courage -- Appendix A: The Orayvi split -- Appendix B: Other Navajo life histories -- Appendix C: Apache boarding-school autobiographies