Desert Hawk Books

 

Children of the Dragonfly
Native American Voices on Child Custody and Education

Edited by Robert Bensen
Foreword by Carter Revard

 

 

Paperback

Quantity:   $19.95 & S/H

Cloth

Quantity:   $45.00 & S/H

 

Sometimes the losses of childhood can be recovered only in the flight of the dragonfly.

Native American children have long been subject to removal from their homes for placement in residential schools and, more recently, in foster or adoptive homes. The governments of both the United States and Canada, having reduced Native nations to the legal status of dependent children, historically have asserted a surrogate parentalism over Native children themselves.

Children of the Dragonfly is the first anthology to document this struggle for cultural survival on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border. Through autobiography and interviews, fiction and traditional tales, official transcripts and poetry, these voices—Seneca, Cherokee, Mohawk, Navajo, and many others—weave powerful accounts of struggle and loss into a moving testimony to perseverance and survival.

Invoking the dragonfly spirit of Zuni legend who helps children restore a way of life that has been taken from them, the anthology explores the breadth of the conflict about Native childhood. Included are works of contemporary authors Sherman Alexie, Joy Harjo, Luci Tapahonso, and others; classic writers Zitkala-Sa and E. Pauline Johnson; and contributions from twenty important new writers as well. They take readers from the boarding school movement of the 1870s to the Sixties Scoop in Canada and the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 in the United States. They also spotlight the tragic consequences of racist practices such as the suppression of Indian identity in government schools and the campaign against Indian childbearing through involuntary sterilization.

The custody and upbringing of children is one of the most urgent issues that Native Americans have ever faced. Children of the Dragonfly shows that Native children—as well as their families and descendants—are both victims and victors in the crucial struggle for cultural and personal survival. Like the dragonfly of lore, this book can lead us all toward a better understanding of adopted children everywhere.

“Lifts us up and encourages us to believe that human courage and ingenuity may keep alive our finest human values.” —Carter Revard

Robert Bensen is coeditor of Iroquois Voices, Iroquois Visions: A Celebration of Contemporary Six Nations Arts and has authored numerous essays on Native literature and child custody. He is Professor of English and Director of Writing at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, where he also teaches American Indian law and literature.