Stringing Rosaries: The History, the Unforgivable, and the Healing of Northern Plains American Indian Boarding School Survivors (Contemporary Voices of Indigenous Peoples) by Denise K. Lajimodiere

Stringing Rosaries: The History, the Unforgivable, and the Healing of Northern Plains American Indian Boarding School Survivors (Contemporary Voices of Indigenous Peoples) Reviews

• 
  Hayley

  Getting through this book was a process. After every interview, I had to take a break, because the accounts here are brutal, and rightfully so. the atrocities committed by the boarding schools are absolutely genocidal in nature. This book is an incredibly important read, and I highly recommend it. Please keep in mind the content is highly disturbing.
  
  "When I asked my father about his experiences at Fort Totten, he refused to speak at all. He had told me horror stories of his war years, fighting the Japanese in the Aleutians, his beating at Chemawa, but he maintained silence on his time at Fort Totten" (273).
  
  May we do what we can to ensure children never suffer like this at the hands of schools again. And may we teach our students what happened, so it is never forgotten.
• 
  Joseph

  There is an old saying that if you want to understand someone you should “Walk a mile in their shoes.” I cannot be Chippewa (Ojibwe), Lakota, Sioux, or a member of any other tribe. However, i can gain something of a sense of how badly these first Americans were treated by reading this book. The book is a series of real life experiences at boarding schools set up largely to make the first Americans more like Americans who came from Europe. Denise painstakingly recorded these stories one at a time. She is, like Confucius, a “transmitter of stories.”
  
  This is not an easy book to read. Basically, Denise has recorded the stories of sixteen survivors. Their treatment in the schools was brutal and I could only absorb one story at a time without having to put the book down. For me, the book was all the more poignant because I was one of the ones sucked in by these schools and someplace I may still have one of these rosaries. Yes, I was one of those who sent one of these horrible institutions money, not a lot, but enough to help prolong the misery.
  
  This book will not make the New York Times best seller lists. But, my friend Dr. Suzzanne Kelley, Editor in Chief at the North Dakota State University Press (the publisher) recently noted: “We are sending Stringing Rosaries to the printer on Monday. This, our 3rd printing, will include Denise's updated list of American boarding school locations...now exceeding 400. We are also working on paperback and Kindle versions. While we're working behind the scenes, Denise is fielding questions from national and international reporters. When you have a moment, you might lift a prayer or offer kind words for those who are working to locate the children who did not get to come home from school.”
  
  This book deserves to be widely read. We owe that to the survivors.
• 
  Libby Claerbout

  This book is truly engrossing and eye-opening, and deeply sad and disturbing. It covers such an important piece of our country's history; events that I hate to admit that I have never been exposed to even though I live smack dab in the middle of the geographical area where these instances all took place. This book should be required reading for every citizen of North America to help us understand the harm that was done to our indigenous brothers and sisters, and to see the generational trauma that still ripples through native communities to this day.
  
  The most powerful story, for me, was the author's father's experience as one of the first children to be subjected to the horror of being sent away to an Indian boarding school. His story is told in the last chapter, and I recommend that section if its the only one you read. (I believe it is also a stand alone article written for a psychology journal, too).
• 
  Donna

  This subject matter deserves much better treatment than this book gives it. The stories are repetitive. Their stories are transcribed verbatim, or what I can only assume is verbatim given that they wander and repeat themselves. No fault of the interviewee who was simply telling their story. This is on the author and editor. The author provides no insight into this tragedy, no summation. I so looked forward to reading this book. Now I look forward to reading a different one, one that would provide more context and evoke more emotion. This period of our history deserves an impactful book not a sterile one.
• 
  Brenna

  I read this book slowly this year for a monthly anti-racism book club. The majority of the book are lengthy interviews with Native American survivors of boarding schools. The stories are gut-wrenching but the book also points toward a path of healing.
  
  I am not rating this book since it feels more like a sociological text and is mostly a verbatim recording of people telling their stories and the impacts that boarding schools have had on their lives and the next generations.
• 
  Maryann

  Firsthand accounts by elders describing the way they and others were treated while being forced into boarding schools. For me, I had to take numerous breaks because of how emotional I became after nearly each story. It was very emotionally draining, but it was something I needed to read.
• 
  Trudy Ackerblade

  A very difficult history of the Indian Boarding schools and the multigeneration trauma done by them. Their sole purpose was to "kill the Indian in him, and save the man". It explains a lot of the causes that affect First Nation people to this day. I am amazed that these schools existed into the 1980s. It is a very ugly blemish on the United States of America. Fortunately these schools were not 100% effective - some First Nation people survived and are working toward healing their soul wounds. I wept.
• 
  Les

  This is what the author/researcher/interviewer says it is. There is some historical context provided and there are some elements of healing that people have fought for, but of the title's well-chosen words, this is mostly about the Unforgivable. I became aware of the use of boarding schools and foster care (still) as colonizing weapons of Indigenous peoples in the U.S. and Canada some years ago, but this is my first deep dive into it. Very much like reading a history of concentration camps, slave narratives, and the script for "Sleepers" but with nuns and priests. I use the term "historical" somewhat lightly, as some of the last boarding schools of this nature in Canada didn't close until the mid-1990s, which is when I graduated from a traditional college-prep boarding school. I've no doubt that many five-star reviews (here or elsewhere) are not so much for how this is structured as much as for what it is and what it sets out to do, which is help people free themselves from trauma through their narratives and, of course, to tell the damn truth when the churches that ran these won't (not to this degree). Five stars it is for me, again because what are stars for book structure and writing quality/reading experience compared to appreciation for them sharing their stories? Yes, for those who remained anonymous and of course those who refused anonymity to speak truth to power. My rating is really just an insufficient "thank you" - to them and Lajimodiere, who no doubt needed even more healing once she completed this labor of love, pain, tragedy and resilience.
• 
  Francesca

  Edit: 1819 to the 1970s. The interview structure, provided in the appendix, lays bare the horrifying impact of US anti-Indian policies. This approach is so effective in both conveying the cultural background for a variety of northern plains tribespeople between the 1890s and 2018, and in corroborrating the stark historical trauma of boarding school experiences.
  
  I have negative zero Native American ties; my education to this point included only peripheral awareness of Indian boarding schools' existence due to the fictional children's book The Education of Little Tree. I wouldn't go back to read that nor recommend it now, knowing how problematic Forrest Carter was. Meanwhile, Stringing Rosaries is still one of too few detailed, nuanced documentations of living American tribes.
  
  Sourced statistics in this book state that during the middle of the 20th century upwards of 80 percent of all Native American children were forced to attend these schools. Abuse and sub-par education were beyond common, built into the system. The schools were central to federal policies of "assimilation" through the 60s. Brava to the author for giving these people a voice, for framing the interviews with solid educational content, and most of all, for forgiving her own father.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This book is simply stunning.
• 
  Rachel Coyne

  Intense and riveting
• 
  Katie

  "Their stories need to be told and the human rights violations documented. There are a lot more files that need to be opened."
  
  The last two sentences of this book had me weeping and hopeful for all Native Americans who have consistently been cast aside and deemed unworthy to carry on living out the traditions and cultures of their families for generations. This heartbreaking read is gripping and I was so pleasantly surprised to feel so much inspired and hopeful as I read each individual's story. The resilience, the strength, the grace. Outstanding book and I look forward to Dr. Lajimodiere's future work.
• 
  Jessica Jones

  What history books left out. I read this after seeing the news on the multiple unmarked grave discovery of the Canadian Indian boarding school (June 2021) I was looking for information on the murders/deaths but these are real life accounts of survivors. If you can sit there and deny these findings in the support of a faith, you’re choosing to be ignorant.
  
• 
  Britta Solberg Salas

  The first hand acounts, written as if you were listening to the survivors speak, was deeply moving and an absolutely necessary read if you're interested in Great Plains or American Indian History, stories of trauma, or are just looking to read something of substance. An important book.
• 
  Anne

  Honest and important book that can show us the unforgivable and the possible healing. The respectful recording of people's stories matters.
• 
  Paul

  An important historical read and a beautifully produced and written book.
• 
  Gretchen

  The stories of the interviewees childhoods in the various boarding schools mostly in ND and SD were horrific and heart rending. But within their stories were also the journeys to healthing and health they sought and worked to keep. It is a distressing but important part of American history - a cultural genocide. But stories of hope and healing and reclaiming shine through.
• 
  Amanda Kauffman ashbach

  This book provides first person accounts of the trauma of the Indian Boarding schools. It was sometimes difficult to read, but very enlightening.
• 
  Karen Jean Martinson

  This book is hard, but necessary.
• 
  Kristal Roberts

  Adds another layer of thinking when working with Native Americans in a mental health setting....