We have a guest at the junction today! Let’s give a big welcome to our guest, Kiersti Giron!
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When I began researching the story that would become my historical novel Beneath a Turquoise Sky, I decided to set it at a mission school on the Navajo reservation in the early 1900s, since I’d spent five years in that area of northwest New Mexico during my teens. However, I soon realized I had much to learn—including that to be historically accurate, my mission school needed to be a boarding school for Native children. But why?
Only a few generations ago, the United States grappled with what was known as the “Indian problem.” European settlement—and even railroads—had spanned from coast to coast by the late 1800s, yet many First Nations tribes, the original inhabitants of the land, remained. And conflict abounded, especially since the United States government broke nearly every treaty it made with tribes as sovereign nations.
Some Americans subscribed to the “annihilation” solution. Shocking as it may seem to us today, the author of The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, wrote this in a South Dakota newspaper in the 1890s:
“The Whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians.”
But other more “progressive” voices spoke also. Captain Richard Henry Pratt promoted the “assimilation” solution instead, advocating in a famous speech that white people should “Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.” Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, which took Native children from tribes all over the country and attempted to, indeed, “kill” all about them from their own cultures, including language, dress, and family ties, molding them into the image of Euro-American culture as much as possible.
This school became a model for other government and mission boarding schools all over the United States. Between 1869 and the 1960s, tens of thousands of Native American children were taken from their families, sometimes by force, and placed in boarding schools. It is estimated that by 1926, over 80% of school-age Native children attended these military-style residential schools, numbering over 60,000 students just in 1925. Many children endured horrible abuse at these schools, and many never returned home, often buried in unmarked graves and still unaccounted for by the U.S. government. Even well-intentioned teachers and missionaries did grave damage in removing children from their families and stripping them of their Native identity and culture, tragically cloaking Christianity in Euro-American, “white” garb. Generations of children lacked parenting and endured punishment and trauma merely for speaking their own languages, trauma that still wracks Native communities today.
As I continued to research my story and learned from Navajo friends and mentors, the history I hadn’t known before broke my heart. Yet I also saw hope for healing and relationship, though so much work remains to be done. My Navajo mentor and his Dutch-American wife met and married at a mission boarding school in Gallup, New Mexico, back in the 1960s, and their true story—and how they welcomed me into their hearts and lives—did much to shape the story I was writing, changing my own life and perspective on history and Native peoples for good.
If you’d like to learn more about the history of U.S. boarding schools for Native children, I recommend The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition at https://boardingschoolhealing.org/. You can also look up the powerful short film “The Cutting of the Tsiiyéél,” by Susie Silversmith, a Navajo boarding school survivor.
Giveaway:
I am giving away one copy of Beneath a Turquoise Sky! Here’s a little about the book:
A young teacher at a Navajo boarding school begins to wonder whether the mission is doing more harm than good.
After her life takes an unexpected turn in 1911, Caroline Haynes pursues a long-buried dream westward to teach at a Navajo mission boarding school. However, walls of hurt and cultural misunderstanding threaten to keep her from reaching the children she longs to touch. The handsome Rev. Willis Abernathy seems sure he knows what is best for the Navajo people—and for Caroline—but she finds herself drawn instead to Tse, the young Navajo man in charge of the mission’s livestock, who claims to still follow Christ despite returning to the ways of his people.
Tse Tsosie longs to introduce Jesus to his people in a way they can understand, but now that family need has brought him back to the mission, he battles past wounds and the disapproval of the missionaries. Meanwhile, Caroline’s arrival brings surprises and more turmoil to the school…and to Tse’s heart.
When crisis forces Tse and Caroline to make a choice, will they find a path together…or will the chasm between their peoples be too great to span?
Purchase Beneath a Turquoise Sky here!
“Beautifully written, Beneath a Turquoise Sky is as colorfully woven as a Navajo blanket with well-drawn characters, a fresh setting, and heartrending history. Kiersti Giron tells a tender, soul-stirring story unlike any other in this moving journey of change, forgiveness, new beginnings, and ultimately, love.”
~ Laura Frantz, Christy Award-winning author of Courting Morrow Little
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One reader who leaves a comment on this post will win a copy of Beneath a Turquoise Sky! The winner will be randomly selected from the comments and announced on Sunday, June 8th!
Had you heard of the “Indian boarding schools” before? What is a little-known side of history that has surprised or sobered you?
Kiersti Giron writes stories to lift hearts toward hope and healing in our divided world. Her debut novel, Beneath a Turquoise Sky, came inspired by her years living in New Mexico near the Navajo Nation. Kiersti also collaborates on series of historical fiction series with bestselling author Lauraine Snelling. When she’s not writing, Kiersti enjoys spending time with her husband, little boy, and two kitties, as well as teaching writing and literature to teenagers. Learn more at http://www.kierstigiron.com or follow her on Instagram @kierstigiron or Facebook.