Medicine River - by Mary Annette Pember (Hardcover)

About the Book

"From the mid-19th century to the late 1930s, tens of thousands of Native children were pulled from their families to attend boarding schools that claimed to help create opportunity for these children to pursue professions outside their communities and otherwise 'assimilate' into American life. In reality, these boarding schools--sponsored by the US Government but often run by various religious orders with little to no regulation--were an insidious attempt to destroy tribes, break up families, and stamp out the traditions of generations of Native people. ... Ojibwe journalist Mary Pember's mother was forced to attend one of these institutions, ... and the impacts of her experience have cast a pall over Mary's own childhood and her relationship with her mother. Highlighting both her mother's experience and the experiences of countless other students at such schools, their families, and their children, [this book] paints a stark portrait of communities still reckoning with the legacy of acculturation that has affected generations of Native communities"--

Book Synopsis

A sweeping and deeply personal account of Native American boarding schools in the United States, and the legacy of abuse wrought by them in an attempt to destroy Native culture and life

From the mid-nineteenth century to the late 1930s, tens of thousands of Native children were pulled from their tribal communities to attend boarding schools whose stated aim was to "save the Indian" by way of assimilation. In reality, these boarding schools--sponsored by the U.S. government, but often run by various religious orders with little to no regulation--were a calculated attempt to dismantle tribes by pulling apart Native families. Children were beaten for speaking their Native languages; denied food, clothing, and comfort; and forced to work menial jobs in terrible conditions, all while utterly deprived of love and affection.

Amongst those thousands of children was Ojibwe journalist Mary Pember's mother, who was was sent to a boarding school in northern Wisconsin at age five. The trauma of her experience cast a pall over Pember's own childhood and her relationship with her mother. Highlighting both her mother's experience and the experiences of countless other students at such schools, their families, and their children, Medicine River paints a stark but hopeful portrait of communities still reckoning with the trauma of acculturation, religion, and abuse caused by the state. Through searing interviews and careful reporting, Pember traces the evolution and continued rebirth of Native cultures and nations in relation to the country that has been intent on eradicating them.

Review Quotes

One of The New York Times' Nonfiction Books to Read This Spring

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK: The Minneapolis Star Tribune, Ms. Magazine, The Orange County Register, Electric Literature

"[A] piercing new memoir. . . . Pember is perfectly positioned to write this book. . . . With a government that is rewriting history in real time, Medicine River stands as a testament to the truth."--The New York Times

"Powerful. . . . An important work in the growing literature about the trauma those boarding schools inflicted on generations of Native peoples. . . . Pember's journalism and advocacy [make] clear the scope and impact of one major pillar of this epochal injustice. . . . . It's essential that stories like Pember's stories are amplified and the momentum toward justice is sustained until such a time as it can be delivered." --Los Angeles Times

"[Pember's] expertise is on full display here. There's no one more equipped to cover the tragedy of boarding schools, their lasting legacy and the survivance of those forced to attend." --Ms. Magazine

"A searing account of Indian boarding schools and the impact they continue to have on families, communities and cultures. . . . Medicine River is [Pember's] magnum opus, a must-read for all people who long to see justice flow. . . . An unforgettable read." --BookPage (starred review)

"A devastating history. . . . Weaving into her narrative her own mother's experiences . . . Pember explores the psychological ramifications the schools had on subsequent generations. She comes to many quietly ruinous insights about the emotional neglect she herself suffered at the hands of her wounded mother. . . . Concluding with a searing call for accountability, this strikes a chord." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"[Pember's] extensive research illuminates the attempted cultural erasure by government and religious institutions. Her mother's story provides a heartbreaking, personal focus." --Booklist

"Elegantly weaving together her mother's stories, those of other boarding school students, and concise accounts of federal assimilationist policies and common institutional practices, [Pember] provides an informed and unsettling perspective on the schools' individual and collective impact. . . . A gripping, often harrowing account of the personal and communal toll of cultural genocide."--Kirkus

"Mary Annette Pember has left it all on the line. Through her, her Ojibwe ancestors speak boldly about how the US government has treated them and every Indigenous nation in these so-called-United States. I have never read a book that has changed me so profoundly. Pember not only points to what has been done, but also offers a way forward. Everyone, absolutely everyone, should read this book." --Javier Zamora, author of Solito

"So much writing about historical trauma casts a vague, impenetrable cloud over its subjects' lives. But with electric precision and rigorous care, Mary Annette Pember pierces through, illuminating the real mechanisms by which pain has accumulated and reverberated through generations of boarding school survivors and their descendants, as well all the beauty, love, and humor these same lives contain. In showing us how trauma is made, Pember helps us see that it can be unmade. 'History flows through us, ' she writes, and nowhere has this idea been so well rendered as here, in this stunning, essential book." --Sierra Crane Murdoch, author of Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman's Search for Justice in Indian Country

"Pember has written a searing exploration of the multi-generational trauma visited upon Native people by the boarding school experience, as well as a brilliant account of Indigenous survivance." --Michael Witgen, Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, author of Seeing Red

"I have a shelf full of books on the Indian boarding schools, but nothing quite like this one. Anyone who questions why the U.S. government has finally apologized for these schools and for its brutal assaults on Native children and their families should read Medicine River." --Colin G. Calloway, Professor of History and Native American Studies, Dartmouth College

"Mary Annette Pember reveals that the trauma and rage of surviving the St. Mary's Catholic Indian Boarding School permeates through the generations. Pember has chronicled a deeply personal and first-person account of the dark legacy of incarceration at a 'civilized' boarding school and how the trauma of those youngsters impact their living descendants. Pember tells us that resistance and accountability is attainable, and I believe her. This is an essential read." --Devon Mihesuah, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, author of The Bone Picker

"A dauntless and visceral excavation of one family's residential boarding school legacy. In Medicine River, we can see pain ripple through generations, eclipsed only by Mary Annette Pember's courage and her conviction that, in the search for answers, we can heal."--Anton Treuer, author of Where Wolves Don't Die

About the Author

Mary Annette Pember is a citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Wisconsin Ojibwe. She is currently national correspondent for ICT News, formerly Indian Country Today. She has also worked as an independent journalist focusing on Native American issues since 2000. Pember is the recipient of the Clarion Award, several Associated Press awards, and the Medill Milestone Achievement Award as well as Type Investigations' Ida B. Wells Fellowship, a Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism, and the USC Annenberg National Health Journalism Fellowship. Her work has appeared in Reveal News, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Guardian, among other publications. She currently lives with her husband and two children in Cincinnati. Medicine River is her first book.