They Called It Prairie Light

The Story of Chilocco Indian School

by K Tsianina Lomawaima

Lomawaima allows the Chilocco student to speak for themselves. In recollections juxtaposed against the official records of racist ideology and repressive practice, student from the 1920s and 1930s recall their loneliness and demoralization but also remember with pride the love and mutual support binding them together- the forging of now pan-Indian identities and reinforcement of old tribal ones.

— ©1995

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