Description: Four American Indian women who attended Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding schools, off-reservation public schools, and Indian mission schools, unflinchingly recount the experiences that shaped their views on individual, family, and community survival.
Review Quotes:
"I enjoyed reading Shaping Survival, and hope that a paperback edition is published soon...all of us can learn from these excellent teachers." --American Indian Culture and Research Journal
"This volume presents the personal accounts of four American Indian tribal women. Lanniko L. Lee (Cheyenne River Sioux), Karen Lone Hill (Oglala Sioux), Florestine Kiyukanpi Renville (Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota), and Lydia Whirlwind Soldier (Rosebud Sioux) were all born on reservations in South Dakota, and three of them attended boarding schools. Their narratives focus on how they transcended the circumstances of their early years and gained strength through a return to their ancestral cultures." --Reference and Research Book News "Shaping Survival is a valuable book...this collection of narratives presents models of courage, perseverance, and generosity, as these women share their personal stories and give us an insight into their commitment to dedicating their lives to educating and writing for Native audiences, seeking to share both the traditional knowledge they have recovered and the tribal values that they have learned are essential to the survival of the Sioux Nation." --Studies In American Indian Literature