Uploaded February 2025 | Updated September 2026, 8 hours ago
In Conversation with Brenda Child
In September of 1890, the academic year begins at the Carlisle School, a military-style boarding school for Indians in Pennsylvania, founded and run by Captain Richard Henry Pratt. Pratt considers himself a champion of Native Americans. His motto, "To save the man, we must kill the Indian," is severely enforced in both classroom and dormitory: Speak only English, forget your own language and customs, learn to be white.
As the young students navigate surviving the school, they begin to hear rumors of a "ghost dance" amongst the tribes of the west--a ceremonial dance aimed at restoring the Native People to power, and running the invaders off their land. As the hope and promise of the ghost dance sweeps across the Great Plains, cynical newspapers seize upon the story to whip up panic among local whites. The US government responds by deploying troops onto lands that had been granted to the Indians. It is an act that seems certain to end in slaughter.
As news of these developments reaches Carlisle, each student, no matter what their tribe, must make a choice: to follow the white man's path, or be true to their own way of life . . .
John Sayles is an American independent film director, screenwriter, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for Passion Fish (1992) and Lone Star (1996). He has written eight novels, the most recent being Yellow Earth (2020) and JAMIE MACGILLIVRAY: The Renegade's Journey (2023), which was a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice.
Brenda J. Child is Northrop Professor and former Chair of the Departments of American Studies and American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota, where she received the President’s Engaged Scholar Award in 2021. She was Guggenheim Fellow in 2022-23. She is a Nonfiction Judge for the National Book Awards for 2024. Child is the author of several books in American Indian history including Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940 (Nebraska, 1998), which won the North American Indian Prose Award; and Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community (Penguin, 2012). Her 2014 book My Grandfather’s Knocking Sticks: Ojibwe Family Life and Labor on the Reservation (MHS Press, 2014) won the American Indian Book Award. She edited a book, Ojibwe and Ocheti Sakowin Artists and Knowledge Keepers (Minnesota, 2024) with Howard Oransky, and curated an exhibit of the same title that was at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota in January-March 2024.
The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast.
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Instagram: / flpauthorevents
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Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians.
In Conversation with Brenda Child
In September of 1890, the academic year begins at the Carlisle School, a military-style boarding school for Indians in Pennsylvania, founded and run by Captain Richard Henry Pratt. Pratt considers himself a champion of Native Americans. His motto, "To save the man, we must kill the Indian," is severely enforced in both classroom and dormitory: Speak only English, forget your own language and customs, learn to be white.
As the young students navigate surviving the school, they begin to hear rumors of a "ghost dance" amongst the tribes of the west--a ceremonial dance aimed at restoring the Native People to power, and running the invaders off their land. As the hope and promise of the ghost dance sweeps across the Great Plains, cynical newspapers seize upon the story to whip up panic among local whites. The US government responds by deploying troops onto lands that had been granted to the Indians. It is an act that seems certain to end in slaughter.
As news of these developments reaches Carlisle, each student, no matter what their tribe, must make a choice: to follow the white man's path, or be true to their own way of life . . .
John Sayles is an American independent film director, screenwriter, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for Passion Fish (1992) and Lone Star (1996). He has written eight novels, the most recent being Yellow Earth (2020) and JAMIE MACGILLIVRAY: The Renegade's Journey (2023), which was a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice.
Brenda J. Child is Northrop Professor and former Chair of the Departments of American Studies and American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota, where she received the President’s Engaged Scholar Award in 2021. She was Guggenheim Fellow in 2022-23. She is a Nonfiction Judge for the National Book Awards for 2024. Child is the author of several books in American Indian history including Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940 (Nebraska, 1998), which won the North American Indian Prose Award; and Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community (Penguin, 2012). Her 2014 book My Grandfather’s Knocking Sticks: Ojibwe Family Life and Labor on the Reservation (MHS Press, 2014) won the American Indian Book Award. She edited a book, Ojibwe and Ocheti Sakowin Artists and Knowledge Keepers (Minnesota, 2024) with Howard Oransky, and curated an exhibit of the same title that was at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota in January-March 2024.
The 2024/25 Author Events Series is presented by Comcast.
Facebook: / authorevents
Instagram: / flpauthorevents
Twitter/X: https://x.com/authorevents
Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians.
