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Indian Boyhood: The True Story of a Sioux Upbringing -- Book Review

Have you entered my current giveaway for a custom canvas print?
 Disclosure: Wisdom Tales Press gave me a copy of this product free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Wow, I'm way behind on my posts this week. I was planning on writing this one for Multicultural Monday, but with Hazel's last week of school my schedule has been crazy!! I don't remember my parents coming to lots of end of the school year events when I was little? For that matter I don't remember there being so many end of the school year events. Do you? Things sure have changed. Which is a perfect introduction to today's book, Indian Boyhood: The True Story of a Sioux Upbringing by Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa), edited and adapted by Michael Oren Fitzgerald and illustrated by Heidi M. Rasch. 
http://wisdomtalespress.com/books/childrens_books/978-1-937786-56-4-Indian_Boyhood_the_True_Story_of_a_Sioux_Upbringing.shtml

Michael Oren Fitzgerald adapted Charles Eastman's 1902 version of the book. In that version Charles Eastman wrote about his own experience growing up in a traditional Sioux way until he was fifteen. I read a note that Eastman wanted to share this story with his son so he would know it what it was like in a traditional Sioux lifestyle before the European influence occurred. Eastman saw the changes and wanted to record the traditional lifestyle as well as the struggles of his people for the next generation. Fitzgerald adapted the story to appeal to younger children so the true lifestyle could reach even younger people. This version is meant to be read by parents to young children and kids who just learned to read. It is also meant to inspire all who read it to learn more about Charles Eastman. He wrote eleven books with Indian Boyhood being his first.

As a baby Eastman's mother died and she had given him to his paternal grandmother to be raised. At age four Europeans came to drive them away from their land. When he was six his father and brothers were taken by the United States Army. They lived a nomadic lifestyle. They had to follow the buffaloes to have food. This version of the book shares the important points of the original book in a way a young child can understand. I found it fascinating. Hazel was not as interested but she doe not have the Native American obsession quite like I do.  When he was fifteen he found his father living in a town and stayed with him. His life in the wild ended. 

What I love about this book is it is telling the story firsthand. For once we are hearing a Native American tell what Native American life really was like and what Native Americans thought about the white people and their inventions (like the train). The story has so many interesting facts and thoughts and it really does make the reader want to live the wild life like the young Sioux boy in the story. 

This book was released this week! I hope you will check it out. There is a giveaway going on at Goodreads and a coloring page available on Wisdom Tales.