American Indian Stories

Zitkála-Šá writes about specific people, events, and places from her life. However, she leaves out basic details, including the names of her mother and many relatives, the name of the schools she attends, their specific locations, and so on. Why might these details have been omitted? How does their omission affect the book as a whole?

Zitkála-Šá values independence, and she had a rebellious streak as a youth, feeling the need to resist the policies of the mission school she attended. Given that, what motivated her to teach in a similar school? What might she have hoped to achieve as a teacher?

In stories ranging from “Impressions of an Indian Childhood” to “The Soft-Hearted Sioux” to “The Widespread Enigma of Blue-Star Woman,” the relationships characters have (or fail to have) with their parents is a major theme in American Indian Stories. How do the relationships between parents and children illuminate the book’s broader discussion of the issues Zitkála-Šá raises?

The narrator of “A Dream of Her Grandfather” describes a vision of a hopeful future for American Indians. If Zitkála-Šá also had hope for the future of American Indians, why did she also include stories about American Indians who suffer, in some cases due to the actions of other American Indians (as in “The Widespread Enigma of Blue-Star Woman”)? What was she trying to achieve by including both hopeful and sobering stories?

Compare the lives of the narrator of “The Soft-Hearted Sioux” and Zitkála-Šá. What is the effect of reading about characters who have similar beginnings but make very different life choices? What was Zitkála-Šá suggesting by drawing a contrast between herself and the narrator of “The Soft-Hearted Sioux”?

“America’s Indian Problem” largely consists of direct quotes from a government report on the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Why did Zitkála-Šá include these lengthy excerpts without analyzing them? What light do they shed on the book as a whole? If she were to write a concluding paragraph to follow them, what might it say?

American Indian Stories is centered on issues relevant to American Indians at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, as told through stories of individuals and relationships between them. However, the book also frequently draws on imagery of nature to describe the Sioux reservation. What is the effect of this nature-based imagery? How does it relate to the book’s central themes?

American Indian Stories blends several genres: autobiography, fiction, and the essay. Why might Zitkála-Šá have pulled such diverse genres into one book? What are the advantages of writing about American Indian issues from a variety of perspectives?