My impressions on this story are hard to describe. It left me feeling sad for the little girl whose freedom is about to be crushed and wistful as I looked back on my own childhood antics. Her story is the story of countless other Native Americans who at the white man's bidding sent their children to be 'civilized' in their schools.
I think that this story is not only about the innocence of a little indian girl but it is also about the underlining plight of the Native American people. In the first section titled My Mother hints at specific events that were forced upon by the 'paleface'. One such plight was moving from reservation to reservation. This is mentioned on page 1009. The mother is talking about how the paleface has forced them away from their lands, marching for days and months. This was happening all over the U.S. The Indian removal act forced Indians off of the land they had resided in for ever and forced them onto tinier and tinier land plots. This was enforced so that the white settlers could move west. The schools that recruited Indian children also popped up all over the U.S. to 'civilize' them. Another plight briefly mentioned in this story was the new sicknesses that were wiping out the Indian community. From the description of the symptoms one can deduce that her sister had the mumps. Small pox was also another illness that spread like wild fire through the Indian communities killing off many people.
What amazes me about this story is the fact that in the face of such devastation the narrator's mother was able to keep it from affecting her daughter's innocence. Her mother never lies to her daughter but she tells the truth in such a way that allows her daughter to still be a little girl. Her daughter carries her innocence lightly taking advantage of her freedom. You see this in her games that she plays with her friends. This innocence and freedom is what makes her heedless of her mother's warnings and go with the white men to the school.
