Audiobook Review
Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools (2025)
by Mary Annete Pember
I listened to this Audiobook because I am interested in the subject of Indian Boarding Schools. Basically, for decades American authorities took Native American children away from their families and put them in boarding schools where they were taught to deny their heritage, speak English and frequently were subject to abuse and ill-health. After returning home they frequently suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and a perpetual feeling of estrangement from their community.
Pember blends some of this history with her personal experience as the daughter of a woman who went to an Indian Boarding School. Spoiler alert, there is a lot of family trauma in this book.
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