"Two Worlds" story reprinted in California

Dusty D heard this morning from Colleen Turner, who works with the Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association, an agency that serves 19 reservations. They would like to reprint my "Two Worlds" story from the Chronicle in their publication, and I told them I'd be honored, and thank you.

Personally this makes me feel good. If I, white person, have managed to write about this painful and sensitive subject in a manner which passes muster with a Native group, then that gives me a lot of satisfaction. It was quite a tricky piece and went through many edits. I chose a "just the facts" route and the issues involved are quite complex; books have been written on the subject of Carlisle. And it was a fact-checking nightmare...the truth kind of slides around on such a loaded subject and it can be difficult to find out reliable info. Anyways.

At any rate, that's quite an honor to me and thanks to the SCTCA.

Two Worlds: Ypsilanti's Role in the Indian Assimilation Era

Around the turn of the century, a Nez Perce teenager was taken from out West to Penn- sylvania.

He ended up in Ypsilanti as a Normal College business student.

At the same time, a Caucasian woman took her Normal College teaching degree in the other direction. She taught on a reservation school next to a mesa upon which lived the Hopi. Her essay reveals more about her attitudes towards the Hopi than about the Hopi themselves. It's not easy to read.

Today's Ann Arbor Chronicle story deals with the role Ypsilanti played in this tumultous era of Native American assiilation.