Sweetgrass Basket, was a book written by, Marlene Carvel. In this book she tells of a story about two little girls who are sisters that are sent to an off reservation school. Here the sisters encounter harsh treatment and horrible living conditions. Carvel tells about their journey and it is very sad to see how their lives change so drastically. After reading this book I got a better insight of just how exactly off school reservations worked. These were schools that Native American children were sent to by Americans. The reason for doing this was that they thought that if the Native American students where sent to these schools they could essentially “fix” them. When I say fix I mean what the American people thought as turning them against their own beliefs and ways of life. Stripping these children of their culture and true self-beings. This story was incredibly sad to read about. It is hard to imagine that people could do this to any …show more content…
Clearly the students where made to sleep in close quarters and to work in harsh conditions. Mattie becomes very sick after escaping and needs serious medical help. Of course though, Mrs. Dwyer and the others think she is lying about being sick. Mattie becomes so ill she ends up passing away at the end of the book. Like I said before nobody deserve to be treated like this or to be neglected medical care. They are just slowly killing off this beautiful culture. This book saddened me very much. It did though, open my eyes to just how poorly these students where treated. You cannot take away somebody’s family and beliefs. It is in humane and extremely sad. Many times through out the book I would stop and put myself in these students’ shoes. And every time I would get frustrated because I just can’t imagine this happening to myself. The sad part is that this kind of treatment still happens to people to this