No Parole Today by Laura Tohe tells the story of children in Indian Boarding Schools through free verse poems and very short stories. The first story talks about assimilation with the thanks of “Dick and Jane” books and that its helps to subdue the Dine language. Her teacher Mrs. Rolands was a black woman whom she describes as “treat[ing] us the way were people had been treated by white people” (2). I quickly scribbled in the margin that it was a reoccurring racism and about hierarchy. I remember previously in my Anthropology class we learned that the ladder of hierarchy that God came first, then white man, then blacks and insects, then Native Americans were placed on the same level as beasts because of the “savage” moniker placed upon them. Probably the most powerful quote she made in this piece was “utter one word of Dine and the government made sure our tongues were downed in the murky waters of assimilation” (3).
In the short story/free verse poem called “She was Real Quiet, a Letter from the Indian School I” she talks about a girl by the name of Mae Jean who was always quiet, always doing what she was supposed to do, she followed the rules, she had never drank liquor, or sniffed glue or gasoline. I wonder is she the personification of the perfect Indian. Was the perfect Indian achieved here? She said that no one ever messed with Mae, so who was she to the students? It makes me wonder was she once a very strong person who resisted the change until she could not fight any longer then she just went along with the change that was pressed upon her? Did any of the students strive to be like her? I don’t know what to think…just a few questions I thought would be interesting.
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