This deeply researched novel juxtaposes life at the Carlisle Indian Boarding School in the late 19th century with the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. In this juxtaposition lies the book’s great work of imagination, allowing the reader to experience what Wounded Knee meant to some of the students at the school as well as to the reformers who ran the school. At the same time, it illuminates the motivations and effects of the school’s program of forced assimilation, the unabashed goal of which was “to save the man” by killing the Indian within him.

I greatly appreciated the depth and breadth of Sayles’s research. For the first time, I began to understand the mentality, good intentions, cruelty, and arrogance of the various reformers who founded and promoted the Indian boarding schools of the 19th and 20th century. I also appreciated Sayles’s respect for Native cultures and his refusal to make his Native characters archetypes or stock characters. As a reader, I understood them as individuals with different levels of Native experience and White exposure and education, and never did I feel compelled to see them as composites or representatives of their tribes.

Because there are so many characters in this novel from so many backgrounds—a feature of the Carlisle School in that it had students from all across the continent—the narrative momentum was diluted. Many interesting things happened, but not everything was of interest to me, and without the less-than-interesting events forming a forward-moving narrative thrust, the pacing seemed to lag. The description of life at the school often felt ethnographic—recording the culture of the Carlisle School in its enforced uniformity that overlaid the great diversity of its students. I appreciate that in many ways, but I also got impatient with it when I wanted the story to move forward.

Sayles wanted to make this story into a movie, and I wanted to read the book in part because I admire his movies so much—he is one of my favorite film directors. I could see much of the ethnographic nature of the book made into the kind of slice-of-life scenes that Sayles does so very well. He uses cinematic techniques in much of the book, most noticeably quick cuts between scenes and characters that sometimes even interrupt dialogue—something that is highly effective in movies but a bit jarring in a book, at least until you get used to it. It did help to propel the book forward through a great deal of character development without complicating the plot further, which ultimately enhanced my reading of the book.

I also wanted to read To Save the Man because I’m very interested in the history of Native America, wherein the boarding schools and the Wounded Knee massacre both loom large. Despite my impatience with the novel’s slow narrative development, I enjoyed reading it and greatly appreciate the insight I gained into the origins of the Indian boarding schools and the additional perspective on Wounded Knee. I was trained as a historian before I became a fiction writer, and I’m always aware that even the most deeply researched novels are not works of history. However, good historical fiction can give you the feeling of being in a distant time and place in ways that are otherwise inaccessible. John Sayles does that very well in To Save the Man, which gave me greater empathy for and understanding of the people who were caught up in that history.

Thank you to NetGalley and Melville House for providing access to an advance copy.

My thanks to NetGalley and Melville House Publishing for an advance copy of this novel that looks at live at the end of the nineteenth century for members of what was called in Indian School, created and developed to cut the ties of Native American children to their past and culture, and make good people out of them.

There is much in the history of the United States that is kept in the dark. Moments that would make people question our so-called greatness, our gleaming beacon on a hill. We are a nation that loves God and law and order, yet the outlaw and the sleazy grifter seems to be our choice. Americans love to call out their individuality, their freedoms, but any one who has ever dealt with a Housing Association knows that that is a lie. And we never have wanted to deal with how we treated others who didn't fit the ideal dream. White and rich. America can't remember four years ago, asking them to know anything about Indian schools, would be a reach. This is why we have to look to literature, to show us the sins of the past, and how they still effect how we relate to today, and even more relate to each other. John Sayles is a screenwriter and director with a diverse work, from B-Movies, to historical pieces on baseball, strikes, and dealing with the past. Sayles is also an occasional novelist, and To Save the Man is a book about life at a real Indian School, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School at a time of turmoil and tragedy.

The book jumps in time and space and narratives, dealing with the different voices of students, instructors and others at the Carlisle School. At the time where most of the events take place 1890, the Native American way of life had been pretty much destroyed. There were many dead, the rest scattered far from their ancestral homes, placed on reservations. The buffalo were almost extinct, and even the lands given to them were not safe, as anyone with a claim could be given property with the slimmest of evidence of being of Indian blood. The Carlisle Indian Industrial School was set up as an almost military academy using obedience, and forceing loyalty and a rebuilding of Native American children, tossing out the ways they knew and giving them something else. A hybrid life, almost of unacceptance to both cultures. Some of the students attended the school to get a toe hold in this new world, some had no choice at all, and some just gave up. At the start of a new academic year, a rumour begins that there is a ceremony, an idea that Native Americans are beginning to share, that they have a way to toss the white man out. To be immune to their bullets and return to the ways they knew. As rumors spread, so does paranoia, and when people get paranoid, violence is never far behind. To students at the school, this is both an exhilarating, confusing, and scary time. And things might only get worse.

A brutal book in many ways about how a culture can be wiped out be education and learning, but just enough education and learning to make Native Americans barely acceptable. Sayles is not only a good writer, but a good researcher getting to the little stories that add so much truth to his tale, that set scenes, that read so well, and yet truly hurt. The dialogue is also quite good, but the little moments, the people staring at a student on the train, the way a troubled boy is ignored when he needs to go to the bathroom. The confusion of Native teachers when the see what they are instructing. There are different narrators and time is quite fluid here, moving around from past to their present, to their future. However the learning curve is quick to pick up and really adds to the story. Sayles has done a very good thing in writing about these schools, as I know there is much controversy about the same schools in Canada. Events like these should not be avoided, or omitted from history.

I am not sure if this was a script moved to novel form. Considering the subject matter I am sure a movie would be hard to finance. Which is sad. We need to to more about our past, only then can we try to make a better future. Though that seems to be getting harder and harder as time passes. John Sayles is as good a director as he is a writer, and this would be a good place to start learning more about this very creative man.

I am always fascinated with historical novels that piece together parts of our past that may not have gotten the attention it deserved. It’s some of our shameful history and often gets glazed over in school To Save the Man is significant in shining a light on our treatment of indigenous people. I wish we had more authors like Mr. Sayles to research the bad and ugly parts of this nations past.

To Save the Man portrays a segment of American history that isn't necessarily covered in much detail in our textbooks. John Sayles shares the experiences of several youths and young adults going to the Carlisle Indian School in the late 19th century where Indian children were taken from their homes and families and brutally forced to assimilate into white society. The story takes place in the period of time leading up to and following the massacre at Wounded Knee where the US Army killed hundreds of Lakota.. It was eye-opening and powerful to learn about the treatment of children in these schools as well as how quickly the "frontier" was changing and what this meant for the indigenous peoples living there. However, I found it difficult to follow the many overlapping stories and even the timeline. Perhaps it was the way the story was formatted/written - sometimes long, descriptive narratives of places and events mixed with short vignettes and images of various characters, some stories shared from one characters, other stories of characters retold through others. Perhaps this is a book-form of a movie since Sayles is a filmmaker. I'd be interested in seeing his movie as it might give me a better sense of what I missed when reading the book. Nevertheless the content of the book is important and sure to start some important conversations.

Many thanks to Melville House Publishing & NetGalley for the e-arc.

TO SAVE THE MAN is a story about another shameful episode in American history. A story about the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, founded in Carlisle, PA in 1879. It was a military style boarding school, based in the historic Carlisle Barracks (now the U.S. Army War College), established and paid for by the government, to educate the children of indigenous people.

The title of the book comes from the school's founding superintendent, Lieutenant Richard Henry Pratt (1840-1924). With previous experience handling indigenous POWs, Pratt came to believe so completely in the need for total assimilation by indigenous people, that he adhered to the motto "kill the Indian, save the man".

This is a deeply sad book. At the beginning, it's 1890. The buffalo are largely gone from the American plains and millions of indigenous peoples have already been killed off by war and disease. Indigenous parents often force their children to attend schools like Carlisle because of the promise that learning the ways of the white man will help them have a better future. But what the Carlisle School required in exchange was for the children to entirely give up their native customs, language, clothing, hair and name in exchange for only a small chance at citizenship. Sure they learned about arts, music, even football - but what a cost!

Administrators were continually trying to present a glossy facade to the public when, in reality, conditions were harsh. In addition to lessons, children were assigned to various types of agricultural and service work, both on and off campus, where their wages were sent directly to school coffers and the children themselves received only a small stipend for personal items.

Introduced early in the book and hovering over the entire story is a prediction from an indigenous Messiah, who says the native peoples will ultimately triumph over the whites, through the repeated performance of a Ghost Dance. So, the reader knows from the start something big is likely to happen.

So why only three stars? On the plus side, the author appears to have been diligent in his research. I learned a lot about what it was like to be at the Carlisle school. The military rigidity that greeted students at induction, the punishments meted out for those who tried to run away, and the pervasive colonial attitude of superiority held by teachers and other supervising adults.

“Our mission at the Carlisle School is to baptize the Indian youth in the waters of civilization—and to hold him under until he is thoroughly soaked!”

On the minus side, I had issues with the writing style that kept me from fully engaging. TO SAVE THE MAN is not a straightforward narrative. It has an episodic quality. There are long passages of narration, so the balance between narration and dialog felt off to me. There is an omniscient narrator, who introduces many characters, but we don't get to hear much from them directly so we learn little about their interior lives. Instead, their stories are put together in what felt to me like a piecemeal way, with some awkwardly abrupt transitions. I felt almost as though I was looking at a series of snapshots in a photo album and only at the end did I get a sense of story.

I do recommend the book, especially because I think most others will NOT be annoyed with the aspects that bothered me. And the content is extremely worthwhile.

An excellent book! I enjoyed the history, the story, and the writing style. I like how the story jumps from place to place, keeping it active and making the reader have to think and pay attention. I also like how it shows multiple sides of the Indian story, from different Indians and different whites. It really brought history to life.

•To Save the Man by John Sayles
•Genre: Historical Fiction; Literary Fiction
•Thoughts:
Centering around the time of the Wounded Knee Massacre and the killing of Sitting Bull, author John Sayles weaves a story of a group of children, some stolen and some given freely, to attend the Carlisle Indian School.

The boys and girls are stripped of their Indian ways and forced to assimilate into Western culture.

The real-life Carlisle Indian Industrial School, located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, operated from 1879 to 1918. Present day, it is now part of the United States Army War College.

While researched well, it was lacking in emotional depth and character development. The characters' surfaces barely scratched. The historical atrocities committed against America’s Indigenous are appalling and I had expected the book to bring out a whole range of emotions.

This book would be perfect for someone wanting to learn more beyond public school history classes.

Out this coming January 21st, 2025


Thank you @melvillehouse and @NetGalley for sending an Advance Reader’s Copy for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This is the first book I've read by author John Sayles. Though fiction, it's a well researched and important book, touching on parts of history that I had heard about but never really delved into. Centering on the massacre at Wounded Knee, and the Carlisle Indian School, Sayles brought these things to life in such a way that I found myself doing research of my own on those subjects, as well as the ceremonial 'ghost dance' movement, and the killing of Sitting Bull.
I found that, for me, some of the characters lacked depth, making it difficult for me to really relate to them, or feel a sense of connection with them. That being said, I thought the book to be very well written, and having taught me something about this part of our country's and Native American history, it will definitely resonate with me.
Thank you to NetGalley and Melville House for allowing me to be an early reader of this book.

Honestly, I had a tough time with this one — and not for the reasons I would've expected.

I was initially invested in the characters as they were introduced, but it was slightly overwhelming trying to keep track of who was who. The formatting itself was a bit tough to get into, as the lack of traditional chapters made it felt like there were no good stopping points. Still, I hoped it would all come together as I continued.

200 pages in, and I feel like...not much has actually happened. I know there's necessary exposition, but the pacing isn't hitting a stride. Granted, this just might not be the book for me at this moment. I'll be sure to edit my review if/when I come back to it.

(Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing me with a free digital copy in exchange for an honest review!)

In the last few years I’ve been working on filling in the numerous heavy knowledge gaps left over from where my US history education in school fell short, with a particular focus on trying to fix the almost total lack of information I receive involving all things native American. To say the least, I’ve learned quite a lot, but also feel like I still have a very, very considerable way to go, to put it gently. As a result, I appreciated my opportunity to real John Sayles' latest work. Was it able to fully cover the actual scale of the intense attempted cultural genocide that was kicked off with the establishment of the Carlisle Indian School? No, of course not. But "To Save the Man" still does excellent work bringing to life the really helped bring to life the beginnings of the forced assimilation period indigenous-US government relations and the multiple harsh and complex disruptions that it not only immediately caused, but whose after-effects continue to be felt into the present day.

This historical fiction stirred emotional repossession as the black and white of history books came alive with real feelings and concerns generated by the words of the story.

While reading "To Save the Man," I kept thinking, John Sayles intended this to be a film, and important film about the Wounded Knee Massacre, the boarding school where Native Americans were sent to become white, and for people to learn more about the ghost dance. But somehow, this is a novel (at least as of today) and not a film. I'm a huge fan of his films, and kept imagining this on big screen, something I normally don't do while reading a novel because if I read the novel first, I tend to enjoy the movie less. I'm not so sure that would be the case with this "To Save the Man" because the prose wasn't as powerful as the message the novel reveals. Our main characters are not only believable and fleshed out, but there seems to be gaps, and that may be because (avoiding spoilers) we don't really know these people when they lived on the reservation, their lives at home with their families. We know them from the boarding school, which we already have a generic idea about their racist, violent approach toward "Kill the Indian, Save the Man" quest. Towards the end of the novel, after Sitting Bull has been murdered, and one student returns home, he realizes he has lost his native tongue, and his family wishes he'd leave, but then the massacre happens, so we don't really get to see him with his family. It's an important novel, one that will resonate with many readers.