Those who have no prior knowledge of United States relations and policy towards and with Native American nations might think of boarding schools as existing only in the distant past- an anachronism of the days of the Founding Fathers, Jacksonian Indian removal, and the Indian Wars of the Great Plains. But what the author, Mary Annette Pember, so clearly illuminates to the general public is the present-day and intergenerational impact these institutions, of which there are still 90 in operation today (though with tribal leaders leading administrations), have in light of the recent discovery of a score of unmarked graves in Canada, as well as the United States reckoning, response, and resolution to its own history of boarding school.

Medicine River is a thought provoking, heartfelt, and deeply necessary story of the history and legacy of boarding schools through the eyes of an indigenous woman who’s mother and maternal grandmother endured the abuse and injustice at the hands of Christian missionary run boarding schools; it is equal parts history lesson and memoir. The book progresses mostly chronologically with interspersed interjections linking the past to the present. The interjections are occasionally chaotic, requiring the reader to go back a few pages to restitch the narrative, but the author covers a lot of history. Her earlier chapters offer history lessons, laying the groundwork for how these institutions came into being, starting as far back as the 15th/16th century. In the later chapters, the author focuses more on her personal relationships, with herself, and with the world she lives in. In this way it reads less like historical scholarship, i.e something happening in the past, to present-day analysis.

Likely due in part to the author’s background in journalism, the writing style is very accessible and in many parts conversational, when she retells stories from her mother’s past and through her interviews with individuals associated with boarding schools. Additionally, you don’t need to have any prior history or knowledge of Native American history, social issues, or even science…. If your forte is the former then you will appreciate her straightforward and palatable explanation of the neuroscience of trauma.

This book fits into a larger and currently ongoing discussion about the impact of boarding schools and Native American policy more broadly. Finally, Native communities are receiving acknowledgement from these institutions- the Federal governments of the United States and Canada, and the Catholic church- who perpetrated these injustices. I was drawn to this book as someone with a greater understanding of Native American history, however I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that is less knowledgeable about this history and also seeks to be in conversation with the current political restitutions.

This is my first feedback submitted to NetGalley; I appreciate the opportunity to submit my thoughts and hope that it helps the publisher, author, and others in their future endeavors.

I recently watched the documentary Sugarcane, and that was my first time learning about Indian boarding schools. I was horrified about what had taken place in our not so distant past. When I saw this book available as an ARC I immediately requested it, anxious to learn more.

This book and the stories within are so important. I was enthralled the whole time I was reading it. I thought the author did a great job of telling Native American history and the history of Indian boarding schools, as well as telling her own story and that of her family. Her mother went to an Indian boarding school so she had first hand stories of the experience, but she also did research to try to find the facts of the time. The way the author wove her stories into the factual history was truly beautiful. My only wish is that we could’ve gone more in-depth on several topics.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest rating and review.

Medicine River tells a sad truth that maybe not everyone knows about. Native American children were forced to attend schools where their identities were stripped. These children were forced to speak English, given English names and punished if they did not assimilate. Many children ran away and died. I was saddened and filled with anger when I read that a lot of these cases were brushed under the rug until the 2000's. I would re read this.

A lot to unpack here. The book was interesting. I have been interested in learning more about the Indian boarding schools and what went on in them.
While we did learn some information on that, I felt that there was a lot of the novel devoted to personal dealings and family trauma. I know it ties back to the boarding school however I felt it was just extra information that I didn’t really need. I wanted to learn more about the schools and how they were run instead of the entire story of the authors family.

I would definitely read this book. Unfortunately, timing I was unable to do so when I had access to the galley. We should support our indigenous people, as we are the original illegal immigrants.

I am not a fan of critiquing books where the story is so personal and visceral to the author. In the case of Medicine River by Mary Annette Pember, the specter of horrific abuse at Native American boarding schools permeates the entire narrative. It is certainly not a question if the abuse and cultural erasure occurred; it certainly did. However, I wish Pember chose to focus on one aspect instead of trying to cover multiple aspects of the story in a very short page count.

Pember frames the story around her relationship with her mother. Her mother was sent to a seminary in Wisconsin and it was as bad as you would expect. However, Pember will also go off on tangents mid-chapter to cover sometimes hundreds of years of history. These tangents are often oversimplified or littered with unsupported claims. She will then veer back to her mother's story or sprinkle the text with random acts of abuse to other people. It means the reader is caught playing catch up (or is distracted by random history summaries) instead of being able to fully comprehend the horrors these Native children suffered. In trying to have both a broader story-line mixed with a personal one, the reader is left with not enough of either.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and the publisher.)

"Medicine River" by Mary Pember offers a powerful exploration of the traumatic legacy of Native American boarding schools, deftly weaving together personal narratives and historical evidence to illuminate the enduring impacts of forced assimilation on Native communities. Through the lens of her mother’s harrowing experiences, Pember delves into the deep psychological scars inflicted on individuals and families, revealing how these institutions sought to erase cultural identities while creating a painful rift in familial relationships. The book serves as both a poignant remembrance and a call to acknowledge the resilience of Native cultures as they navigate the challenges of this dark chapter in American history, ultimately portraying a story of survival, recovery, and hope amidst the ongoing struggle against systemic oppression.

This was my last read for 2024, and what an impactful one it turned out to be. Mary Annette Pember is a journalist and a member of the Ojibwe tribe, and “Medicine River” is her debut work detailing the blighted legacy of the boarding schools for Native children in the US & Canada.

From the mid-19th century to the 1930s, the US government have funded the boarding schools, almost half of which were run by Catholic missionary groups, in order to ‘help’ Native children assimilate into the brave new world that is American ‘civilization’. Using the US’s concept as a blueprint, Canada had followed suit and established their own Native boarding schools. What went on within these schools were mostly left buried in the past, and it wasn’t until a burial site filled with Native children was unearthed at one of the Canadian boarding schools that the dark history of the US & Canada’s ‘founding’ was finally exposed.

Part memoir of the author’s mother (who had once been forced to attend one of the boarding schools and had remained traumatized ever since) and part investigative journalism into the history of the practice, Pemberer dug deep into researching and unearthing documents related to the schools. Some of them remained behind closed doors as the Catholic Church deemed the documents to be private while also disclaiming responsibility when it came to their roles in perpetuating the abuse of Native children put into their care.

While Canada has taken baby steps towards acknowledging their past by offering reparations (though at the time of the book’s publication, less than 10% of the promised amount have been disbursed to the Native communities), the US are more intent on keeping the dead buried and burying their heads in the sand along with their secrets. Native communities all over the world are still fighting for their rights and reparations, and it is hard not to see the past injustice echoed by current situations elsewhere (🇵🇸🇨🇩), as some colonial powers are still taking lessons from the US’s handbook.

This is a highly recommended read, in any case; no one is free until everyone is.

Generational trauma lingers in our DNA, family cycles, and more. We may unwittingly pass it along if we don't recognize and stop the cycle.

Generational and community trauma from government-sponsored genocide is even more insidious. It destroys connections--to oneself, others, traditions, and more. The U.S. government sponsored many genocidal campaigns against Indigenous nations from the start, and colonizers did before the U.S. became a country. One of the government-sponsored genocides was the boarding schools.

Boarding schools were designed to destroy people and cultures. Child abuse was built in to the foundation of the schools; it was a feature. They were designed to terrorize children and decimate nations. The extent of evil can be difficult to grasp.

The author brings it to life through showing the impact on her family and herself. She elegantly weaves in research showing the tapestry of genocide while illuminating her family's experience.

Anyone who has boarding school survivors in their family, community, city, state, or nation (aka everyone in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and more) needs to read this book and listen to the survivors in their midst. Bear witness and take steps to address the lasting impact of genocide.

This is the most powerful book I read in 2024, and I can't stop talking about it.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC.

Medicine River by Mary Annette Pember is a heartfelt and evocative novel that delves into the life of a Native American woman, exploring her struggles with identity, family, and healing. The story intricately weaves together themes of trauma, resilience, and cultural heritage, offering a poignant portrayal of contemporary Indigenous life. Pember's writing is rich and immersive, capturing the complexities of the character's experiences while highlighting the importance of community and connection to the land. It's a moving and thought-provoking work that provides valuable insights into the Indigenous experience in modern America.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for an eARC copy of Medicine River by Mary Annette Pember.

Medicine River is a poignant exploration of the painful legacy of Native American boarding schools, illuminating the profound impact these institutions have had on families and communities. Drawing from her own heritage as an Ojibwe journalist, Pember delves deep into her mother's experiences at a seminary in Wisconsin, weaving together personal narrative and historical context to craft a compelling account of resilience amid trauma.

Pember provides a stark portrayal of the boarding school system, which operated under the guise of assimilation and opportunity. The detailed accounts (which will break your heart) reveal the brutal realities faced by Native children - physical punishment for speaking their languages, forced labor, and emotional neglect. The violence of the institution disrupted individual lives and also sought to sever the ties that bind communities together.

The most important aspect of the novel is the intimate interviews and meticulous research which captures the echoes of these experiences across generations. Her mother's struggles resonate throughout the narrative, highlighting how the scars of the past have shaped both her life and the lives of subsequent generations. Her exploration of the relationship between herself and her mother is particularly moving, as it underscores the complex dynamics of love and loss within families affected by trauma. The importance is also Pember's unwavering commitment to authenticity. She doesn't shy away from uncomfortable truths of history, but also illuminates the ways which Native cultures are reclaiming their narratives and traditions. Medicine River isn't just a book about suffering; it is also a testament to resilience, strength, and the ongoing fight for cultural survival.

Medicine River is an important read for anyone seeking to understand the enduring impact of colonial policies on Native American communities.

Thank you Net Galley for the ARC. I have been reading both fiction and non-fiction books involving the Native American boarding school experience. This book has a personal viewpoint, as the author's mother was sent away, and she shares how this impacted her mother and her, as well as other family members' stories. However, as the author is a journalist, she also shares a large amount of research on the boarding schools in Canada and the United States and their long term impact on generations of families. The author also delves into the role the Catholic Church played into this system, and discusses the moves toward reparation by Canada. I very much appreciated learning about the move for natural healing approaches being conducted in Alaska, recognizing that their own culture has tools for healing that can be more effective than those tools created by the same group that was responsible for the horrendous action originally.
Very well researched and written, and brings the issue to a personal level as well.

Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools
To be published April 22, 2025
By Mary Annette Pember
Penguin Random House, 304 pages.
★★★

Native Americans have been called America’s “forgotten minority.” Discussions of discrimination and racism often focus on other groups, yet if one looks at negative social data (poverty, poor housing, substance abuse, poor health, infant death, unemployment, etc.) indigenous Americans are at the bottom of most of them. Mary Annette Pember, an Ojibwe*, argues this is by design, not an unfortunate twist of history.

Many books have been written about white land grabs, Indian wars, and broken treaties, but Pember cuts to the quick by noting that indigenous history is where the Great Commission–the command for Christians to evangelize the globe–meets the Great Chain of Being, a biological taxonomy that ranks living things from simple to complex. At the height of the eugenics movement, the latter view extended the rankings to humankind. The eugenics movement merely reiterated older ideals. When the U.S. Constitution was approved, enslaved Africans were counted as 3/5th of a person; Indians were not counted at all.

Pember’s book is at once a sweeping historical account, a family history, and a personal memoir. There is an extensive historiography of Native American history, but Pember adds detail to the lesser discussed tale of Indian boarding schools, a topic that often goes no deeper than mentions of the Carlisle Indian School to give context for the prowess of famed athlete Jim Thorpe during the early 20th century. Pember notes that by the 1920s, a startling 76 percent of Indian children were sent to boarding schools. “Sent” is the operative word, as many of them were judicial and legislative kidnappings undertaken to “assimilate” indigenous children into mainstream society. That meant bans of native languages, dress, customs, and rituals.

This is a personal issue for Pember, whose mother Bernice attended St. Mary’s Catholic Indian School in Odanah, Wisconsin, to the chagrin of her mother Cece, an early Ojibwe activist. In many ways Bernice bought into assimilation; she adopted a prim image as if to prove wrong a nun who called Indians “dirty.” Pember, however, presents boarding schools in a Dickensian light, institutions marked by body-numbing hard work, food deprivation, authoritarian regimentation, and corporal punishment. Her descriptions call to mind Irish laundries for unwed mothers, and the treatment of Māori in New Zealand and Aborigines in Australia. To cite just one impact of poor conditions, in 1925, 87 out every 100,000 individuals in the United States contracted TB; among indigenous peoples the level was nearly seven times higher.

What Bernice missed–as did Pember in her youth–was deep immersion in Ojibwe language and culture. The band to which Pember belongs lives in northern Wisconsin along the shores of Lake Superior. Much of their land and that of some Sioux and Ho–Chunk was grafted away by lumber interests in 1837, but roughly 125,000 acres plus the right to conduct rituals on Madeline Island were guaranteed by an 1854 treaty. It is today land belonging to the Medicine River reservation**.

Pember traces a legacy of harm and cultural damage done by boarding schools. It is a powerful story, though it must be said that the book occasionally stumbles by trying to do too much. Particularly noticeable are its tonal shifts. Pember is didactic when reviewing history, personal in discussing her family saga, and righteously angry at some of her own experiences. Because she often crams history and memoir into the same chapters, it is easy to get lost chronologically and thematically. Chapter 2, for instance, begins with an incident in Bernice’s life, jumps back to Pope Nicholas V (1447-55) and wends its way forward, cuts away to Ojibwe culture, and returns to Bernice. Most of the material on boarding schools is found in chapters 5-8 of the book’s 10 chapters and even then, Pember shifts between broader and personal history. Although it was published before Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) became President Obama’s Secretary of the Interior, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s An Indigenous History of the United States (2014) is an easier read for anyone looking for a survey of Native American history. Then again, Dunbar-Ortiz devotes but six pages to boarding schools.

I recommend Medicine River, but take your time.

Rob Weir


*Ojibwe references an Algonquian dialect. Tribal members are properly called Anishinaabe, meaning “True People,” though many whites called them Chippewa.

** In a telltale etymological shift, white French traders called the stream emptying into Lake Superior, “Bad River.”

Part history book, part memoir, this was very educational. I, like many grew up not knowing about residential boarding schools in the United States and am learning about it well past school age. I appreciated the deep dive research so much and found myself shocked by a lot of what I read. So much heartbreak over generations caused by these schools trying to force assimilation instead of embracing the culture of the people who were here first. I would definitely recommend this one to others. Thank you Netgalley for the e-arc

Disclaimer: ARC via Netgally

Like many countries, the Untied States has to reckon with the abuses of its part. And like many countries, it does not always, if ever, do so. For many years, the US education system has not fully taught what the US did to Native Americans, outside of Trail of Tears. The impact of residential schools as well as their history is not usually taught, even in states or cities where such a school existed. People may know who Jim Thorpe was, but what exactly Carlisle was and what happened there, most people don’t know. Even if a residential school is mentioned, it is done with implication that it was a less ritzy boarding school. Not what it really was not about the abuses, not about the graves.
Pember’s book goes into detail about the residential school. She includes information about the development of the schools, the wide spread abuse, and halfhearted attempts by the US government to reform or better the schools. She even includes bit about how some survivors fought back and turned the US legal system against the government with varying degrees of success.
But mostly, the book is a memoir of the impact of the residential schools. Pember’s mother went one and the fall out of that travels down generations and impacts all relationships. The trauma that Pember’s mother went though plays out in her relationships to her children, in particular Pember who was the only daughter. This meant that in many ways she became the keeper of some of her mother’s secrets. The effect of the residential shows in both Pember and her brothers.
But the book does also offer hope. The section where Pember details how some tribes and clans are dealing with the trauma is particularly insightful.
Pember’s book would make good introduction to the history of residential schools and their impact. It is an engrossing read, but not overly heavy or scholarly. It offers more in depth analysis of the residential school. It offers a more complete view than simply detailing the various abuses that occurred. It offers

This book is an important one in the sense that it provides a detailed historical perspective on Indian boarding schools and their impacts upon native Americans. It's clearly a very well researched endeavor. The tone is very academic though despite the fact that a significant part of the book is personal. I was anticipating a book more like "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City" which addresses a social justice issue and uses storytelling to bring it to life. The first 10 or so pages of this book lived up to that promise, but unfortunately after that, it seemed more like a doctoral dissertation. Some extremely harrowing scenes are described in the book, but they are written in an arms length way, as if by an outsider. It just didn't feel like memoir where the reader can literally feel the depth of the emotion. That being said, if you are a lover of history, this book does an excellent job of explaining the scope and depth of the injustices perpetrated against native American Indians in a factual manner with tons of footnotes so it's clear where the information originated.

This book was very good. The author does a great job writing about colonialism and Indian policies. While reading about her life and interactions with her mother, you can feel the love and confusion she felt. The author includes many footnotes, which I like, as well as a lot of information about the history of Indian policies and reforms and about trauma. Reading about children as young as three being sent to Indian schools is heartbreaking to me as a mother. Reading about parents who can't get their children back from those schools makes me angry on their behalf. I think every person of every race should read this book to see how the white people have genuinely impacted the indigenous people of this country.

Medicine River broke my heart over and over. I took a Native American culture class in college and THOUGHT I had a basic understanding of Indian boarding schools. The way the author tells her family’s personal experience, while also providing facts in a professional tone is incredible. I felt rage, sadness, laughed, and cried.. a lot. I will recommend this book to anyone willing to take the time to learn. It was a heartbreaking wake up to our government systems. I am sure I will reflecting on some of my previous held views for the foreseeable future.

-Thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, and Vintage and NetGallery for the Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review.-

Mary Annette Pember takes a deep dive into a very difficult subject, Indian Boarding Schools in this book which is equal parts historical exposition and anecdotal narrative. Her background in journalism shone through in this book. Pember provides a detailed account of Indian Boarding Schools and the atrocities that occurred within those schools. Pember elucidates the immediate, deleterious effects these boarding schools had on Indigenous communities and the continued psychological and physical health outcomes.

My only gripe with this book is that I didn't have access to it while I was writing my dissertation on the subject! Pember's personal account made me reflect on my own family's history with Indian Boarding Schools which, at times, had me pacing myself. It was very emotional to read this book; my grandfather attended such a school in Michigan, as did his siblings and mother. I am so grateful to Pember for having the courage to share her truth and bring continued awareness to this subject.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
The Indian boarding schools is a part of history that isn't as well known as it should be. This book is well researched and provides a lot of information.