The Lost Ones
Page 18
Landis, Barbara. Carlisle Indian Industrial School History. 1996. http://home.epix.net/~landis/histry.html. Cumberland Valley Historical Society researcher Barbara Landis has developed a website about the history of the Carlisle School.
Ramos, Mary G. “Family Life at the Forts.” Texas Almanac. http://texasalmanac.com/topics/history/family-life-forts-0.
This website from the Texas State Historical Association has great information about life for families at the forts.
Standing Bear, Luther. My People, the Sioux. Lincoln, NE: Bison Books, 2006.
Luther Standing Bear was one of the first students at Carlisle and one of the school’s success stories. Originally published in 1928, this autobiography is the perfect way to see Carlisle as it was at the beginning.
Texas Historical Commission. Fort Griffin: State Historic Site. http://www.visitfortgriffin.com/index.aspx?page=898.
This is a website about a fort similar to Fort Clark with great information about the daily life of a soldier in the 1870s.
Welker, Glenn. “Lipan Apache (Tindi).” Indians.org. http://www.indians.org/welker/lipanap.htm.
This website has a history of Casita’s family, based on research done by Daniel Castro Romero.
PHOTO CREDITS
Cumberland County Historical Society, Carlisle, PA: 2.
The Granger Collection, New York: 242 (top and bottom).
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division: LC-USZ62-26798: 241; LC-USZ62-26792: 243 (top); LC-USZ62-26796: 243 (bottom); LC-USZ62-112855: 244 (top); LC-DIG-ggbain-11206: 244 (bottom).
Courtesy of Daniel Castro Romero, Jr., General Council Chairman, Lipan Apache Band of Texas: 9.
*websites active at time of publication
PRAISE FOR THE HIDDEN HISTORIES SERIES
Rory’s Promise
“This first in the Hidden Histories series of middle-grade novels highlights an episode in which New York City’s Foundling Hospital sent white youth to unfamiliar Arizona Territory to be adopted by Mexican Catholics, raising the ire of Protestant Anglos and revealing the depths of their prejudice. . . . The injustice, drama and action will have readers riveted. . . . An exciting, eye-opening read.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Rory is a likable protagonist with determination and heart, all of which will endear her to readers.”
—Booklist
“Readers will enjoy the fast-paced action and likable main character. This is a historical novel with a unique topic and plenty of substance, making it especially suitable for class or group discussion.”
—School Library Journal
PRAISE FOR THE HIDDEN HISTORIES SERIES
FREEDOM’S PRICE
“Expect a savvy, energetic fighter in Eliza, and suspenseful plotting in this fine piece of historical fiction from the Hidden Histories series.”
—Booklist Online
“History comes alive in this imagining of the life of Eliza Scott, one of the daughters of Dred Scott, the slave at the center of a landmark case in American history. . . . VERDICT: A great choice to support school curriculum.”
—School Library Journal
“A fast-paced story with a strong female protagonist and a look at a little-known time period, this book is a good choice for historical fiction units and recreational reading.
RECOMMENDED.”
—School Library Connection
An Interview with Michaela MacColl
Q: Where do you get your ideas for the Hidden Histories series? What are the challenges in writing them?
A: Most of the Hidden Histories have started with an adult nonfiction book written by a scholar who has devoted many years to exploring an incident in America’s past. Sometimes that incident can be just as fascinating to kids. Rory’s Promise was inspired by a book about the Sisters of Charity taking 40 Irish orphans to a remote mining town in the Arizona Territory in 1904. The prejudices they encounter were mind-boggling from a modern perspective. We had fun exploring the different points of view in a balanced way.
We got the idea for Freedom’s Price from a biography written about Dred Scott’s wife. She left behind no written record since she was illiterate. The biographer spent time exploring what a likely life for her would have been—an excellent resource for writing a historical fiction story about the Scotts. The city of St. Louis has also done a wonderful job of documenting the Great Fire and Cholera Epidemic of 1849.
Q: You’ve written about Irish orphans, slaves, and Apaches. How do you find the voices of such diverse characters in American history?
A: It’s not always easy! We were most concerned with the voices of Eliza, the slave seeking her freedom, and Casita, the Apache girl struggling with the mystery of who she was. In our industry, there is an intense discussion of how to portray characters of color and Native Americans. We didn’t want to get it wrong, so we did our research.
We found slave journals by young women from the pre-Civil War period, and those first-person accounts were very helpful. Casita’s story is actually in translation since she grew up speaking Apache, not English. But I spent time with her family and watched videos on YouTube to try and capture the cadence and rhythm of an Apache girl’s voice. I gave Casita a credible backstory—that she had learned some English while accompanying her father to Texas.
Q: Over the course of writing three Hidden Histories, what similarities have you found among your stories? What differences?
A: In the Hidden Histories, we set out to write little-known American stories with children at the center. Like our country, these kids have turned out to be brave, resourceful, and flawed. After all, how dull would it be to have a perfect hero or heroine?
But the more we write, the more we see that we are telling the same story over and over again—all of these kids are looking for their place. Their family. Their American identity. Our Irish orphan, Rory, has to choose between two very unlikely families—a tight-knit group of competent nuns or a childless Mexican family. She’ll sacrifice something no matter how she chooses. Eliza Scott is stuck between slavery and freedom. The only constant she has is her family—and by the very nature of slavery, that’s the one she can’t count on. Casita and her brother are literally ripped away from their family. They’ll have new names and a white identity before the story ends—but are they still Apache?
You could argue this is a universal struggle—who are we? But I think it is also uniquely American. With the exception of Native Americans, we all came from somewhere else and have to carve out our place in this country.
MICHAELA MACCOLL is the award-winning writer of several historical novels, including The Revelation of Louisa May, Always Emily, Nobody’s Secret, Prisoners in the Palace, and Promise the Night, and the co-author of Rory’s Promise and Freedom’s Price. She has degrees in multi-disciplinary history from Vassar College and Yale University. She and her family live in Westport, Connecticut. Visit michaelamaccoll.com.
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