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elinakd's review against another edition
4.0
Plowed through this in just a few days. What a sad, beautiful story and history that's important to share.
imyourmausoleum's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Nation (OCEN) is historically known as the Monterey Band of Monterey County as the results of the Congressional Homeless Indian Acts. These people are also often referenced as Mission San Carlos Indigenous. Currently, the tribe has completed all requirements to be reinstated as a Federally Recognized Tribe, and I sincerely hope they achieve that. There are over 600 people enrolled in this Tribe today. The author of this book is a member of this tribe, and discusses the history of genocide against them from the 1800s up to present day. Missions were built throughout the Western part of the country, and Indigenous people were used to construct them in what was basically slave labor. Children were snatched and sent to these schools to "Christianize" them. The story of the missions and the stories of the later residential schools are very similar. Forced labor, forcing them to only speak Spanish or English, ridding them of their customs, clothing, and beliefs, rape, beatings, deaths... The population of the Ohlone Costanoan Esselen declined to appalling levels, thanks to death, low birth rate, and high mortality due to disease and living conditions. The systematic eradication of a people is disgusting to me. If you read this book and do not find yourself disgusted and outraged at the treatment of these people, you have serious problems.
I have the Audible version of this book. It was approximately six hours of listening time. If you are interested in the physical copy, it is just over 200 pages. I had never heard of this particular tribe on Indigenous people, though I am sure there are hundreds more I could say the same about. I learned a great deal about the culture, which I loved. I think it is wonderful that the author was able to research her family so extensively and discuss the truth about what happened in the Missions. This was a very moving, and very enraging, book. The atrocities that Indigenous people in the Americas have faced are disgraceful, and they are ongoing. This book mentions the legacy of violence and various types of physical, mental, emotional, and substance abuse that many Indigenous still struggle with today. This is generational. The stripping away of a peoples' identity and culture is abhorrent. It is tragic. If you would like to learn more about the tribe the author belongs to, please visit ohlonecostanoanesselennation.org
I have the Audible version of this book. It was approximately six hours of listening time. If you are interested in the physical copy, it is just over 200 pages. I had never heard of this particular tribe on Indigenous people, though I am sure there are hundreds more I could say the same about. I learned a great deal about the culture, which I loved. I think it is wonderful that the author was able to research her family so extensively and discuss the truth about what happened in the Missions. This was a very moving, and very enraging, book. The atrocities that Indigenous people in the Americas have faced are disgraceful, and they are ongoing. This book mentions the legacy of violence and various types of physical, mental, emotional, and substance abuse that many Indigenous still struggle with today. This is generational. The stripping away of a peoples' identity and culture is abhorrent. It is tragic. If you would like to learn more about the tribe the author belongs to, please visit ohlonecostanoanesselennation.org
alonawhitebird's review against another edition
5.0
Quintessential reading for understanding trauma in Native communities today. Miranda traces her own family’s genealogy to follow the path of colonialism in California. Her personal touches, such as diary entries, poems, and stories, make this easily readable for a non-academic audience.
paigers7's review against another edition
4.0
Memoir/history book that was a bit disjointed - deliberately, I think, but this sometimes made it hard to focus. I enjoyed overall.
rhubarbpi3's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
One of my favorite reads of 2024. I read an excerpt of this in a class and was so happy to have an opportunity to read it in its totality. Miranda does a wonderful job mixing genres in order to tell her story in the full context and history of her identity, with a tone and attention to detail that tied everything together.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Genocide, Grief, Murder, and Colonisation
ljwolfe's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
mescalero_at_bat's review against another edition
2.0
i tried to finish BAD INDIANS by deborah miranda but couldn't. her book on indigenous californians was rife with shoddy scholarship and shoddy writing. i got 80% of the way through and had to abandon it.
the trap that some natives fall into is being stuck in tape loops produced by their anger regarding the history of colonial oppression. in this case, she seemed to be perpetuating the language of the oppressors in just about every page of the first half of the book. she was able to narrate some of the horror of the mission period in california, and the insidious racism that is part of the curriculum that just about every california resident is subject to in 4th grade when we are force fed "the mission unit" (californians will know what i'm talking about).
she deconstructs it successfully to some extent (by offering useful facts without attaching too much personal emotion), but because she fails to give the reader any sense of what life was like for indigenous californians before the spanish arrived, the bulk of the writing stays mired in the spanish perspective that all indians were dirty, lazy, and ignorant. she has failed to transcend this narrative and in some cases is just passing it along. it's clear we have to heal these wounds before we can talk about them in ways that are instructive or illuminating. we need more than horror stories. we need to reveal how we have survived and thrived. i realize there are few such examples (because the campaign of genocide was so successful), but is it helpful to always retell the story of the victim? it's useful as a tool of therapy, but historical scholarship must offer more than that.
i say this knowing all too well that many americans just don't know the story and it is our responsibility to reveal it. but so far, over the course of the 30 or so years of native scholarship that i have undertaken, the books that have stayed with me, the books that have inspired, are the ones that balance the celebration of native accomplishments with narratives of oppression.
the trap that some natives fall into is being stuck in tape loops produced by their anger regarding the history of colonial oppression. in this case, she seemed to be perpetuating the language of the oppressors in just about every page of the first half of the book. she was able to narrate some of the horror of the mission period in california, and the insidious racism that is part of the curriculum that just about every california resident is subject to in 4th grade when we are force fed "the mission unit" (californians will know what i'm talking about).
she deconstructs it successfully to some extent (by offering useful facts without attaching too much personal emotion), but because she fails to give the reader any sense of what life was like for indigenous californians before the spanish arrived, the bulk of the writing stays mired in the spanish perspective that all indians were dirty, lazy, and ignorant. she has failed to transcend this narrative and in some cases is just passing it along. it's clear we have to heal these wounds before we can talk about them in ways that are instructive or illuminating. we need more than horror stories. we need to reveal how we have survived and thrived. i realize there are few such examples (because the campaign of genocide was so successful), but is it helpful to always retell the story of the victim? it's useful as a tool of therapy, but historical scholarship must offer more than that.
i say this knowing all too well that many americans just don't know the story and it is our responsibility to reveal it. but so far, over the course of the 30 or so years of native scholarship that i have undertaken, the books that have stayed with me, the books that have inspired, are the ones that balance the celebration of native accomplishments with narratives of oppression.