Zitkála-Šá

Sioux writer Zitkála-Šá recalls hiding under a bed while attending Carlisle Indian Industrial School to avoid having her braids cut off.

“I remember being dragged out, though I resisted by kicking and scratching wildly. In spite of myself, I was carried downstairs and tied fast in a chair. I cried aloud, shaking my head all the while, until I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck, and heard them gnaw off one of my thick braids. Then I lost my spirit.”

Zitkála-Šá remembers being introduced to the concept of the devil.

“Then I heard the paleface woman say that this terrible creature roamed loose in the world, and that little girls who disobeyed school regulations were to be tortured by him.”

 

Source(s):

Zitkála-Šá, My Life (Middletown: CreateSpace, 2014), p. 27.