Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison

Shannan says: "I checked this out from the children’s nonfiction section of my local library multiple times. It is about a young white girl who was taken captive by the Senecas during the French and Indian War. It read like fiction; an engaging page-turner even on my third and seventh readings. Originally published in 1941, author and illustrator Lenski dedicated herself to bringing different experiences into American consciousness. During her acceptance speech for the Newbery award in 1946, she said, “We need to know [...] people different from ourselves–people of different races, faiths, cultures and backgrounds…When we know them, understand how they live and why, we will think of them as ‘people–human beings like ourselves.” She did that for me in Indian Captive, for there was a humanity that was not in any of the other works that I had read about Indigenous peoples. At age 10, she began my awareness of an author’s responsibility when portraying minority groups. It planted the seed that we can learn from those different from ourselves, if we choose to."