Shirley Sterling

My Name Is Seepeetza Shirley Sterling

An honest, inside look at life in an Indian residential school in the 1950s, and how one indomitable young spirit survived it -- 30th anniversary edition.

Seepeetza loves living on Joyaska Ranch with her family. But when she is six years old, she is driven to the town of Kalamak, in the interior of British Columbia. Seepeetza will now spend the next several years of her life at an Indian residential school. The nuns call her Martha and cut her hair. Worst of all, she is forbidden to "talk Indian," even with her sisters and cousins.

In spite of this, Seepeetza looks for bright spots -- the cookie she receives as a Hallowe'en treat, the dance practices. Most of all, there are the memories of her summers and holidays back on her family farm -- camping trips, horseback riding with her sister, picking berries and cleaning fish with her mother, aunt and grandmother. Always, thoughts of home make her school life bearable.

Based on her own experiences, this powerful novel by Shirley Sterling, of the Nlaka'pamux Nation, is a moving account of one of the most blatant expressions of racism in the history of Canada. Includes a new afterword.




Key Text Features

afterword

dialogue

journal entries

maps




Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS. ELA-LITERACY. RL.4.2
Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.

CCSS. ELA-LITERACY. RL.5.1
Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

CCSS. ELA-LITERACY. RL.6.6
Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.