Our anthology - is four Native women sharing their educational experiences. We are members of the first Native writers group in South Dakota - Oak Lake Writers Society. Oak Lake is our gathering place, our Okawita. It is a site where a massacre took place right after the Dakota War.

Our anthology is "Shaping Survival" ISBN 0-8108-4151-7 published by Scarecrow Press.

"In writing my story I wrestled with telling the whole story because of the repercussions from the Catholic community here on the Rosebud Reservation, but I made the resolution not to spare the worst because I am writing my story for the children who suffered in the boarding schools. For those children whose stories will never been told, for those of us who still suffer from post-traumatic stress, for the lost generations who stand on the street corners and dig in trash for aluminum cans to sell, for those who deaden their pain with alcohol and drugs and for their families who have suffered from generational grief and invisible scars. And finally, for those who have lost their culture and heritage and have not seen it as a loss."

Lydia Whirlwind Soldier, a Sicangu Lakota and an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, is also the author of a book of poetry, the title of which is, "Memory Songs" - ISBN 0-931170-70-2 published by Center of Western Studies, Box 727, Augustana College, Sious Falls, S.D. 57197.

Comments to the author, Lydia Whirlwind Soldier, would be appreciated.