Author(s): Denise Lajimodiere; Suzzanne Kelley (Editor-In-Chief, Series edited by); Jamie Trosen (Cover Design by); Michael Yellow Bird (Series edited by)

History

Denise K. Lajimodiere's interest in American Indian boarding school survivors' stories evolved from recording her father and other family members speaking of their experiences. Her research helped her gain insight, a deeper understanding of her parents, and how and why she and her siblings were parented in the way they were. That insight led her to an emotional ceremony of forgiveness, described in the last chapter of Stringing Rosaries. The journey to record survivors' stories led her through the Dakotas and Minnesota and into the personal and private space of boarding school survivors. While there, she heard stories that they had never shared before. She came to an understanding of new terms: historical and intergenerational trauma, soul wound. She is haunted by the resounding silence of abuses that happened at boarding schools across the United States. She wants these survivors' stories told uninterrupted, so that each survivor tells their own story in their own words. The youngest survivor interviewed was fifty years old, and the oldest was eighty-nine. In the tradition of her Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe, she offered them tobacco and gifts. She told them her parents' and grandparents' boarding school stories and that she is considered an intergenerational, someone who didn't go to boarding school but was a survivor of boarding school survivors. The journey was emotionally exhausting. Often, after hearing their stories she had to sit in her car for a long while, sobbing, waiting to compose herself for the long drive back across the plains.Stringing Rosaries: The History, the Unforgivable, and the Healing of Northern Plains American Indian Boarding School Survivors has been recognized with multiple awards.o One of three finalists for the 2020 Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prizeo 2020 Independent Press Awards, Distinguished Favorite in Cultural and Social Issueso 2020 Independent Publishers Awards (IPPY Awards) Bronze Medal for Multicultural Nonfictiono 2020 Independent Book Publishers Association-Benjamin Franklin Award, Silver Medalist in the Multicultural categoryo 2019 Midwest Book Awards, Gold Medal in the Regional History categoryo 2019 Foreword Reviews INDIES Finalist, Historyo 2019 Midwest Book Awards, Silver Medal for Cover Design