Canku Ota - Peace Party Native Heroes Essay Contest Entry

Writer's First Name:	Age:	Essay Title or Subject:	E-mail Address (to notify you if you win!!)
Kayla	10	My Gr.Gr.Grandmother
School Name (if any)		City and State/Province	Tribal Affiliation (if any)
Heritage Elementary School, Travelers Rest, SC		Greenville S. Carolina	Ojibwa

My heroine was my G.G.Grandmother.when she was about 7 or 8 years old she was taken from her mom and dad and sent to a school that taught Indians how to become white people. When she was taken she also had a brother who went but he died in that school because he didn't want to become a white man. From what my grandfather told me about this was that he was beaten to death for it. I have like dreams of this and why someone would do that! My GGgrandmother was ashamed as was my ggrandmother. about being Indian. But to me she was a hero because of what she went thru and was strong enough to live thru it. She was forced to wear shoes, to talk white talk, to read and write, but at the age of 12 she was adopted by a white family that changed her name from her true name to a white name. She was named Rose Belle and she was very happy. She had her own room, not a cot in a big room with other girls. She had dolls and toys, she learned how to cook white mans food. She also learned how to keep her house clean and other woman chores. But she wasn't happy because she couldn't hardly remember her true family. She was never to return to her home. She missed them very much especially her mother. She was never to see the greatness of her people, the ways that they lived and died. She never saw her mother pass away not her dad and brothers and sisters either. This was very sad for her. When she was 18 she married a white man named William Ostrom and had 6 children of her own. One was my GGrandmother Alta and she had 6 children of her own. My Grandfather was her first one and he tells me a lot about his real family and about his Grandmother. That is why she is my hero, I wish I could live like she did, talk her language, and live with her family before she was taken away. I admire the way she was able to learn the white mans way even though she didn't want to. Yes my GGGrandmother was a hero and so was all the other children who went to those schools to learn. I think it would be very hard for me to have to learn a new way of life like she did. I wish I could have met her and talked to her but she dies when she was 48 years old. She died of stomach cancer form her white man's way of living. At least that's what my Grandfather tells me. Thank you Kayla

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