Zitkala-Sa

Zitkala-Sa, the narrator of the first part, is a Native American girl remembering her early days at a boarding school that sought to erase her culture. As a child she is sensitive, proud and deeply attached to the customs of her people, and she feels every strangeness of the new place keenly — the cold discipline, the unfamiliar clothes, the loss of warmth and freedom. What stands out most is her spirit of resistance. When she learns that her long hair, so precious in her culture, is to be shingled, she does not weep and submit; she declares, "No, I will not submit! I will struggle first!", runs and hides under a bed, and fights for something she holds sacred. Even though she is caught, tied down and shorn against her will, her struggle shows a fierce refusal to surrender her identity quietly. Her significance lies in this defiance: she embodies the dignity of a people under pressure and the courage of a child who, though power …