Staff Picks: "They Called Me Number One" by Bev Sellars

Sellars, Bev.  They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2013.

We’ve featured a lot of anti-racism titles over the last year+ but we often overlook an important group that preceded our nation and whose land our College sits on. That group is Native Americans. North America includes Canada, our neighbor to the north, and the experiences there give insight into our own. They Called Me Number One: Secrets and survival at an Indian Residential School tells the story of native tribes in British Columbia, Canada, that were forced to send their children to “residential schools” to instill them with Catholicism and suppress their native heritage (including their language and ancestral ways). The missionaries separated children from their families and often grossly mistreated them. This shocking memoir by a  Xatśūll chief tells the story of the abuse, suffering, and tragic consequences of this shameful history.

Get It!

Borrow They Called Me Number One in print from the library.