The injustice throughout this story just really gets to me! The White Eyes all think that the Indians are dumb, do not know what is best for them, and think that they know what is right and best for all of their kind. This is the argument of a lot of people, I know, but the irony is that the Native Americans were the healthiest and wisest of all people! Willie talks about how he could tell the difference in the air when traveling through the United States on the train, and it shows how dirty all of our people were to give them all of the diseases that killed them when they were assimilated into the White Eyes culture. What white person would dunk themselves multiple times into a freezing body of water every day of the winter to make sure they were clean? Our culture sure wouldn't have! The injustice their culture experienced was unfortunate to the extreme, and I feel ashamed to be associated with a culture that would treat other human beings this way. I recognize that this is the common argument made by people who experience this through readings, and I hope I can say that I would have acted with empathy for the Native Americans if I would have lived through this time in history.
This is an amazing experience for our class at least, so I can only imagine what kind of impact this novel would have on a 5th grader!