To Save The Man by John Sayles

 

To Save the Man by John Sayles.

Published 23rd January 2025 by Melville House.

From the cover of the book:

In September of 1890, the academic year begins at the Carlisle school - a military-style boarding school for Indians run by Captain Richard Henry Pratt. Pratt's motto, 'Kill the Indian, Save the Man' is enforced in the classroom as well as the dorm rooms: speak English, forget your own language and customs, learn to be white.

While the students navigate survival, they hear rumours of a sweeping tribal lands reservations in the west - the 'ghost dance,' whereby desperate Native Americans engaged in frenzied dancing and chanting hoping it will cause the buffalo to return, the Indian dead to rise, and the white people to disappear.

Local whites panic, and the government sends in troops to keep the reservations under control. When legendary medicine man Sitting Bull is killed by native police working for the government troops, each Carlisle resident is faced with the question: Whose side are you on? And what will you risk to gain your freedom?

***********

September, 1890. A new academic year begins at the Carlisle School for Indians, a boarding school for boys and girls established by serving officer Captain Richard Henry Pratt, and sponsored by the Government. Pratt's motto is 'Kill the Indian, Save the Man', and he employs strict military methods to turn them into 'white' people, convinced this is the only way they will survive.

Outside the school walls, there is a growing wave of unrest in the uprooted Native American tribes forced into starvation and degradation. Rumours abound of a new Messiah, who promises that the buffalo will return, the Indian dead will rise, and the white people will disappear, if only they follow join his band of 'ghost dancing' apostles.

The whites are increasingly afraid, as the ghost dance spreads through reservations like wildfire. Pratt is certain that his crusading teaching methods raise his students above tribal affairs, but when panic leads to the murder of legendary Chief Sitting Bull, there are those at Carlisle compelled to cast off the personas foisted upon them in favour of the call of their blood. 

This powerful, and beautifully written novel, juxtaposes an intimate picture of life at the very real Carlisle school, through the eyes of a small group of students, and staff, with the wave of messianic fervour that spread amongst the reservations in 1890, leading to the massacre at Wounded Knee. Both threads of the story weave inextricably together, conveying the true horror of a system designed to strip young Native Americans of their language, beliefs, and their very nature, while the shocking history of the treatment inflicted on the indigenous people of America plays out.

It is a novel that is extremely hard-hitting, as Sayles delves deeply into the complex fall-out of a perfect storm of power-hungry policies; cruelty; neglect; incompentence; corruption; racism; genocidal intent; arrogance; and misguided good intentions. But, although it sent me down a lot of rabbit holes about the history surrounding the story (and there is lot touched on in this novel), there is nothing of the text-book about it. This is essentially a character-driven novel, and that is where its power truly lies.

My heart was broken over and over again as Sayles skilfully meanders between the innermost thoughts of the characters, and their actions. Those of the pupils are especially difficult to read when it comes to the inhumanity of what is being asked of them in the name of 'benevolence'. The memories of their former lives bleed into the present, and these feed into your understanding of their bewilderment, rage, and unfathomable sadness, and what lies at the heart of the wave of rebellion spreading across the country too. The relationships they forge between each other are especially affecting, as you get to know them through their hopes, dreams, and friendships as they try to keep something of themselves alive. Not to mention the cutting hypocrisy of a system that requires them to perform as active participants in romantic retellings of their own history, and celebrate such delights as Thanksgiving, while white people are actively destroying those they claim to be grateful to - it made me sick to my stomach.

It would be wrong to say I enjoyed this book, as it dragged me through the emotional mill. It is not one I would naturally have picked up, but I am so glad to have had the opportunity to read it. There are shades of the great American novel here, which really impressed me, and the scale of what Sayles achieves with this story is impressive. I will be thinking about these characters, and their experiences for a very long time to come. 

To Save the Man is available to buy now in hardcover and ebook formats.

Thank you to Melville House for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

John Sayles is an American independent film director, screenwriter, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for Passion Fish (1992) and Lone Star (1996). He has written eight novels, the most recent being Yellow Earth (2020) and JAMIE MACGILLIVRAY: The Renegade's Journey (2023), which was a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice.