Wiijiwaaganag: More Than Brothers

Niizh Eshkanag is a member of the first generation of Anishinaabe children required to attend a U.S. government boarding school--schools infamously intended to forcibly assimilate Native students into white culture. At the Yardley Indian Boarding School in northern Minnesota, Niizh Eshkanag endures abuse from the school staff and is punished for speaking his native language. After moving to a marginally better school, he befriends a new white student: the principal's nephew, Roger Poznanski. Though Roger is frightened of his Indian classmates at first, Niizh Eshkanag befriends him and teaches him to respect Anishinaabe ways. When a younger student runs away into a winter storm after being beaten by a school employee, Niizh Eshkanag and Roger join forces to rescue him.