Wandering Stars: A Novel

Content Warning: This study guide refers to instances of genocide, forced assimilation, and racially motivated violence, as well as suicide and suicidal ideations, self-harm, and graphic depictions of substance use disorder and sexual assault.

The prologue introduces the Sand Creek Massacre, following a quote from Richard Henry Pratt describing the forced assimilation of Indigenous people. The prologue describes the violent atrocities faced by Indigenous people at the hands of settlers, including forced relocation to reservations, the slaughter of the buffalo population, and the horrors of boarding schools.

The prologue then describes Fort Marion, the first European settlement in the continental US. Fort Marion, a late-1600s prison-castle shaped like a star, was built by Indigenous people under Spanish rule. Originally named Castillo de San Marcos, it was renamed after Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion. Fort Marion began housing prisoners of war in 1875. Seventy-two people from the Kiowa, Comanche, Southern Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Caddo tribes were transported to Florida and kept at Fort Marion as prisoners of war. There, Richard Henry Pratt served as jailer and modeled The Carlisle Indian Industrial School after his own prison experience.

Beginning in 1879, children were forcibly removed, under threat of jail time for their parents, to boarding schools across the US, which remained in operation for nearly 100 years.