CANR
WORK TITLE: Finding Flaco
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PERSONAL
Female.
EDUCATION:Temple University Ph.D. (English).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, wildlife photographer, and birdwatcher. State University of New York, Old Westbury, literature teacher and English Department chair.
MEMBER:NYC Plover Project, NYC Bird Alliance, and Wild Bird Fund.
WRITINGS
Contributor of academic articles to journals, including American Periodicals and Legacy.
SIDELIGHTS
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Jacqueline Emery is a wildlife photographer, college instructor, and birdwatcher. She teaches literature and chairs the English Department at SUNY, Old Westbury. Writing and teaching about Native American writers and children at boarding schools, she also edited the award-winning collection of essays, Recovering Native American Writings in the Boarding School Press. The book collects writings by students who published letters, editorials, essays, short stories, and artwork in boarding school newspapers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The students created identities for themselves as writers and editors to challenge Native American stereotypes, discuss issues pertinent to their culture, and provide perspectives on Native American experiences.
Also included are works by prominent Native American intellectuals, such as Charles Eastman, Gertrude Bonnin (Zitkala-Sa), Carlos Montezuma, and Henry Roe Cloud. By gathering these works, “Emery has provided a valuable service. She has created a resource that can help us restore and recover at least some of our sight, bringing more detail, nuance, complexity, and humanity into view, if only we can take the time to look closely enough,” according to Steve Amerman in H-Net Reviews.
In her book, Finding Flaco: Our Year with New York City’s Beloved Owl, Emery and co-editor David Lei chronicle the life of the beloved Eurasian eagle-owl named Flaco who had spent 13 years in captivity at the Central Park Zoo, but escaped after his enclosure was vandalized in February 2023. Flaco initially settled in Central Park but then wandered Midtown Manhattan, evading capture, and sparking interest in amateur birdwatchers who took pictures whenever he was sited and gaining the love of city dwellers. Unable to fly well or to hunt, he was remarkably adaptable, eventually learned to feed himself, adapt to the weather, and fight off other birds. Unfortunately, he was found dead exactly one year later after a collision with a window, and later was found to have lethal levels of rodenticide in him.
“This ode to Flaco is also effectively a tribute to the community he brought together—a diverse collection of city folk who shared real-time sightings and formed new friendships,” declared a Kirkus Reviews contributor. A reviewer in Publishers Weekly noted: “Emery and Lei’s narrative invites us to walk alongside [New Yorkers] on the chase, sharing in their awe and wonder at this remarkable owl’s transformation.”
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BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
BookLife Reviews, January 13, 2025, review of Finding Flaco: Our Year with New York City’s Beloved Owl.
Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2025, review of Finding Flaco.
Publishers Weekly, January 13, 2025, review of Finding Flaco, p. 79.
ONLINE
H-Net Reviews, March 2019, Steve Amerman, review of Recovering Native American Writings in the Boarding School Press.
Hyperallergic, https://hyperallergic.com/ (February 28, 2024), E. T. Rodriguez, “Artists Mourn Death of Flaco, the Owl Who Inspired Millions.”
State University of New York at Old Westbury website, https://www.oldwestbury.edu/ (August 1, 2025), “Jacqueline Emery.”
Jacqueline Emery is a part-time professional wildlife photographer and co-author of Finding Flaco: Our Year with New York City’s Beloved Owl. Her photos have been published by the New York Times, Associated Press, and numerous other media outlets. She began birding in 2019, and her fascination with owls took flight while photographing Barry the barred owl in Central Park in 2020. Jacqueline is passionate about wildlife conservation. She volunteers with NYC Plover Project, a nonprofit that protects piping plovers and other shorebirds that nest on city beaches. She also supports NYC Bird Alliance and Wild Bird Fund.
When she is not with the birds, she teaches literature and chairs the English Department at SUNY Old Westbury. She is editor of the award-winning collection, Recovering Native American Writings in the Boarding School Press, published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2017.
Jacqueline Emery
Jacqueline Emery's picture
Position/Role
Chair Associate Professor
Department
English
School
School of Arts and Sciences
Building
New Academic Building
Room
2011
Phone
(516)628-5638
E-mail
emeryj@oldwestbury.edu
Courses Taught
EL1000: English Composition I
EL2219: International Short Stories
EL3500: Literature Across Cultures I
EL4000: Native American Literature
EL4030: Women and Narrative
EL4800: Major Authors
EL5000: Senior Seminar I
EL5010: Senior Seminar II
EL6550: Rhetoric and Composition (MAT Program)
Degrees
Ph.D., English, Temple University
Research Interests
Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century American Literature, Native American Literature, Women's Literature, and Periodical Studies.
Publications
Edited Book:
Recovering Native American Writings in the Boarding School Press: http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9780803276758/
Refereed Articles:
“Mining Boarding School Newspapers for Native American Women Editors and Writers.” American Periodicals, vol. 27, no. 1, 2017, pp. 11-15.
“Writing to Belong: Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s Newspaper Columns in the African American Press.” Legacy, vol. 33, no. 2, 2016, pp. 286-309.
“Writing against Erasure: Native American Students at Hampton Institute and the Periodical Press.” American Periodicals, vol. 22, no. 2, 2012, pp. 178-98.
Book Review:
Cherokee Sister: The Collected Writings of Catharine Brown, 1818-1823, edited by Theresa Strouth
Gaul; Laura Cornelius Kellogg: Our Democracy and the American Indian and Other Works, edited by Kristina Ackley and Cristina Stanciu; The Newspaper Warrior: Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins’s Campaign for American Indian Rights, 1864-1891, edited by Cari M. Carpenter and Carolyn Sorisio. MELUS. Forthcoming.
Office Hours
Tuesdays and Thursdays.
My office hours change semester to semester. For my current office hours, see the list of faculty office hours outside the English Department (NAB 3036A).
Artists Mourn Death of Flaco, the Owl Who Inspired Millions
A large oak in Central Park bears drawings, photographs, letters, and other odes to the beloved bird.
Avatar photo
ET Rodriguez
February 28, 2024
An unsigned artwork left at the “Flaco Oak,” the owl's favorite tree near the East 102nd Street entrance to Central Park, beckons images of Andy Warhol’s screenprints. (all photos ET Rodriguez/Hyperallergic unless otherwise noted)
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Artists of all feathers are mourning the death of Flaco, the beloved Eurasian eagle-owl of New York City who succumbed to acute traumatic injury after flying into a building on Friday, February 23. He was found lifeless on a sidewalk on 89th Street in Manhattan.
Eurasian eagle owls can live up to 20 years in the wild and up to 60 years in captivity — Flaco was 13.
“We even had a bar mitzvah for him,” said Valerie Hartman, who lives near Central Park South and started following Flaco in 2015. She spoke with tears in her eyes on Tuesday, February 27, as she and several others gathered at the foot of Flaco’s favorite tree — a large oak a few hundred feet from the park’s East 102nd Street entrance.
Hundreds of flowers adorned the ground, along with a blown-up photo of the orange-eyed raptor. Nearby, people working with documentarian Penny Lane placed dozens of drawings, letters, cards, and artwork left in Flaco’s memory into a large plastic tub for fear of the rain in the forecast. They cleared out an hour before the storm.
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Birders, runners, and artists mourned the loss of Flaco the owl by his favorite tree in Central Park on Tuesday, February 27.
A drawing accompanies a letter left in tribute to the owl at the “Flaco Oak.”
“Fly high,” read many of the notes. One artwork was reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s screenprints of Marilyn Monroe. Others appeared to be drawn by children.
Jacqueline Emery, an amateur wildlife photographer and birder who lives on the Upper West Side, has been following Flaco since the night of his escape from the Central Park Zoo last February, when vandals allegedly made a hole in his enclosure.
“I improved my skills greatly with Flaco,” said Emery. “Using a low shutter speed, playing around with ISO, figuring out how to deal with ambient light — there were a lot of challenging conditions.”
Emery is grateful for the photos and says looking at them helps her cope with the loss.
A portrait of Flaco by Jacqueline Emery, who has been photographing the owl since his escape from the Central Park Zoo in February 2023 (photo courtesy Jacqueline Emery)
An outpouring of letters sitting at the “Flaco Oak” in Central Park were carefully packed away and placed in a plastic bin to protect them.
“[Art] is a quick, simple way to take a deep dive into your unconscious,” said Carla Rose, a board-certified creative arts therapist and licensed psychotherapist in Manhattan. “And when you talk about grief, it’s a complicated emotion, it’s really hard to put into words, unless you use something like poetry or art.”
Flaco was hatched in North Carolina on March 15, 2010. He died just weeks shy of his 14th birthday. Not only did his death inspire international headlines, but it is also the focus of proposed legislation.
On Monday, February 26, New York State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal renamed a bird safety bill introduced last year the FLACO (Feathered Lives Also Count) Act. If passed, the legislation will require buildings to “incorporate bird-friendly designs, particularly in their windows.” According to the nonprofit NYC Audubon, between 90,000 and 230,000 migrating birds are killed in the city each year in collisions with building glass.
“I think the point that people can make change here is really great,” said Dr. Dustin Partridge, director of conservation and science for NYC Audubon. “Flaco has done so much for conservation because he got so many new people out into the amazing wildlife that exists within New York City.”
A memorial service for Flaco will be held on Sunday, March 3 at 4pm by the “Flaco Oak.”
Emery, Jacqueline FINDING FLACO (NonFiction Nonfiction)
Wildlife photographers Emery and Lei tell the true story of a Eurasian eagle-owl that escaped from New York City's Central Park Zoo and became a local celebrity.
Flaco hatched in a South Carolina bird park in March 2010. Two months later, when he was barely a fledgling, he was transferred to the Central Park Zoo, where he would spend almost 13 years. On the night of February 2, 2023, Flaco's enclosure was vandalized by an unknown perpetrator who cut open the protective wire mesh, allowing Flaco to leave the zoo behind. Although he'd never had a chance to hone his flying skills in his small housing (he had a six-foot wingspan), he made his way to a sidewalk at 60th Street and Fifth Avenue. Pedestrians gathered to look at him, and police were called in case the bird was injured. Officers placed a pet carrier near him, but Flaco flew off to a tree by the nearby Plaza Hotel and evaded rescue. New Yorkers largely broke into two camps: those who felt that Flaco should be captured to ensure his safety, and those who believed that he should roam free: "Some saw him as an underdog, others, as an immigrant, still others saw an outlaw. More than a few, I imagine, saw him as all those things rolled into one." Meanwhile, the bird strengthened his flying skills and learned to hunt New York's abundant rat population. He also won the hearts of birders, wildlife photographers, and many others. Emery and Lei document Flaco's remarkable adventures in text and in many magnificent photos, taken by the authors and other enthusiastic followers. It's packed with details about the physiology and habits of owls, as well as delightful vignettes of Flaco's antics (including fun images of him peering into apartment windows). This ode to Flaco is also effectively a tribute to the community he brought together--a diverse collection of city folk who shared real-time sightings and formed new friendships. Despite Flaco's eventual sad demise, this is an inspirational tale of a valiant, curious escapee.
Charming, informative, touching, and full of riveting photographs.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Emery, Jacqueline: FINDING FLACO." Kirkus Reviews, 10 Dec. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A819570050/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3fc84ffd. Accessed 30 June 2025.
Finding Flaco: Our Year with New York City's Beloved Owl
Jacqueline Emery and David Lei | Owls of New York, LLC
225p, hardcover, $50, ISBN 979-8-991-51050-9
This beautifully designed book captures, through text and inspired photographs, the journey of Flaco, a Eurasian eagle-owl who spent 13 years in captivity at the Central Park Zoo before unexpectedly finding freedom. When an unknown person tampered with his enclosure, Flaco--a bird who had never known life in the wild--ventured into the sprawling urban wilderness of New York City. His escape sparked a whirlwind of emotions: Who set him free? Could he survive without human care? Could he fly, hunt, and fend for himself in the wild? Emery and Lei delve into these questions, chronicling Flaco's incredible story and demonstrating throughout how "smart, courageous, and resilient" he has proven to be in the face of challenges.
Initially, Flaco was seen walking on Fifth Avenue, seemingly unable to fly but still managing to evade attempts to recapture him. Despite the best efforts of the zoo, the Wildlife Conservation Society, other rescuers using baited traps, Flaco showed remarkable savvy and independence. He ultimately found a perch in Central Park itself, defying expectations of what a zoo-born owl could achieve. The authors were among the first to track Flaco nightly, watching anxiously to see if he would adapt to his new life. Their excitement proves infectious as they recount how, against all odds, Flaco's instincts took over: he flew across the park, hunting and exploring areas from the Lower East Side to the Upper West Side. His story captivated countless New Yorkers, uniting them in awe and admiration for this determined owl.
Flaco's courage--choosing freedom over the safety of captivity--became a symbol of hope and resilience in the heart of the city. Stunning photography captures the thrill of spotting Flaco in the city (witness him perched on balconies, park benches, and construction equipment) while also vividly conveying the owl's emotions, from curiosity to triumph. Emery and Lei's narrative invites us to walk alongside them on the chase, sharing in their awe and wonder at this remarkable owl's transformation.
Cover: A | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: A Editing: A | Marketing copy: A
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Finding Flaco: Our Year with New York City's Beloved Owl." Publishers Weekly, vol. 272, no. 2, 13 Jan. 2025, p. 79. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A828299998/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=81841de4. Accessed 30 June 2025.
Finding Flaco, Owls of New York, LLC, Jacqueline Emery and David Lei, 50 (224p), 979-8991510509
Genre: Nonfiction/Art & Photography
This beautifully designed book captures, through text and inspired photographs, the journey of Flaco, a Eurasian eagle-owl who spent 13 years in captivity at the Central Park Zoo before unexpectedly finding freedom. When an unknown person tampered with his enclosure, Flaco--a bird who had never known life in the wild--ventured into the sprawling urban wilderness of New York City. His escape sparked a whirlwind of emotions: Who set him free? Could he survive without human care? Could he fly, hunt, and fend for himself in the wild? Emery and Lei delve into these questions, chronicling Flaco's incredible story and demonstrating throughout how "smart, courageous, and resilient" he has proven to be in the face of challenges. Initially, Flaco was seen walking on Fifth Avenue, seemingly unable to fly but still managing to evade attempts to recapture him. Despite the best efforts of the zoo, the Wildlife Conservation Society, other rescuers using baited traps, Flaco showed remarkable savvy and independence. He ultimately found a perch in Central Park itself, defying expectations of what a zoo-born owl could achieve. The authors were among the first to track Flaco nightly, watching anxiously to see if he would adapt to his new life. Their excitement proves infectious as they recount how, against all odds, Flaco's instincts took over: he flew across the park, hunting and exploring areas from the Lower East Side to the Upper West Side. His story captivated countless New Yorkers, uniting them in awe and admiration for this determined owl.
Flaco's courage--choosing freedom over the safety of captivity--became a symbol of hope and resilience in the heart of the city. Stunning photography captures the thrill of spotting Flaco in the city (witness him perched on balconies, park benches, and construction equipment) while also vividly conveying the owl's emotions, from curiosity to triumph. Emery and Lei's narrative invites us to walk alongside them on the chase, sharing in their awe and wonder at this remarkable owl's transformation.
Takeaway: A zoo owl's once-in-a-lifetime adventure in New York City.
Comparable Titles: Jennifer Ackerman's What An Owl Knows, Leigh Calvez's The Hidden Lives of Owls.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Finding Flaco." BookLife Reviews, vol. 9, no. 2, 13 Jan. 2025. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A822925649/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=2706e93c. Accessed 30 June 2025.
Emery, Jacqueline FINDING FLACO Owls of New York (NonFiction Nonfiction) $None 12, 15 ISBN: 9798991510509
Wildlife photographers Emery and Lei tell the true story of a Eurasian eagle-owl that escaped from New York City's Central Park Zoo and became a local celebrity.
Flaco hatched in a South Carolina bird park in March 2010. Two months later, when he was barely a fledgling, he was transferred to the Central Park Zoo, where he would spend almost 13 years. On the night of February 2, 2023, Flaco's enclosure was vandalized by an unknown perpetrator who cut open the protective wire mesh, allowing Flaco to leave the zoo behind. Although he'd never had a chance to hone his flying skills in his small housing (he had a six-foot wingspan), he made his way to a sidewalk at 60th Street and Fifth Avenue. Pedestrians gathered to look at him, and police were called in case the bird was injured. Officers placed a pet carrier near him, but Flaco flew off to a tree by the nearby Plaza Hotel and evaded rescue. New Yorkers largely broke into two camps: those who felt that Flaco should be captured to ensure his safety, and those who believed that he should roam free: "Some saw him as an underdog, others, as an immigrant, still others saw an outlaw. More than a few, I imagine, saw him as all those things rolled into one." Meanwhile, the bird strengthened his flying skills and learned to hunt New York's abundant rat population. He also won the hearts of birders, wildlife photographers, and many others. Emery and Lei document Flaco's remarkable adventures in text and in many magnificent photos, taken by the authors and other enthusiastic followers. It's packed with details about the physiology and habits of owls, as well as delightful vignettes of Flaco's antics (including fun images of him peering into apartment windows). This ode to Flaco is also effectively a tribute to the community he brought together--a diverse collection of city folk who shared real-time sightings and formed new friendships. Despite Flaco's eventual sad demise, this is an inspirational tale of a valiant, curious escapee.
Charming, informative, touching, and full of riveting photographs.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Emery, Jacqueline: FINDING FLACO." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2025. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A825128412/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=d772487c. Accessed 30 June 2025.
Jacqueline Emery. Recovering Native American Writings in the Boarding School Press. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017. 336 pp. $55.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8032-7675-8. Reviewed by Steve Amerman Published on H-AmIndian (March, 2019) Commissioned by F. Evan Nooe (University of North Carolina, Charlotte)
How does one reconstruct the history of a people who have left no written records of their experiences? I suspect that I am not the only one in the field of American Indian history to have heard some version of this question from stu‐ dents, the general public, and more than a few fel‐ low historians. Setting aside the fact that written records are but one among many ways to learn the stories of the past—and setting aside the fact that written sources provide us with neither an infallible nor a complete picture of that past— scholars of Indian history have had to frequently point out that, contrary to popular presumptions, many Native people did indeed leave behind writ‐ ten accounts of their lives. By collecting a large, diverse, and revealing set of writings by American Indian people in this book, Jacqueline Emery has thus helped join the important and ongoing effort to correct that basic misperception. More specifically, Emery—a professor of Eng‐ lish—has gathered together Native-authored texts that appeared in turn-of-the-century boarding school newspapers, part of a “vast newspaper ar‐ chive that remains largely understudied” (p. 2) but much of which is also “inaccessible to schol‐ ars and students” (p. 32). By tapping into these un‐ derused and hard-to-get sources, she has collected a sizable number of publications, which she has grouped into two parts. Part 1, entitled “Writings by Boarding School Students,” has sections for let‐ ters, editorials, essays, and “short stories and re‐ told tales,” while part 2, entitled “Writings by Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Native American Public Intellectuals,” includes the work of such notables as Charles Eastman, Gertrude Bonnin (also known as Zitkala-Ša), Carlos Mon‐ tezuma, and Henry Roe Cloud (all of whom also happened to be tied into the Society of American Indians at the time). In all, there are thirty-five In‐ dian writers in this collection. To her credit, Emery takes the time to supply readers with back‐ ground information on each of them, revealing an impressive diversity in terms of gender, tribal af‐ filiation, and schools attended. The writings are pulled from about fifteen boarding school news‐ papers—from Carlisle, Hampton, Chilocco, Santee, and Seneca schools—and Emery indicates that she performed only light editing on the texts she ulti‐ mately selected for inclusion. In her helpful introduction, Emery readily ac‐ knowledges that, as is the case with any set of sources, these writings must be handled carefully. In general, white boarding school administrators maintained considerable control over what was published and, accordingly, one has to view these texts with that in mind. However, in keeping with broad developments in this historiography, Emery energetically asserts that it would be wrong to dis‐ miss these sources as merely assimilationist pro‐ paganda. “Boarding school newspapers, much like the schools themselves, were complex sites of ne‐ gotiation,” she writes. “Native Americans devel‐ oped multiple strategies to negotiate the different and sometimes competing demands and expecta‐ tions of Native and non-Native audiences in order to gain visibility and the authority to speak” (p. 2). And yet, the language of assimilation in these writings—while it should not necessarily be sur‐ prising—remains quite striking in its pervasive‐ ness. “If there were many big schools like this ... we think the Indians would get along very nicely,” one student wrote in 1881. “When all the Indians become educated there would be no more wild In‐ dians but all civilized and educated people” (p. 60). Indeed, words like “civilized,” “advancement” (p. 158), and “progress” (p. 215) appear repeatedly throughout the book, as do “savage” (p. 158), “bar‐ baric” (p. 181), “primitive” (p. 191), “superstitious” (p. 182), and “in the dark” (p. 182). The question remains: to what extent did the writers truly believe in the ideas that such words conveyed, and to what extent were they simply writing what they knew their teachers wanted to hear (or even, to what extent did their teachers actually alter their words)? Perhaps the most ex‐ tensive insight we get on some of this comes with Bonnin’s texts. Bonnin presents some of the most obvious examples of resistance—she gives a sharply negative description of her boarding school experience and also offers a vigorous de‐ fense of traditional Indian dances—but what is further distinctive is that, in this case, Emery is able to also give us a glimpse of the school admin‐ istrators’ interventions into her writings. Her work has “a literary quality,” the officials concede, but add, “We regret that she did not once call to mind the happier side of those long school days, or even hint at the friends who did so much to break down for her the barriers of language and custom, and to lead her from poverty and in‐ significance into the comparatively full and rich existence that she enjoys today” (p. 254). Elsewhere, it seems that the extent of the schools’ editing is less known, and the flashes of resistance are often more subtle. But the resis‐ tance is there. While few may approach Bonnin’s directness in defending Indian culture, several at least challenge the notion that it has to be com‐ pletely destroyed in order to achieve “success” in the modern world (p. 246, e.g.). There are also sev‐ eral descriptions of Indian cultural practices, whether the Nez Perce running tradition (p. 104), traditional labor divisions among Lakota men and women (p. 224), or the extended collection of Indi‐ an folk tales and creation stories. Further poignant are the glimpses that appear of tradi‐ tional Indian education. With “close observation and patience in practice,” notes Eastman, for in‐ stance, a child’s eye “swept the ground, and the moment he saw a footprint he knew whether it was that of a deer or a moose, a bear or a buffalo. He knew whether that track was made an hour ago or the day before yesterday.... He had been thoroughly taught” (pp. 221-22). Intentional or not, such descriptions serve to challenge the pre‐ vailing notion of the time that “education” was something that Indians lacked until whites gener‐ ously bestowed it upon them. Thus, this book contains many words of agen‐ cy, along with many words of assimilation. How‐ ever, sorting out the extent of agency versus as‐ similation remains one of the difficult, but crucial, balancing acts in the field. Some of the writers here may well have used assimilationist words without really believing them, at least not fully, and so it can be wrong to overestimate the power of those words. But—now as well as then—it can be unwise to underestimate the power of words, too. Some may have been able to withstand the re‐ lentless barrage of terms that denigrated Indian cultures, but others may have gradually become worn down by it, to the point of succumbing to it (or at least to much of it). H-Net Reviews 2 And then of course, further complicating these kinds of delicate calculations are the Native people who seemed to express both mindsets si‐ multaneously. “[S]ometimes, within the same is‐ sue [of a newspaper],” notes Emery, “writings by Native Americans who assert tribal identities in an effort to preserve them against the school’s programs of cultural erasure appear alongside Native-authored texts that promote the school’s assimilationist agendas” (p. 9). As one example, before describing traditional family practices among his people, a Yankton Sioux boy felt com‐ pelled to write, “Before the Indians become [sic] civilized they used to have foolish accustoms. I will tell you a few of them” (p. 75). In addition, some of the “resistance” (p. 279) was actually not so much against the school’s educational goals as it was against whites who thought Indians were incapable of a white-style education. In other words, in such cases, the person was in fact sup‐ porting the civilizing mission more than they were refuting it. In any case, any reckoning with boarding school history must consider the profound dam‐ age as well as the amazing survivals. One of the starkest manifestations of that damage came in the form of ill health, with tragic numbers of stu‐ dents suffering from disease, too often ending in death. One such ailment that appears in the pages of this book is trachoma, a disease that progres‐ sively robbed victims of their sight. In fact, this particular malady might stand as an apt metaphor for the ways in which we have seen, and not seen, boarding school history itself. For one thing, many remain blind to this history alto‐ gether. But then, even for those who do notice it, they may tend to see it only partially: first as only a history of victimization, later as a “restrictive as‐ similationist-resistance binary” (p. 5). Thus, by carefully doing the time-consuming work of col‐ lecting the writings for this book—writings by In‐ dian people themselves that are scattered in diffi‐ cult-to-access newspaper archives—Emery has provided a valuable service. She has created a re‐ source that can help us restore and recover at least some of our sight, bringing more detail, nu‐ ance, complexity, and humanity into view, if only we can take the time to look closely enough. H-Net Reviews 3 If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-amindian Citation: Steve Amerman. Review of Emery, Jacqueline. Recovering Native American Writings in the Boarding School Press. H-AmIndian, H-Net Reviews. March, 2019. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=52855