Buffalo Dreamer - Softcover

Duncan, Violet

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0593624831 ISBN 13: 9780593624838

Verlag: Penguin Young Readers Group, 2026

Inhaltsangabe

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST

An illuminating novel about the importance of reclaiming the past, based on the author’s family history

Summer and her family always spend relaxed summers in Alberta, Canada, on the reservation where her mom’s family lives. But this year is turning out to be an eye-opening one. First, Summer has begun to have vivid dreams in which she's running away from one of the many real-life residential schools that tore Native children from their families and tried to erase their Native identities. Not long after that, she learns that unmarked children’s graves have been discovered at the school her grandpa attended as a child. Now more folks are speaking up about their harrowing experiences at these places, including her grandfather. Summer cherishes her heritage and is heartbroken about all her grandfather was forced to give up and miss out on. When the town holds a rally, she’s proud to take part to acknowledge the painful past and speak of her hopes for the future, and anxious to find someone who can fill her in on the source of her unsettling dreams.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Violet Duncan (VioletDuncan.com) is Plains Cree and Taino from Kehewin Cree Nation. She has toured nationally and internationally as an author, educator, dancer, and storyteller, and facilitates workshops to promote spiritual wellness and cultural education across the US, Canada, and Europe. After becoming a mother of four and seeing the need for Native representation in literature, she wrote three picture books: I am Native, When We Dance, and Let's Hoop Dance! She is currently the Indigenous Cultural Advisor at the Tempe Center for the Arts, where she aims to create space for a permanent program of Indigenous performance and practice. She lives in Mesa, Arizona.

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2
Our Annual Trip

Finally, we’re on the last leg of the three-­day trip to the reserve where Mom grew up. Since we come up every summer, Mom doesn’t need a map to get us from Arizona to Northern Alberta, where her rez is. All winter I look forward to this trip and to getting to see my mom’s side of the family. My dad is a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, and most of the year we live close to his side of the family in Phoenix, plus my mom teaches at the nearby university. Dad is a producer and can work anywhere in the world; that’s how I want to work when I grow up, but more on the tech side.

Before we turn onto the highway, Mom nods to her phone. “Hey, sweetheart,” she says. “Text Dad and let him know we made it across.”

I start to text, but Dad calls before I can hit Send.

“Hi, Yaya! Where’s Mom?”

Only my dad and my mosom call me Yaya. It’s a nickname from way back when I was a baby—­my first word was supposedly yaya.

“She’s right here!” I say, turning on the speaker button.

“Hi, babe!” Mom yells. “We made it across the border. We should be at Kokom and Mosom’s house tonight just in time for dinner.”

“Oh, good! Text me when you get there. Travel safe, my loves!”

“Dad!” I say quickly, before he hangs up. “When are you coming?”

“I have this last project to finish up this week, and it’s an all-­nighter,” Dad says with a sigh. “Then I’ll fly up so we can all drive home together.”

“Cool! Well, don’t stay up all night, Dad! Take care of yourself.” I sort of feel like Mom, and I look over to see her smiling.

“I won’t,” Dad answers. “Help Mom if she needs you, and keep an eye out for deer! Is little man awake?”

I turn around and face the back seat of our SUV. Sage sits behind Mom with his tablet attached to the back of her seat like in an airplane. His movie is paused now and he’s staring out the window.

“Ya, he’s right here!” I say, pointing the phone in his direction.

“Hi, Dad! I’m helping Mom look out for deer too,” Sage yells into the phone.

“Good man!” Dad yells back. “Okay, drive safe, love you all, byeeee!”

The phone call ends, and I put the phone back into its dashboard holder.

I look at Sage again. His dark brown hair is in two braids, and he wears a red bandana wrapped around his head like the elders. His big brown eyes hold mine, and a goofy smile stretches across his face. “What? Why are you looking at me?”

“Because you’re so cute,” I tease him. “Doesn’t it feel great to be done with school for the year? I can’t wait to sleep late. You should try it!” I say, shaking his skinny leg.

“I like getting up early in the morning with Mom,” Sage says.

“Aww,” Mom coos, “and I love that too.”

Mom and Sage have been super close ever since he was a baby and she kept him wrapped up in his cradleboard on her back whenever she cooked or cleaned. Every time she took him out, he would cry and cry until she put him back in his cradleboard. It was his favorite place to be.

I turn around and settle in for the last leg of our trip. Everything gets slower once we’re in Canada. The speed limit slows to fifty miles per hour and the roads get narrower. And in about eight hours, when we arrive at the rez, I’ll be stuck with the world’s slowest internet. It is a coder’s worst nightmare, and I love to code—­I’m in the tech club at school, and we’re developing a few techniques to improve digital illustrations with a stylus.

Good thing there’s so much I look forward to: being with family, taking in some powwows, and riding Luna, the horse my uncle gifted me with last summer. Luna’s coat is a beautiful light brown, and she has a white crescent on her forehead that looks like a small moon, which is why I named her Luna. Her mane and tail are golden brown, and at the end of last year, she let me braid a pink ribbon in her tail.

“I still can’t believe she let you ride her!” my mom says when I tell her that I can’t wait to see Luna. “Remember how Uncle Lawrence had been working with her all spring? And claimed that she still wasn’t rideable?”

“Yep,” I say. “I guess I have the secret touch! I just walked right up to her, and she let me put her tack on and bit in her mouth.”

“Well, our mouths sure dropped to the floor when you came out of the horse shelter riding the ‘unrideable’ horse.” Mom starts laughing.

“Did I ever ride a wild horse before?” I ask.

“When you were little, you rode with Uncle and Mosom on the horses they worked on—­the ones they trusted. But never completely on your own until Luna.”

“When I ride her, it feels like we’ve known each other forever,” I say.

“Yes, it’s like that sometimes,” Mom says.

I sit back and daydream about riding Luna as I stare out at the wide blue sky. The gentle sway of the car feels so nice, I don’t even feel myself fall asleep.

3
A Dream of Freedom

The air was hot and stale in the alcove where I was hiding. My heavy wool dress was making my neck itch, and my outgrown leather shoes pinched my pinkie toe, numbing it to where it felt like small stabs of pins and needles.

I was trying hard to stay quiet but couldn’t stop my heart pounding.

And I couldn’t stop my mind racing either.

I’m never going to make it.

I shuddered at that thought, so I made myself think of home, the songs, the smells, the safety.

You are going to make it home, I reassured myself. You will sing with Delores again. You’ll see if Sunny had her winter colt. You’ll make it home.

My eyes started to tear up at the thought of all I’d missed.

Stop it! I told myself. You need to see, stay alert, get your head right.

Tap-­tap-­tap. The sound of clicking heels got louder and louder. Ducking down farther, I prayed.

I am a coyote’s shadow, I am the wind, you don’t see me.

I heard the soft jingle of keys. I hated those keys. Keys that locked away our food. Keys that locked doors to keep us in or keep us out. Keys reminding us of who holds the power.

Anger snapped my mind straight. I would escape! My legs were strong enough to carry me on this journey. I had the food that Ann and I squirreled away before she disappeared a week ago.

Ann was always so scrappy and bold. Almost weekly she would get thrown in the isolation bin for speaking our language or not keeping in line straight. But they had never kept her in isolation after nightfall, and when she was gone overnight, the nuns said she ran away. And now her mattress was folded in half, with new linens pressed and folded on top, waiting for another girl to take her place.

Every day I hoped to see Ann walk in, shrug, and smile that brave and defiant smile at me. But she didn’t come back, and our planned date to escape our boarding school before the winter snowstorms was quickly approaching.

“Ann ran away without you,” the older girls all said.

But I knew Ann wouldn’t do that. Plus, she left behind her heavy winter sweater and her beautiful wool blanket. She had...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Penguin Young Readers Group
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2026
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593624831
• ISBN 13: 9780593624838
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 129
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar