Charles Albert Bender

embodying these words in her work

and despair

home to the Mighty Muskrats―cousins Chickadee

often harrowing memories of life and abuse in a remote Ojibwa community riven by poverty and alcoholism

Children of the Dragonfly: Native American Voices on Child Custody and Education missing women Charles Albert BenderSometimes the losses of childhood can be recovered only in the flight of the dragonfly. Native American children have long been subject to removal from their homes for placement in residential schools and, more recently, in foster or adoptive homes. The governments of both the United States and Canada, having reduced Native nations to the legal status of dependent children, historically have asserted a surrogate parentalism over Native children