Oh, so many thoughts about this one. My uncle brought this one to me during Thanksgiving and said, “It is an interesting book. Despite what happened to him later on.” Despite what happened to him later on?! What happened to him later on? To google George P. Lee then and there, or read the book first? I opted to read first, and then do some research. So you are getting this review completely unbiased, until the end, when I will go all biased.
George P. Lee was a Navajo who lived in Colorado with his family who survived by doing odd jobs and herding sheep. His descriptions of life on the reservation are very beautiful. He manages to evoke a nostalgic simplicity and convey a love for the land that I, having spent my formidable years in an extremely rural area, also feel keenly. George is sent to an boarding school for Native Americans and endures horrors there. He does not dwell on these incidents, or try to heighten the drama about them. He portrays them simply as things not terribly out of the ordinary. He converts to Mormonism and later takes part in the Indian Placement Program where he went to live with a foster family in Orem, Utah, in order to attend school during the school year. He has great academic success, as well as winning student body elections and playing sports. During this back and forth time he learns to reconcile both sides of himself… the ‘white’ side and the ‘Indian’ side. He later serves as a missionary for the LDS church, then attends college, and becomes an educator. I also found the passages where he describes his thoughts about religion and spirituality quite lovely. His descriptions of the spiritual gifts his father, a medicine man, utilized to heal others are very vivid. Lee has many opportunities to influence policy in regards to Native Americans and he was considered quite the bright light in the Mormon community.
Now, for the bias. I enjoyed the first portion of the book more than the subsequent parts. Somewhere in the middle I felt a subtle shift. Something in the way Lee kept trying to explain that he never sought any of the many accolades he received. Maybe I am too cynical, but I felt like Lee was overdoing it. If you are humble, you are humble, and that is it. You don’t need to tell us how humble you are, we will get it. He also went into great depth about his love for Ted Kennedy and Spencer W. Kimball, the Mormon prophet. My Aunt and Uncle (the one who suggested this book) took part in the IPP. One of my cousins is a Navajo that lived with their family during school years and has been considered part of the family since long before I was born. I’ve had a periphery interest in the IPP(which has never officially ended, but for all intents and purposes has not been an active program since the late 1980s), but wonder about the necessity of such a program in this day and age.
After reading, I did the google search and discovered that Lee had been excommunicated from the Mormon church in 1989. Lee claimed that he was being persecuted because he disagreed with Ezra Taft Benson’s (president of the church at that time) desire to move away from the IPP, but it was later revealed that Lee had sexually abused a neighbor. Therefore, I find it difficult to reconcile the George P. Lee who went on and on about being dutiful and obedient to the commandments of God with someone who would abuse a child. I suppose like all people there is a measure of good and evil mingled about. I would suggest this book to those interested in Native American history or Mormon history.
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