“Taking Charge, Making Change tells us about a more than one-hundred-year transition of struggle and Indigenizing a Catholic mission into a successful Dakota operated school. This is a beautiful story of Native resilience, Indian self-determination, and tribal sovereignty.”—Donald L. Fixico (Muscogee, Seminole, Shawnee, and Sac and Fox), author of Call for Change: The Medicine Way of American Indian History, Ethos, and Reality
“Galler gives our Ihaƞktuwanƞa relatives at Crow Creek the complex and nuanced discussion they deserve through this well-researched and thoughtful contribution. He shares their history as advocates fighting for their sovereignty and the future of their community through taking back control of their education system.”—Iyekiyapiwin Darlene St. Clair (Mdewakaƞtuƞwaƞ Dakota, Lower Sioux), Indigenous research professor in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota
“Taking Charge, Making Change skillfully braids together a rich and deeply rooted community history with the broader strands of the American story. The result is a profound illustration of the power of Indigenous families’ everyday decisions in shaping their community, state, and nation. In centering the families who maintained the Stephan Mission School it reveals that the school was never just a school and not merely a colonial tool, but a key site of survival, intergenerational relationships, and enduring visions of tribal sovereignty.”—Cathleen D. Cahill, author of Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement
“This authoritative and inclusive history of Stephan Mission traces the motivations of the Catholic Church and the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe for educating Indian children in Crow Creek Reservation, culminating with the tribe recently taking control back from the church.”—Craig Howe (Oglala Sioux Tribe), founder and director of the Center for American Indian Research and Native Studies at the Pine Ridge Reservation and coeditor of He Sapa Woihanble: Black Hills Dream
“Taking Charge, Making Change is important because it outlines the history of a school that has not been thoroughly documented in other studies. Further, this book will enhance the literature that is already in place because it examines a boarding institution that facilitates the needs of (primarily) the Dakota and Lakota Sioux in the aftermath of the Minnesota Sioux War of 1862.”—Cynthia Leanne Landrum, author of The Dakota Sioux Experience at Flandreau and Pipestone Indian Schools
