This is a true story about a boy named Ohiyesa. When he was older, he was called Charles Eastman, and he wrote about when he was a boy in Indian Boyhood: The True Story of a Sioux Upbringing. This book was written by Michael Oren Fitzgerald who used a lot of the words that Ohiyesa used when he was writing his book.

 “What boy would not be an Indian for a while when he thinks of the freest life in the world? This life was mine.”

When Ohiyesa was born his mother died, so his grandmother raised him. She was very wise. When Ohiyesa was very young, he was put into a wooden cradle and that was hung in a tree. But as he got bigger, he was able to do lots of fun things. He went hunting, and learned about medicines in the woods. He went exploring and played with the other boys and played with animals. He had lots of pets – he even once had a pet bear! Things weren’t always fun; sometimes he was very hungry, and his father was captured by the white soldiers. He thought that his father had been killed, but one day his father came back and finally took him to live with the white man and go to school.

This is such a fun book because you feel like you are as free as Ohiyesa while you are reading it. The illustrations show how Ohiyesa loved all the things he could do and loved being in the woods and learning all about everything around him. He was so happy, even when things were hard for his family. The things he did look like so much fun and you wish that you could do those things with him too. You can see what life was like for the Sioux Indians a long time ago, because you can see what they wore, and the things they learned, and how they lived. It is really interesting and makes you very happy to read it.

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