HUNGER

All too often, boardings schools have been cursed with the memories of horrible food, sometimes not even edible. The students of Holy Rosary were served boiled meat, potatos, a piece of bread, and a small cube of butter. The students referred to the grotesque meals as "mush." Although butter seems like a small thing that we don't consider a great value, the children in my book viewed it as money. It was grand to receive such a treat! Since the children had no money, they bartered and gambled with the cubes of gold.

Bet You One Butter

One tiny cube per meal,
Legal tender.
Want a favor?
Cost you two butters.
Make a bet?
Butters for one week.
If you got caught,
Cost you ten demerits.

Hell, some kids
Never tasted butter for a year,

But we bartered,

We bet.

We paid our debts,

With those tiny cubes,

Legal tender,

Mission money!

Another section of this chapter revealed the high school relationships amongst the boys and girls. Wednesday was laundry, a day that the girls would deliver a fresh set of clothes for all the boys. Upon delivery, the boys and girls would discretely switch off letters for the ones that they were crushing on. None of the prefects ever caught on to the secretive acts of emotion. Ever so often, the students were given a dance to socialize. Friday was shower day. The process of showering was almost humiliating. Giago describes it as "shower days, a fine-tooth comb, kerosene, deloused, delighted, deserted, by our lovely girlfriends, until the kerosene wore off." Most students didn't seem to mind, since they all went through the same process of getting a headful of kerosene. When the dances began, nuns were quick to pull apart two teenagers who were closer than an arm's length apart. Two warnings and the night was over for whomever dared to test the short temper of the nuns. Most often, the boys would stand on one side of the gym and the girls on the other, until, that one brave boy would make the first move and ask a girl to dance. After the dance was over and the days moved on, the children would begin passing love letters once again.

IN MEMORIUM

The devastation of losing a peer can be just as bad as losing a family member. In this section of the book, the author goes into detail on his accounts of friendship and fellowship of his past schoolmates who have past away. He describes a few close friends whom he was extremely close with throughout his endeavors at Holy Rosary. Beginning with how they were acquainted, the author describes one good memory and one bad memory. He then goes on to describe the life that they lived or were rumored to have lived. Some died at a young age, some at an old age. All in all, they were his peers, and although they had their differences they all shared a strong bond and camaraderie, knowing that they were all going through the same experiences. There was one particular boy that he mentioned. You would never guess, but he was the school bully! Omaha, once tagged as a runaway, was a boy with an extraordinary story. He picked a sunny, crisp fall day to make his getaway and as the sun fell, so did the temperatures. He was caught in an unexpected blizzard that night. As he tracked through the white out conditions, he came across an old abandoned car and climbed in the front seat to take cover. The following morning, a search party was sent out for Omaha. When he was found, he was rushed to Omaha, NE. That's where his feet were cut off due to severe frostbite, hence the name, Omaha. Upon surgery, he returned to Holy Rosary and from that day on he was carted everywhere in a little red wagon. Although he had no feet, everyone knew not to bother him. He was like an elephant and if anyone teased or tormented him, he never forgot. If you were one of the unlucky kids that did bother him, he would repay you with an unexpecting punch to the stomach and knock the wind out of anyone who dared. Mr. Giago never went into detail of how Omaha had lived out his life, but he does explain that he often checks the obituaries to see who was the next classmate to pass away. When he identifies a name listed, he is once again reminded of the dark secrets that will be kept for eternity with that classmate.

INDIAN SCHOOL DAYS---- AND NIGHTS

This chapter goes into detail of how students were taken to boarding schools and were forced to say goodbye to their families with big lumps in their throats and tears in their eyes. It was a time of great sadness for all children. Crisp, new clothes would soon be turned into the "wardrobe" in exchange for a pair of worn out bib overalls. Memories of keeping warm with four or five kids to a bed would soon be exchanged for a hard straw mattress and long nights of solitude. The author speaks of runaways, children who couldn't handle the dramatic life changing event of attending boarding schools. They were beaten and humiliated in front of the entire student body as a form of punishment for wanting to live the life that they once knew. The memories of receiving an education are far and few. Only the dark, deep hauntings of the abuse surface to remind the author of his days as a student. Although there was much negativity, there were some good memories of life long friendships and strongs bonds between Giago and his peers. Nicknames were a must among the students. There were different ways that these names were given. Some children were nicknamed after characters from the Sunday night movie that the students were allowed, behavior pending. Some were named after acts of humor, appearance, and even bed wetting. This poem indicates the importance of nicknames among the students:

NICKNAMES
A Rosebud Sioux once told me
"The Oglala Pine Ridgers really have
Wicked nicknames,"
Wicked in this case meaning
Far out, or wild,
Not bad or terrible,
Unless
You happen to be one of the guys
Tagged with one of the wicked nicknames.

I suppose in later life some of these
Mission names came back
To haunt a man,
To taunt a man.
Not to hurt,
Unless
You happened to be overly sensitive,
Or had been singled out by an ignorant deed.

Each and every name had a story.
Some defied rhyme or reason
And many were pure colloquialism,
Such as Sague
Or a walking stick,
Which was Lakota for cane.
Nonsense,
Purely nonsensical, for why should a boy
Be named after a walking stick?
There was "The Brown Bomber,"
Not named after the great boxer
But rather after an incident
That actually occurred
One winter night
In the dormitory.
Accident!
It seems the lad took a rather healthy crap
In his bed one night...the evidence was irrefutable.

There was P-2, Dopey and Buck Jones,
Tiny Tim, Rochester and Magpie,
Sioux Boy, Omaha and Duck,
Batman and Curley Bill,
Whiteman, Heavy,
Frosty and Fatty,
Wobbie,
Snazzie, Capone, Dillinger and Plum,
And Mr. Plenty Holes became B.O. Plenty.

We had our private nicknames
For many of the good fathers
And a few nuns.
But of course
We kept these names
A guarded secret.
Because
Father Eagle Beak, Eddie Boy and Fagin
Would tan our hides, like Sister Peakie used to do.
This story was told to me a summer ago
And the teller swears it's true.

All of the guys
Are well known to me
So I am inclined
To believe it.

No way
Could anyone dream up the name,
Or the story behind this narration.
A South Dakota patrolman, it seems,
Stopped a speeding car with four mission boys,
"Lets have some names," said he.
"Well I'm Jughead,"
"And I'm Bighead,"
"I'm Squashhead," said the third.
"Whoah!"
Screamed the cop, "If you have the nerve to tell me
Your name is Bonehead, I'm running you all in,"
"No sir...my name is Spudhead," said the last.

The introduction of Children Left Behind begins with the desperate cries of a past student tormented by the memories of a life that is not left far behind. This isn't the first book that Tim Giago has written, this is more like the second edition and clean cut version of the original, The Aboriginal Sin. Some journalists who reviewed the book called the staff of the Holy Rosary, now known as Red Cloud Indian School, to confirm that Giago was once a student and that his poems were legit. Priests who tended to the calls informed the curious journalists that Mr. Giago was never a student at "Red Cloud," which wasn't a lie but theoretically he attended Holy Rosary. It was a throw off to defend the previous behaviors of the prefect that once caused the hurt of so many children. This book is the outcome of furious members of the Catholic Religion who felt that Giago was "bashing" the religion as a whole and that his poetry was a definitive passage of writing to degrade priests and nuns alike. As stated by Tim Giago, he is "speaking for the once-silenced voice." The first chapter reminisces about the negative experiences that Mr. Giago and his peers went through. There was sexual abuse, beatings, and verbal abuse to name a few. He states, "this book is intended to bring back the memories of the boarding schools to those who have survived them. It is also intended to cause those memories, good and bad, to bring about a process of healing that has long been denied. But more than that, it is written to bring out the truth that has been hidden for too many years."

Like Chilacco, Mr. Giago brings out the good and bad feelings that he, as well as many other student have experienced while attending an indian boarding school. The beginning is also similar in that it gives a general history of the school and how it was started.

Unlike Chilacco, Children Left Behind has a much darker undertone behind the writing. The author talks much of the negative aspects of being a child stolen from the life he once knew. Every child has a different experience and this was his story through vicarious poetry that pierces even the happiest of times.