Niizh Eshkanag is a member of the first generation of Anishinaabe
children required to attend a U.S. government boarding school--schools
infamously intended to "kill the Indian and save the man," or forcibly
assimilate Native students into white culture. At the Yardley Indian
Boarding School in northern Minnesota, far from his family, Niizh
Eshkanag endures abuse from the school staff and is punished for
speaking his native language. After his family moves him to a school
that is marginally better, he meets Roger Poznanski, the principal's
white nephew, who arrives to live with his uncle's family and attend the
school. Though Roger is frightened of his Indian classmates at first,
Niizh Eshkanag befriends him, and they come to appreciate and respect
one another's differences. When a younger Anishinaabe student runs away
into a winter storm after being beaten by a school employee, Niizh
Eshkanag and Roger join forces to rescue him, beginning an adventure
that change their lives and the way settlers, immigrants and the
Anishinaabe people of the Great Lakes think about each other and their
shared future.