Going to school might seem an ordinary rite of passage for children, but in Indian Country, school it has long meant assimilation and discrimination. It's why, back in the 1950's, the two tribes on the Wind River Reservation began the arduous process of starting their own school.
A new book called Sovereign Schools: How Shoshones and Arapahos Created a High School On the Wind River Reservation chronicles the trials and tribulations of making that dream a reality.
Author Martha Louise Hipp has a vocal impairment that makes her a little difficult to understand on the radio, but her close friend and personal editor Carol Atkinson joined Wyoming Public Radio's Melodie Edwards to help discuss the book.
Carol Atkinson starts by explaining how Hipp was working as a psychiatrist in the reservation's school district when she decided to write the book.