Rez Dogs

Malian shares the stories her grandparents told her about enforced sterilization programs for Indigenous women with her eighth grade teacher, Ms. Mendelson. Ms. Mendelson and Malian search for more information on the Internet and find out about a eugenics program set up in the 1930s in Vermont to sterilize “unfit” people, many of whom were Indigenous. This “project” was replicated in Nazi Germany against the Jewish population. Ms. Mendelson shares with Malian that her Jewish grandmother was a Holocaust survivor. Melina thinks about “the way so many things tied in to each other” (161).

In the class Zoom meeting, Ms. Mendelson shares what the final class assessment is going to be, but before she does, she makes a confession. She. recalls a situation she found herself in before the pandemic that weighs on her: On her way to school, Ms. Mendelson got off the city bus a few stops early to walk and enjoy the sunshine. She felt that she was being followed and when she turned, she saw a Black person wearing a hoodie. Frightened, she walked faster and reached for her phone, ready to dial 911. When she couldn’t find her phone, Ms.