The Healing of Natalie Curtis fictionalizes the true story of ethnomusicologist Natalie Curtis, and her quest to preserve songs of America’s Indians in the early 1900s.

In 1902 Natalie travels west with her brother and is introduced to the music of America’s Indians. As she works to preserve their music into a book, she learns of the US government’s Code of Offenses used in schools where Indian children, taken from their parents and placed into schools for assimilation, were punished for singing, dancing, or speaking their own language.

This book feels more like a biographical retelling of Natalie’s efforts to gather Indian songs as she appealed to President Theodore Roosevelt to repeal the government’s Code of Offenses, than it does a work of fiction.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Revell for a fair and honest review, which is exactly what I gave.

Have you read this book? If so, what was your impression of it?

You can find my September Inspire a Fire post here. Please stop by and read it.

I wish you well.

Sandy