Fortunate Eagle, a one-time leader of the 1969-1971 occupation of Alcatraz by Native American activists, presents an episodic and non-chronological memoir of his time attending the Pipestone Indian Boarding School from 1935 to 1945. Because of the reputation of the Indian boarding schools as being institutions dedicated to the eradication of Native American culture, readers may be surprised to find Fortunate Eagle's recollections as relatively positive, particularly concerning Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier's 1934 reforms supporting Indian language and culture, which Fortunate Eagle judges to have been a success, based on his personal memories of Pipestone. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)