Description
Three Plays: The Indolent Boys, Children of the Sun, and The Moon in Two Windows contains three plays written by Kiowa poet, playwright, and novelist N. Scott Momaday. The Indolent Boys is a play based on the 1891 tragedy of runaways from the Kiowa Boarding School who die during their efforts to return home to family. This play examines the consequences of the death of these children on the school teachers and administrators of this boarding school as well as the impact on the Kiowa families. Residential schools or boarding schools were set up in the United States to civilize the Native People by killing the Indian and saving the Man. Children of the Sun is a celebratory play for children commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Co-written by Momaday and his daughter the drama is part of the Kiowa creation story. The third play, The Moon in Two Windows, is a screenplay set in the 1900s at the Indian Boarding School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Here the story revolves around the students who played football against Army in the 1912 historic game where Jim Thorpe participated along with Dwight Eisenhower. The Native students are victorious. However the main character of the play is Luther Standing Bear one of the first students to attend the boarding school. He acknowledges that all is not well at the school despite the triumph of the football team. He maintains that despite the education he had to give up a great deal when he attended the school. A moving collection of plays by a master storyteller.