Search

In this pourquoi tale, a mother living on one of the islands in the Pacific Islands, is mystified when she bears a round child with no arms and no legs, but she tenderly raises the child until one day he asks to be buried in the sand, where he can grow (into the first coconut tree) and every part of him can be useful.

This is the transcript of “On Indian Removal,” a message presented by President Andrew Jackson to Congress on December 6, 1830. In this address, Jackson makes the case for the policy set forth in the Indian Removal Act.

The narrative voice belongs to Lanesha, a 12-year-old girl growing up in New Orleans. Lanesha is frequently picked on and teased because she has a special gift—the ability to see ghosts and spirits. Used to being bullied herself, in this scene Lanesha is a witness when someone else is the target.

Enacted in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act, formally titled “An Act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to Chinese,” was one of the first laws limiting immigration into the United States.