Overview

As an Ivy League student in the 1960s, Michael Gross's optimistic perception of America was shattered. When appalling social inequality became immediate for him - first in the Deep South and later in the Navajo Nation - it struck a nerve. In his first case as a cub lawyer at a War-on-Poverty legal services office in Window Rock, Arizona, Gross was assigned to file a lawsuit to reopen a high school in Ramah, New Mexico. He would spend the next fifty years helping tribes achieve self-governance, a dream they chased through centuries of betrayal by the U.S. government. This is the story of the son of Holocaust survivors who forged an unlikely alliance with his Native clients: to educate their children, preserve their culture and language, and adapt to political and economic realities on their own terms. ""A School of Their Own is a vivid and important account of Mike Gross's remarkable half-century mission fighting for Navajo legal rights...full of fascinating and poignant stories, unforgettable portraits, and historic legal victories overcoming the dark legacy of boarding schools and forced assimilation."" - Douglas Preston, #1 New York Times bestselling author ""A must-read for anyone curious about how the national tragedy of Native American boarding schools and forced assimilation came to a screeching halt, thanks to the people who ushered in the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975."" - Bobbie Greene Kilberg, former White House Fellow and President Emeritus, Northern Virginia Technology Council

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9781971030029

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A School of Their Own is a vivid and important account of Mike Gross's remarkable half-century mission fighting for Navajo legal rights, especially the right to control their own schools. The book is full of fascinating and poignant stories, unforgettable portraits, and historic legal victories overcoming the dark legacy of boarding schools and forced assimilation. Anyone interested in the history of the Navajo Nation and its struggle for self-determination should read this extraordinary memoir.-Douglas Preston, #1 New York Times bestselling author and journalist This is a must-read for anyone curious about how the national tragedy of Native American boarding schools and forced assimilation came to a screeching halt, thanks to the people who ushered in the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975.-Bobbie Greene Kilberg, former White House Fellow; CEO and President Emeritus and Strategic Advisor, Northern Virginia Technology Council Finding himself in the hotbed of the Civil Rights Movement in 1966, Gross hoped to practice poverty law. But his first case to reopen a high school in a remote Navajo community convinced him to advocate for equally underserved American citizens. It was a journey that lasted more than five decades.-John Echohawk (Pawnee), Attorney and Co-Founder, Native American Rights Fund

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