American Indian Stories is the second story collection by Dakota author Zitkala-Sa. In contrast to her earlier collection Old Indian Legends, which is a collection of traditional Dakota legends, American Indian Stories is a collection of stories about contemporary Dakota life. Many center on the interactions and conflicts between Dakota and settler society, especially the challenges posed by the assimilationist Indian residential school system. The first few stories (through Why I Am a Pagan) are autobiographical in nature, drawing on Zitkala-Sa's own experience as a student and then teacher in residential schools. Her story The Softhearted Sioux about a Sioux man's loss of cultural and religious identity was even attacked as trash by her employer at the Carlisle School, Richard Henry Pratt (the coiner of the infamous slogan kill the Indian, save the man).
32,287 words (1 hour 58 minutes) with a reading ease of 72.46 (fairly easy)