Viola Martinez, California Paiute: Living in Two Worlds

Synopsis

The life story of Viola Martinez, an Owens Valley Paiute Indian of eastern California, extends over nine decades of the twentieth century. Viola experienced forced assimilation in an Indian boarding school, overcame racial stereotypes to pursue a college degree, and spent several years working at a Japanese American internment camp during World War II. In this book, Diana Meyers Bahr draws on Viola's own words to recount her extraordinary life story and examine her strategies for dealing with acculturation.