After you had been wiped clean of the only name / you'd ever known, next came your clothes and your / hair, your language, then your religion, your way of / understanding the world, your culture, your self.
-- Eric Gansworth ("Hello, My Name Is..." paragraph 1)

Importance: Gansworth describes what happened to Indian children when they were sent to Carlisle or one of the other Indian boarding schools. The students were forced to cut their hair, speak English, and conform in other ways to white society. This was the process of forced assimilation designed to make Indians believe their culture was inferior and to make them less likely to return to the reservation. Ultimately, Gansworth believes the system was designed to eradicate Indian culture entirely.

As a young person / I looked / for a long time to find a story like mine in books / I read, and tired of not finding it, I decided to write / my own and hope I might also...
-- Eric Gansworth ("A Note to Those Who Know My Family" paragraph 1)