My Heart Is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl, Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania, 1880 is a 1999 children's historical novel by Ann Rinaldi, part of the Dear America series of books.
The novel takes the form of a diary belong to Nannie Little Rose, a Lakota girl sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania in 1880.
For example, Reese suggests that children were aware of the power of words, and that Nannie's forthright discussion of her thoughts in her diary (including disparagement of teachers and white people at large) without fear of punishment by school authorities is unrealistic.
Reese notes that Nannie refers to undertaking multiple male rites of passage (such as a vision quest), while the book doesn't acknowledge Lakota coming-of age ceremonies and teachings for girls.
Reese points out that Nannie Little Rose would not have called herself Sioux, which is an exonym; she would have "referred to herself by her band (Sicangu) or location (Spotted Tail Agency) or from a much smaller familial group".
Reese writes that Rinaldi overuses "romantic-sounding metaphors" and that Nannie is overly obsessed with the ideas of bravery, honor, and nobility.
[5] Scholastic later released a statement noting that Louise Erdrich, author of The Birchbark House, had also derived a character name from historical documentation (in her case, a census).
[7] One of the novel's characters, Lucy Pretty Eagle, is directly based on a real Rosebud Sioux girl who died at Carlisle in 1884.