This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

1932, Minnesota—the Lincoln School is a pitiless place where hundreds of Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to an orphan named Odie O’Banion, a lively boy whose exploits earn him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee, he and his brother Albert, their best friend Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own.
Trigger & Content Warnings:
- Racism
- Sex work mentioned
- Paedophilia & child sexual abuse, implied
- Child abuse & neglect
- Alcoholism
- Alcohol consumption & abuse
- Murder
- Gun violence