Cultural Assimilation and Indian Schools
The source I reviewed from the online resources posted in
Module 3 was as essay written by Carolyn j. Marr from the University of Washington’s
Digital collection (Found here http://content.lib.washington.edu/aipnw/marr.html).
The essay titled “Assimilation Through Education: Indian Boarding Schools in
the Pacific Northwest” is meant to convey a historical, non-bias perspective on
the history of Indian Boarding schools in the Pacific Northwest. Carolyn J.
Marr is an anthropologist and photographer at the Museum of History and
Industry in Seattle, Washington and has worked with tribes on projects relating
to photographs and oral history as well as other material culture like the
production of baskets and textiles (Marr).
This resource was selected because it provides an in depth
look at the complete history of Indian Boarding schools and the author has
utilized photography and the oral interpretations of people who attended these
schools as children. She also sheds some light on the few positive aspects of
these schools as told by former students of these schools which shows her true
non-bias perspective. On the reservations
there was not running water or electricity, so when kids came to the boarding school,
they had these things (food, clothing, showers) as told to her by a former student
and written in her essay (Marr). This same student went on to tell of how his
mother died when he was 13 months old and he lived with his grandmother who was
sick. He had a lot of criticism about the school too however, but he along with
a few other students interviewed by the author had some positive light to shed
on such a dark time for Native American people. Another positive that came from
these schools was that friendships were made and that young people from one
culture group met others from other areas and culture groups (Marr).
Unfortunately, my view on this topic has not changed despite
the small amount of positive influences the author mentioned. I still firmly
believe that these schools were a horrible idea and had immense negative
impacts that would affect many generations to come in terms of Indian
relationships with the people who stole their lands and culture.
A few things I learned from reading this was that the
curriculum for Indian schools emphasized vocational training. Estelle Reel was
the Superintendent of Indian Education from 1898 to 1910 and was a strong
advocate for this type of curriculum (Marr). She believed in the importance of
learning manual skills and that no amount of book learning could result in
economic independence for Indians.
Another interesting point from the essays was that in 1893
federal law required mandatory education for Indian children. Parents were even
sent to jail if they refused to send their kids so far away from home (Marr).
If kids ran away from the school, the Chemawa school for example had 46
desertions in 1921 and 70 in 1922, the punishments were very harsh as they were
made examples of to their fellow classmates. From the Helma Ward (Makah)
interview with Carolyn Marr, the author was told of two girls that ran away but
got caught. They tied the two girls legs up and tied their hands behind their
backs and put them in the middle of the hallway. If the girls fell or fell asleep,
they would whip them and make them stand up again (Marr).
At the Chemawa school in Salem, Oregon, which was the second
Indian boarding school to be established and is the oldest continuously
operating Native American boarding school in the United States, there are 189 headstones
of students who died at the school and do not account for students who passed
away and bodies were not returned home for burial. During its peak enrollment
the school had over 1,000 students in the mid 1920’s (Chemawa).
The Carlisle school in Pennsylvania is the only Native
American school older than the Chemawa Indian school. All of the school’s
property is now part of the U.S. Army War College, according to the Wikipedia page
posted in Module 3’s online resources. A
few points I personally found interesting from the Wikipedia article “Carlisle
Indian industrial School” was that some Native Americans believed that Carlisle
provided an excellent education (paragraph 6, introduction last sentence) despite
having over 10,000 children from 140 tribes and only 158 graduates which is a
graduation rate of less than 2% (Carlisle Indian industrial School). I will assume
that whoever believed Carlisle provided an excellent education was either a
white person who is disconnected from the harsh realities of these schools or
was 1 of the 158 kids who actually graduated.
Thankfully sine the 1970’s Native Americans have founded
their own schools and are regaining control of their education and culture.
http://chemawa.bie.edu/
Marr, Carolyn J. “Assimilation Through
Education: Indian Boarding Schools in the Pacific Northwest.” :::
Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) Collection ::: content.lib.washington.edu/aipnw/marr.html.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlisle_Indian_Industrial_School
I like your choice to review this source. I agree that the author did contribute a non-biased perspective that differed from most of the media we absorbed in this module. It is interesting to learn that there were a few positive experiences to come out of these terrible schools. I think there can always be at least one positive thing to take away from any horrible experience. Great post and use of pictures!
ReplyDeleteThe brutality you mention is shocking, though not altogether surprising. Tying up and whipping those girls is beyond inhumane. I would probably find it more surprising if it were not for the virtual residency. The fact that there was medical experimentation on children in schools in the Americas, a fact revealed in the Zoom session, was incredibly disturbing.
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