Transcript Welcome to Native American Studies – SOCI 1100 4A

Welcome to Native American
Studies – SOCI 1100 4A
Fall, 2014
Room 237
Fort Omaha
Bldg. #10
10/16/14
Sherman Institute Boarding School
Agenda Day #14
 Quiz
 Tribal Symbols
 Finish the Navajo Long Walk
Cultural Genocide -- Assimilation
Tribal Symbols
Buffalo Robe Project
• We will be working on the descriptions for the
Fort Omaha Wintercount
• Choosing topics - Tuesday!
Kit Carson and The Long Walk
• Following orders from
his U.S. Army
commanders, Carson
directed the destruction
of their property and
organized the Long
Walk to the Bosque
Redondo reservation,
already occupied by
Mescalero Apache.
Originated by General James H. Carleton, New Mexico's
U.S. Army commander, the plan called for the
removal of the Navajo from their native lands,
including areas in northeastern Arizona, through
western New Mexico, and north into Utah and
Colorado.
To accomplish their plan, the U.S. Army made war on
the Mescalero Apache and Navajo Indian tribes,
destroying their fields, orchards, houses, and
livestock. Before the Indians were even defeated,
Congress authorized the establishment of Fort
Sumner, New Mexico at Bosque Redondo on October
31, 1862, a space forty miles square.
"Cage the badger and he will try to break
from his prison and regain his native
hole. Chain the eagle to the ground - he
will strive to gain his freedom, and
though he fails, he will lift his head and
look up at the sky which is home - and
we want to return to our mountains and
plains, where we used to plant corn,
wheat and beans."
-- Written by a Navajo in 1865
Navajo Spoken and Written Language
Code Talking
Weather report
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFayFUiyv20
Story of the Constellations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0PJ01LOjh0&feature=related
Caterpillar story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRk71UQWjCU&feature=related
Corn Pollen Boy Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ5ujmRg8a0&feature=related
1 – 20 in Navajo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJECMFEDGRQ&feature=related
Navajo loss of language
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTfVIPLi4dk
The Future
• Navajo Strength movement
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJpPYZGD
hMk&feature=related
• Red Crow Prophecy
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7cylfQtk
Dg&feature=related
Cultural Annihilation
A more subtle genocide
Boarding Schools and the
Assimilation of Native Americans
Boarding Schools
The White Earth government boarding school, 1926. Many
Indian leaders say the boarding school era, when Indian kids
were taken away from their families and culture, is an
underlying cause of problems for Indian communities.
Boarding School Photo Gallery
• http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a
_f/erdrich/boarding/gallery.htm
• In the late 1800s, the United States supported
an educational experiment that the
government hoped would change the
traditions and customs of American Indians.
Special boarding schools were created in
locations all over the United States with the
purpose of "civilizing" American Indian youth .
Thousands of Native American children were
sent far from their homes to live in these
schools and learn the ways of white culture.
• Many struggled with loneliness and fear away
from their tribal homes and familiar customs.
Some lost their lives to the influenza,
tuberculosis, and measles outbreaks that
spread quickly through the schools. Others
thrived despite the hardships, formed lifelong
friendships, and preserved their Indian
identities.
Native American
Boarding Schools
What are they?
Where are they?
Who attends them?
Why do they exist?
How do they operate?
Native American History
• Prior to 1492, North America was home to over
100 Million Native inhabitants.
• The number has steadily declined for centuries
since.
– Disease
– War
– Slavery
– Loss of Land, Ways of Life, and Culture
The United States
• By 1790, the United States was growing rapidly.
– Government began to look to the West for more
land and wealth.
• The Question for the U.S….
– What is the future for the Native American?
• Should they be left alone?
• Should they become citizens of the U.S.?
• Do they have rights to own their Native land?
The Solution
• United States government decided that Native
Americans will be assimilated into white
American culture.
– That is, Native Americans will adopt the ways of the
white men in the States.
– How can this be done? Through Education.
Meanwhile, as land is taken from the Native
Americans, they are gradually moved onto
Reservations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioAzggmes8c
Assimilation by Education
 The Schools
• Adult Native Americans may not have wanted to adopt new
ways of living. They already had their own culture!
• The U.S. government decided that they would start
assimilation with the Native American children instead.
• If the children were sent to schools that the U.S. operated,
they could be taught a new culture: the ways of the white
man.
• By attending school, children left behind the lifestyle of their
family and learned a new way of living.
• English and writing
• Math
• Trades: Farming, Sewing, Laundry, Housework
The Boarding Schools
 Boarding School: A school where students are provided
meals and a room to stay in.
 Three types of schools were constructed:
•
•
•
Day School
On-Reservation Boarding School
Off-Reservation Boarding School
• Problems with staying on the Reservation
•
•
Attendance -- Parents kept their children home.
Location -- Children went home at night or on weekends
and returned to their traditional ways.
Boarding Schools
 Off-Reservation Boarding Schools are best
•
The government decided that keeping students at
school for extended periods away from their parents
allowed the best assimilation.
Students learned new ways of life:
•
•
•
•
•
•
English
Clothing
Eating
Trades, Skills
School Subjects
Native American students and white students were taught the
same subjects! History, Science, Math, Band, etc.
Boarding Schools
• Military Boot Camp?
•
•
The schools employed rigid routines and dress requirements
Corporal Punishment
• English
•
•
Students were taught to leave their Native language behind
They were forbidden to speak in any language except English
• Appearance
•
•
Students had to leave their clothes behind and adopt white
clothing
Traditional hairstyles were cut, blankets taken away, animal
hide shoes and clothes were replaced with cotton, wool, and
leather.
Dramatic Change
• After a short time at a boarding school…
– Students were hardly recognizable to their parents
– Students learned new skills and trades
• Farming
• Carpentry
• Sewing
– Students put their new skills to work
• Tom Torlino, a Carlisle
School student, before
and after spending time
at the school.
• Top: A group of
Chiricahua Apache
students on their first
day at Carlisle Indian
School in Carlisle, Pa.
• Bottom: The same
students four months
later.
Goals
• The government had sought to assimilate
Native Americans by teaching them a new
culture
– If Native Americans shed their identity, they could exist
peacefully in the United States
• Were schools successful?
– Children returned home and could not use their
new skills, language, or clothing.
– Many became frustrated; some returned to their old
way of life
– Many suffered http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDshQTBh5d4
Right and Wrong
• Did the Government do the right thing?
– Who benefitted from the schools?
• Were Boarding Schools the best plan?
– What were other options?
• Did the Government help or hinder Natives?
– What did the Government want?
• Land
– What did Native Americans want?
• Maintain their culture
Consider This
Where are Native
Americans today?
How do they live?
Are they better off
today than before
the United States
existed?
Conclude
• What was the conflict between Native
Americans the United States?
– Land, Culture
• What were the schools supposed to
accomplish?
– Assimilate Native Americans into the United States
– Culture and traditions diluted or lost
• What was the result?
– What do you think?
• Interview with a Boarding School Survivor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSR1uIyq2rU
(12th grade class project uploaded in 2010)
• In the White Man’s Image (58 minutes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14RifPPh1YU
• Indian Boarding School Plan
(Bill Means and Albert White Hat)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avt-5cfb3ng
• The late songwriter,
performer and Indian
activist Floyd Red Crow
Westerman wrote
about his time at the
Wahpeton Indian
Boarding School in
North Dakota: "You put
me in your boarding
school, made me learn
your white man rule, be
a fool."
National Public Radio Story
May, 2008
• May 12, 2008
• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16516865
• http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=fals
e&id=16516865&m=90366243
• May 13, 2008
• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.ph
p?storyId=17645287&ps=rs
•
•
For further information, click on links for full transcription of news story.
Additional information:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2006/03/14/whathappened/
• Sheila Patterson came
to Sherman Indian High
School from the San
Carlos Apache
Reservation in Arizona.
Patterson misses her
home, but she says she
needed to get away
from bad influences at
her old high school.
• Students at Sherman
learn traditional skills
such as basket weaving.
They are also taught
American Indian
languages and sing
traditional songs.
Assignment
• Tribal symbols are due on 10/14/14
• Quiz over terms for Week 4 October 16
• Buffalo Robe Papers will be assigned on 10/16
and are due 10/30 unless otherwise
announced