Published by goldbesa on Wed, 01/20/2016 - 14:09
“A feather to the Indian means the same as a medal or college letter awarded to a paleface for athletic merit.”
This portrait of Indian students in traditional garb was taken as evidence of the efficacy of Pratt’s cultural transformation. A second photo, taken after these students had received new American names, haircuts, and uniforms was distributed publicly to demonstrate the achievements of the Carlisle program. In The Red Man, this author tries to create comparisons between Indian and white culture, describing how the language of symbols must change for the Carlisle students as they transition to white society.
Published by goldbesa on Wed, 01/20/2016 - 14:05
“When these savages arrived at the Carlisle School they would have nothing to do with any of the other students and began to live their lives apart. As they could speak no English, they expressed their thoughts by gestures and in garbled language. In order to experiment, the authorities of the school did not order these Hopis to have their long locks of hair cut, but waited to see if their association with the advanced Indians at the school would not have some good effect upon them. In less than ten days one of the Hopis indicated by gestures that he would like to have his hair cut like the other students, and on the same day another Hopi was discovered snipping off his own locks with a hunting knife.”
The Carlisle Indian School would sometimes host important figures among the American Indian community. Often these were figures that had been vocal in their protests of the assimilation occurring in the boarding schools. In the one instance the quote above is referring to, members of the Hopi tribe who still spoke only their native language, wore their native garb, and had long hair, came to stay. The Carlisle Indian School performed a social experiment on the visiting Hopis by making the decision not to force them to cut their hair. The Red Man labels this experiment a success, declaring that the Indian’s decision to cut their hair shows a willingness to assimilate. Texts such as these were distributed to make those still clinging to Indian traditions feel like outsiders.
Published by goldbesa on Wed, 01/20/2016 - 14:03
“The reservation boarding schools necessarily do less work, the pupils are younger, the facilities more limited. Only three or four trades are dealt with, usually carpentry, blacksmithing, shoemaking* harness making, some painting and bricklaying.”
Pratt argued that boarding school such as Carlisle were a far superior alternative to day schools on reservations. The schools on the reservation did not receive as much funding as the other Indian schools, and therefore were unable to provide a high quality education. The teachers were often under qualified and had not received proper training. The vocational training was limited to just a few subjects, as mentioned in the quote above. Those that received their education on the reservation were often unable to leave and join the rest of society if they so desired - they were not sufficiently qualified to do so. Most importantly to Pratt, the boarding school experience allowed him to completely separate the students from the cultures of their home.
Published by goldbesa on Wed, 01/20/2016 - 14:03
…”the Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs stating after a recent tour that the Indian schools are “at least twenty-five years in advance of the present public-school system in industrial training.”
Appearances were vital to the success of this government-run Indian boarding school. The lawns were often well manicured and the grounds well kept. These schools were considered to be in better condition than most of the public schools offered. Moreover, the education was considered finer than those in the public schools as well as the teachers had a higher education and superior training and there was a much wider range of subjects taught.
Published by goldbesa on Wed, 01/20/2016 - 14:02
“The Nation is rapidly waking to the fact that education of the right sort, which teaches the elements of knowledge, which does not forget the moral nature, and which gives thorough instruction and training in some vocational activity, is responsible to a very large extent for the progress which the Indian has made on all sides.”
“The Carlisle school places strong emphasis on vocational training. It believes that every boy and girl should have some definite occupation or vocation in life. With that end in view every student of the school takes up some trade or occupation … It is a common comment that the Carlisle boy and girl is not afraid of work when he or she leaves school.”
“...this education has now become...excellently suited to the needs of the students, and is so conducted as to raise the mental, physical, economic, and moral condition of the Indian people. The work in Government schools has necessarily been of a grammar grade, with strong emphasis on industrial and vocational training, so that the young people would be fitted to take up more efficiently the duties of life and of earning a livelihood.”
The vocational education received at Carlisle offered a respectable professional path forward after graduation. Un-educated Indians found themselves unable to join white society, causing further division between Indians on reservations and those who were educated at boarding schools.
Published by goldbesa on Wed, 01/20/2016 - 14:01
“The Indian News is published monthly, and all the mechanical work thereon is done by pupils. The printing department is not nearly so well equipped as it should be, but the work turned out by the apprentice printers is really remarkable when one takes the conditions into consideration. The yearly catalogue, all programs and announcements, and practically all of the school stationery is turned out of the school plant. Uncle Sam would be doing just the right thing by investing about a thousand dollars in new material for the print shop. The writer saw three Indian boys at work in the print shop—a Santee, a Winnebago, and an Omaha. “Twenty or thirty years ago a mixture like that would have resulted in a fight,” was Superintendent Davis’s smiling comment when he made known the tribal relations of the three stalwart young fellows.”
Carlisle’s printing presses produced newspapers intended both for students as well as the larger public. Pratt’s experiment garnered considerable national attention: The Indian Helper boasted a circulation of as many as 10,000 subscribers for 10 cents per year. The Red Man offered “discussion of different opinions and phases of the Indian question” and was circulated monthly at 50 cents per year. In the printing offices, the more advanced students were given the opportunity to learn the trade. While their work was heavily censored, the Carlisle printing press provides records of Indian student writing that is useful to historical analyses.
Published by goldbesa on Wed, 01/20/2016 - 13:59
“It has been decided to abolish the Business Department and to discontinue the tinsmithing and carriage-making trades, and to establish in lieu of these, thorough, practical courses in domestic science and agriculture….To get the Indian on the soil—his own soil—and to teach him how to raise food products is one of the ambitions that can be entertained by any true friend of the race.”
The tinsmithing shop pictured above was one of many industrial pursuits offered at Carlisle. From its early days, the school stressed the importance of instruction in vocational trades. Students were instructed in carpentry, shoemaking, harness making, tailoring, sewing, blacksmithing, printing and laundry workshops. As attitudes changed outside of Carlisle’s walls, however, new popular images of the farming Indian became influential. After the Dawes Act of 1887, in which reservations were broken up into individual allotments for Indians to farm (and the remainder to be sold to white farmers), the idea of economic assimilation through agriculture became essential to the Indian education. Although some trades survived the transition, this new focus on farming reveals the extent to which Carlisle was vulnerable to changing public opinion.
Published by goldbesa on Wed, 01/20/2016 - 13:56
“The Indian boy takes as naturally to running and whooping and handsprings and marbles and swimming as his white cousin and the Indian girl is just like her white cousin in the yearning for dolls and long dresses and bows in her hair and high heels on her shoes The Indian boys take to baseball quite as naturally as the white boys and the Indian girls take as kindly as the white girls to sitting in the grandstand and cheering their side on to victory.”
The baseball team at Carlisle was one of many athletic pastimes offered to students in their free time. Sports offered a space in which Indian boys could exercise their new All-American identities. America’s pastime may have offered students a glimpse of social equality on the field, but the highly gendered language of this author in The Red Man is a reminder that while some racial boundaries could be stretched, other hierarchies were very much enforced.
