Preface
I chose this
topic mainly due to my passion for the history of the Native Indian culture.
Along with my Bachelors in English with writing option, I am pursuing a Minor
in NAS. I have read a lot of textbooks and have had numerous hours learning
about Indian laws, philosophy, religious beliefs, and of course the genocide
that has been inflicted upon them. Before this class, I had never really looked
at the rhetoric that was actually used to persuade people that the boarding
schools were a terrific idea.
Even though
the pencil is just a bland tool to us, for the government, it was the best
weapon against the tribes in treaty writing and for writing speeches for Pratt
and other officials to talk up the civilization process of the schools. I also
see that according to Thompson’s article “See Through,” regardless of power
standing, the government’s actions will always end up coming to light.
The main
connection that truly stands out to me is McCloud’s article on “Iconicity.” I
never really made the connection until now, that even though these are simple
pictures of the past; they are true icons that represent what horrible things
took place. These pictures were used as propaganda to make people see that the
Indian was dead, and all that was left, was a peaceful Christian. I
hope this project will give a glimpse into what tactics were used for effective
rhetoric at the time. Even though it was devastating to innocent children,
maybe we can learn something from it and help heal the wounds that some people
still have.
Day Schools
At the end of the 1800’s, the U.S.-Indian wars seemed to show
that the Indian tribes where surely losing the battle. In the 1860’s reform groups
were being established to help transform these ‘savages’ into a more
‘civilized’ group of people with the use of assimilation through education. The
government set up day schools that were very close to the reservations. This
was done so students could leave the reservation, attend school during the day,
and then just go home. The teachers soon discovered what they were teaching
during the day, was ‘untaught’ by the parents every night. Government officials
decided that this method wasn’t working, so the schools were moved farther away
from the reservation. The parents still wanted to be close to their children;
due to lack of trust and to make sure their children were safe, so they just
moved their homes next to the schools.
U.S. School for Indians at Pine Ridge, S.D.
Small Oglala tipi camp in front of large government school buildings in open
field[1]
Boarding
Schools (US)
Residential
Schools (Canada)
1879-1980’s
Richard Henry Pratt,
founder of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, 1879[2]
Under the command of Major Richard Henry Pratt, a new
experiment was put into place. Pratt signed on as an Army Cavalry volunteer
during the Civil War, and then spent eight years on the western Great Plains
participating in conflicts with Native Americans. During his time fighting on
the plains, he developed a well known hatred towards the tribal people. This
experiment is what became known historically as the Indian Boarding Schools.
With the permission of the Secretary of the Interior, and Secretary of the War
Department, Pratt was granted permission to use the deserted Carlisle Barracks
as his school. Once the building was secured, he soon visited reservations on
the Dakota Territory.
At each reservation he ‘recruited’ children, so they
could be the first students at the newly established Carlisle Industrial School.
Carlisle was run with a military feel, the children woke up to the sound of
bugles and were forced to stand at attention and keep totally silent. Military
training was done so that the individual spirit of the students was broken
down, and they were to think and act the same, almost as if one large organism.
Along with the military regiment style life, the male students were taught a
trade, usually saddle/leather work, bakery, farming, or some other skill that
was deemed beneficial to the students when they graduated and the females were
taught housekeeping skills. Along with those subjects, art, music education and
sports were also taught.
The government used written language and technology (at the
time) much like it was introduced in Denis Baron’s, “Pencils to Pixels.” Agents
used the fact that tribal groups couldn’t understand the technology, even
though it was just simple written words. “The pencil may seem a simple device
in contrast to the computer, but although it has fewer parts, it too is an
advanced technology.”[3] In order
to keep getting support for the school, Pratt created a deceitful way to show
that his techniques were working.
“If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man, he would have made
me so in the first place. He put in your heart certain wishes and plans; in my
heart he put other and different desires. Each man is good in the sight of the
Great Spirit. It is not necessary, that eagles should be crows.”
Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull
The schools were being sold off as academic facilities, but
in truth, they were a death sentence to tribal culture, and also to many
children who were not strong enough to survive.
The number of students that had been rolled through this
program is just staggering. Carlisle school kept detail records of the number
of children from each tribe that attended the school. These records can be
looked at as proof of how proud Pratt and other agents were of the work being
done at Carlisle.
(Link to Carlisle enrollment from 1879-1918)
Propaganda
Pratt soon developed his own form of propaganda in order to
‘sell’ people on the idea of his new school. His plan was to use photographs to
get support for Carlisle and other Indian schools. These pictures were designed
to be a documentation of progress for the students. Students would be shown
coming in as wild savages, and after time, be transformed into a highly
civilized being, that was no longer a threat. The photos were taken by highly
skilled photographers to show how much ‘education’ had changed the students. In
reality, the photos represented schooling, not education. The schooling tactics
included vocational trades, and manufacturing, and lacked any academic
educational value (reading, writing, etc.).
Pratt knew that when people would look at the pictures, there
was no true way to know if education was actually taking place. The
photographers understood that successful pictures do not represent any mental
transformations, but they can be constructed to show progressive ‘education.’
The students were always photographed wearing only their civilized clothes that
were neatly tucked in and freshly pressed.
Academic Building at Carlisle Indian
School[4]
“He based it on an education program he had developed in an Indian
prison. He described his philosophy in a speech he gave in 1892. “A great
general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one,” Pratt said. “In
sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there
is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.”[5]
Navajo student Tom Torlino before
attending Carlisle and three years after[6]
Carlisle School students[7]
The sole basis of the boarding schools was to teach the
children what it meant to be civilized, thus losing their cultural heritage (cultural
re-education). Children were not allowed to talk in their native tongue, or
allowed to wear any traditional clothing. If they slipped and did talk in their
native tongue, they were punished.
“Long hair was the pride of all Indians. The boys, one by one, would
break down and cry when they saw their braids thrown on the floor. All of the
buckskin clothes had to go and we had to put on the clothes of the White Man.
If we thought the days were bad, the nights were much worse. This is when the
loneliness set in, for it was when we knew that we were all alone. Many boys
ran away from the school because the treatment was so bad, but most of them
were caught and brought back by the police.”[8]
Pratt firmly believed that in order for the students to be completely civilized,
they had to renounce their tribal way of life, and convert to Christianity.
Student photo[9]
Graduating class of 1894, Carlisle School[10]
Enter Religion
Eventually the government realized the Carlisle method was a
cheaper alternative to military campaigns against the tribes. Instead of paying
more money to continue the tribal genocide, the schools would be used to
eliminate the remaining native populations. Within 30 years of the opening of
Carlisle, nearly 500 schools were spread out across the US. Only 25
off-reservation schools were controlled by the government, while the rest were
church run on reservations but funded with government money. So the schools
were soon being used to strip the children of native heritage (often times with
severe beatings), and instill in them the value of intense labor, and also the
acceptance of God.
Shoshone Episcopal Mission Boarding School, Wind River Indian Reservation, WY[11]
The students had it, often time beaten into them, that the only way they would leave the schools
was by accepting the white Christian ways. When they were not ‘learning’ they were expected to
work in shops or for neighboring farms, as free labor.
School or Labor Camp?
Carlisle Propaganda Photo, notice the
“Labor Conquers all Things” motto[13]
Since the schools were run on a very tight budget, a large
number of students died from starvation and disease because the schools lacked
adequate food and medical care. Many schools would lease out the students to
local farms to work during the day, and then go back to the school at night. It
was common for students to perform most of the work at school: cooking,
cleaning, making and washing clothes, and also farming. This practical
curriculum was supposed to instill the values of hard work in the students. The
boys were broken in different groups depending on the work load, and time of
year. Some were shipped off to work the local farmland, others were sent out to
cut wood to use for the winter heat, while the rest stayed at the school and
worked in the shops. The work was hard and tedious, and the students did it for
free, and in the name of God. The schools quickly became labor camps for
children. For the lucky ones who actually left the schools, they just grew up
to hate manual labor.
Saddle shop at the Carson School[14]
Wood chopping crew at Tulalip Indian School, ca. 1912[15]
Abuse
Since Carlisle School was an old military post, children that
were deemed as troublesome, were thrown in the prison cells. They were kept in
the cells for as short as a few minutes, and as long as a few days. Even though
other schools were run by priests and nuns, the physical and mental abuse was
still running strong. Children were often times beaten for not listening or for
not truly accepting Christianity. One of the main criteria needed in order for
the children to be civilized was to acknowledge God and that being a true
Christian was the only way for students to have their soul be saved. Nuns and priests
often times used these beatings to remind the children that God and pain were
the only true way to salvation. Reports have shown that many children were
killed by beatings, poisoning, electric shock, and starvation, prolonged
exposure to extreme cold temperatures while being naked and medical
experimentation (organ removal and radiation exposure).
These acts were taking place in many schools throughout the
U.S. and Canada. Reports produced by the International Human Rights Association
of American Minorities shows the involvement of churches and government
agencies in the murder of over 50,000 Native children; those are just from the
Canadian residential school system. The churches here in the U.S. are not as
willing to cooperate in the reporting of child deaths. Part of this is likely
due to early records not being kept; the other part is, by keeping records,
they would be acknowledging the abuse took place. The grounds of several
schools have unmarked graves of school children, and babies born to girls that
were raped by priests and other church officials working in the schools. Some
workers of the schools took the saying, “Save the man, kill the Indian,” way to
literally.
Carlisle Indian Industrial School Cemetery[16]
In the 1960’s, congressional reports found that in the
existing boarding schools, teachers still felt that their role at school was to
civilize the American Indian, not educate them. Discipline and punishment were
of higher importance than any kind of academics. Some schools would have the
children watch movies. These movies were the typical Hollywood ‘cowboy and
Indian’ style movies, with the Indians being killed. The motive behind the
movies was to remind the children that ‘their’ people were dying because they
(the students) were not civilized or misbehaving.
“Busted his head open and blood got all over”, Wright recalls. “I had to
take him to the hospital, and they told me to tell them he ran into the wall
and I better not tell them what really happened. Wright says he still has
nightmares from the severe discipline. He worries that he and other former
students have inadvertently re-created that harsh environment within their own
families.”[17]
The physical and mental abuse that took place in the schools
still can be seen in people that survived. Since all they knew growing up in
school, was the abuse, they unwillingly end up abusing their own family members
as a result. Over the years, this has become a major problem with many
families. Support groups have been established to help those in need.
Cartoon depicting pedophile
tendencies of priests[18]
Facing Reality
The boarding schools where horrible places for many children
and for years the agencies involved did a damn good job of hiding the truth.
With the power of the internet and just the strong will people have to get the
truth out, the general population is more aware of what truly happened behind
closed doors. The power is now shifting to the people and through letters,
videos, and songs, their personal survival stories are out for the world to
see. Even though the U.S. churches still do not want to acknowledge much
wrong-doing, the general public (from all ethnic groups) have much more access
to the truth. With the history being more open, the tribal groups are seeing
much more help when dealing with domestic abuse, and depression. It will not be
an overnight fix, but it’s a start in the right direction.
Works Cited
Baron, Denis. Pencils to Pixels. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnx3cml0Mzcxc3Vt bWVyMjAxMnxneDo3NjhlMDk5OWFmYWRiMWJi
Accessed 19 June 2012
Bear, Charla. “American Indian
Boarding Schools Haunt Many.” Database Online. Available from NPR,http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16516865
Accessed 15 June 2012
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dickinsonlibrary/2496824887/
Accessed 11 June 2012
http://www.hmdb.org/Photos1/106/Photo106977.jpg Accessed 15 June 2012
Landis, Barbara. “Carlisle Indian
School History” available at http://home.epix.net/~landis/histry.html.
Accessed 13 June 2012
Library of Congress (LOC PIX).
Available from http://locpixapp.com/p/wy0061.photos.174767p
Accessed 15 June 2012
Marr, Carolyn J. “Assimilation
Through Education: Indian Boarding Schools in the Pacific Northwest.” Database online. Available from University
Libraries, University of Washington, http://content.lib.washington.edu/aipnw/marr.html.
Accessed 13 June 2012
http://media-1.web.britannica.com/eb-media/59/135059-004-C0E39727.jpg
Accessed 15 June 2012
http://www.operationmorningstar.org/Boarding_School_Abuse_and_Genocide_of_Native_Americans_I n_USA_and_Canada.html. Accessed 14 June 2012
http://www.pbs.org/indiancountry/history/boarding2.html. Accessed 12 June 2012
http://www.pbs.org/indiancountry/images/content/carlisle_indian_school.jpg.
Accessed 15 June 2012
http://www.shmoop.com/native-american-history/photo-pratt.html
Accessed 11 June 2012
Smith, Andrea. “Soul Wound: The
Legacy of Native American Schools.” Manataka American Indian Council. Available from http://www.manataka.org/page2290.html
Accessed 15 June 2012
Yu, Jane. “Kill the Indian, Save
the Man.” Spring 2009. Database online. Available from The Pennsylvania Center for the Book, http://www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/CarlisleIndianSchool.html
Accessed 13 June 2012
[1]
Library of Congress (LOC PIX). Available from http://locpixapp.com/p/99613795 accessed 10 June 2012
[3]
Baron, Denis. Pencils to Pixels. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnx3cml0Mzcxc3VtbWVyMjA xMnxneDo3NjhlMDk5OWFmYWRiMWJi
Accessed 19 June 2012
[4]
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dickinsonlibrary/2496824887/
[5]
Bear, Charla. “American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many.” Available from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16516865.
Accessed 12 June 2012.
[6]
Yu, Jane. “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” Spring 2009. Database online.
Available from The Pennsylvania Center for
the Book, http://www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/CarlisleIndianSchool.html
Accessed 13 June 2012
[7]
Landis, Barbara. “Carlisle Indian School History” available at http://home.epix.net/~landis/histry.html.
Accessed 13 June 2012
[10]
http://www.pbs.org/indiancountry/images/content/carlisle_indian_school.jpg
Accessed 15 June 2012
[11]
Library of Congress (LOC PIX). Available from http://locpixapp.com/p/wy0061.photos.174767p
Accessed 15 June 2012
[12]
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/erdrich/boarding/gallery.htm.
Accessed 13 June 2012
[14]
Smith, Andrea. “Soul Wound: The Legacy of Native American Schools.” Manataka
American Indian Council. Available from http://www.manataka.org/page2290.html
Accessed 15 June 2012
[15]
Marr, Carolyn J. “Assimilation Through Education: Indian Boarding Schools in
the Pacific Northwest.” Database online.
Available from University Libraries, University of Washington, http://content.lib.washington.edu/aipnw/marr.html.
Accessed 13 June 2012
[17]
Bear, Charla.
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