Chapter 2, From Reservation to Boarding School

Boarding school students in Minnesota

This chapter started out by telling how boarding school education came to the Ojibwe people, the Anishinaabe.  It talks about the General Allotment Act, which was passed in 1887.    The act provided for the division of tribally held lands into individually-owned parcels and opening "surplus" lands to settlement by non-Indians and development by railroads.  The land base of Ojibwes (Minnesota and Wisconsin) declined abruptly. and new Eur-American landowners and beneficiaries of tribal losses had taken over the region.  The ojibwes were expected to settle down to work as small farmers.  The lands were so reduced in size that nothing more than a small garden would be possible for a small family.  The remaining reservation lands were too poor to farm.  The increased poverty and landlessness of many Ojibwes threatened the strength of the econmy.  I found what historian Melissa Meyer said, very important.  She argued, "if the government's programs of assimilation had a chance to succeed anywhere, White Earth should have become an eperimental showcase", because of its rich environment of fishing lakes, rice stands, forests, and fertile farmlands. 

Not only did this affect the Ojibwe people, disease also began to take its toll.  The Bureau of Indian Affairs, charged with providing medical care for Indians, often placed the blame on the indiands themselves.  It was during these times that some people who supported assimilation, looked to boarding schools as a solution for many of the social problems.  The boarding schools in the Midwest were hardly located in areas close to the reservation, making the transition even more traumatic.  These promoters believed that civilizing indian children would be easier and possibilities of them remembering their language or tribal ways would be less likely if the children stayed away from teir homes and relatives until their education was complete.  Parents often refused to surrender their children to government authorities and resisted boarding school education.  There was another interesting part mentioned that I would like to look more into.  This chapter stated that the most painful story of resistance to assimilation programs and compulsory school attendance laws involved the Hopis in Arizona.  They surrendered a group of men to the military rather than voluntarily relinquish their children.  The Hopi men served time in federal prison at Alcatraz.

I am noticing that we are starting to get into the nitty gritty of the book.  I am eager to read more because unlike Chilocco, it seems to be focusing more on the history of that specific area and what happened to the land there and how people are being sent to boarding schools. 

Boarding School Seasons: Chapter 1, Star Quilts and Jim Thorpe

The first Chapter of the book is titled Star Quilts and Jim Thorpe.  The author, Brenda Child begans by telling how she first learned of boarding schools.  She has come from a line of family members that have attended various boarding schools.  She speaks of her grandmother, Jeanette Jones Auginash, who is from the Red Lake, MN area, and her experiences attending Flandreau boarding school in Flandreau, SD.  Her grandmothers father, David Jones attended the Carlisle boarding schol in Pennsylvania, which was the earliest of the government boarding schools for Indians and the model for following schools such as Flandreau.

She speaks of her grandmothers time at Flandreau and her experience varied.  Her grandmother, Jeanette took part in what was called an outing program, where she and her peers were sent to local white households to work as a domestic servants.  The overall attitude of this program seemed a little on the negative side.  Her grandmother did enojy the sewing and needlework classes.  The author spoke of letters that were collected from her grandmother and others and that is something I am eager to read more about.  She also spoke of her great grandfather, Davids experience at Carlisle.  She told of how he excelled at sports and how he played football with Jim Thorpe.  This part of the chapter is where I found why it is titled so.  The author stated, " Although many have associated the boarding schools, especially Carlisle and Haskell , with athletics and winning football teams, the female legacy from schools like Carlisle, the star blanked, has found a lasting place of its own in cultures and traditions of most tribes from the upper Midwest".  She told of how many of the indian girls first saw the dazzeling design, known as the Star of Bethlehem and the girls took the domestic art of quilting back to their tribes.

Like Chilocco, the author speaks of how everyones experiences vary.  There were trials and tribulations for everyone but overall, it seems that they took away a rich experience and skills that were helpful to them later in life.

Unlike Chilocco, I am happy to hear more about the different sports teams and I hope to read more about all of the unseen talent there may have been.