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.