Flandreau Boarding School
In the fall of 1914, Henry Darco of Mahnomen, MN was sent away for the first time to Flandreau boarding school with his sister. The train made a stop at Lakefield, MN and Henry got off by mistake and the train left him behind. He wondered in the depot where the agent discovered him. He took him to a nearby hotel for dinner and lodging that night. The next day Henry got on another train and and arrived safely the next afternoon. Henry wrote a letter to his father asking for the $4.00 that he owes the agent for when he got lost on the way to Flandreau. When hearing about his son being lost, he contacted the superintendent and expressed his doubts about sending his son to school there after all. He stated "I put my children in your supposed to look after them and be responsible for them". This attitude was shared by many other parents during the boarding school era.
Letters that were sent home helped spread the word about any information from the boarding schools spread to other families. The 'moccasin telegraph' was an important news source for families of boarding school students
All government schools followed teh strict policy that forbid them to speak their tribal language. When they were caught speaking their language they were dealt with harshly. Many recall beatings, swats from rulers, having soap or lye put in their mouth or being locked in the school jail. One woman from Wisconsin recalled that she always prayed in Ojibwe at school in order to maintain her fluency. Boarding school education takes a large responsibility for the decline of Ojibwe and other tribal languages. Officials also insisted taht tribal children get rid of their traditional Indian names. They complained tath there names were unpronounceable and even embarassing. So symbolically, the casting off of the indian name and taking a 'Christian' name was the first sign of 'civilty'.
Hello Joelle,
ReplyDeleteI think that the assimilation process had similar effects on each tribal member and families that were involved. It was nice to hear about a parent trying to make contact and find out information about their child is. I have never really heard anything about the parents looking for their children or trying to contact them so it was nice that you shared that part of your book.