Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940

by Child, Brenda J.

• ISBN13: 9780803264052
• ISBN10: 0803264054
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-02-01
• Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr

Summary

Boarding School Seasons offers a revealing look at the strong emotional history of Indian boarding school experiences in the first half of the twentieth century. At the heart of this book are the hundreds of letters written by parents, children, & school officials at Haskell Institute in Kansas & the Flandreau School in South Dakota. These revealing letters show how profoundly entire families were affected by their experiences. Children, who often attended schools at great distances from their communities, suffered from homesickness, & their parents from loneliness. Parents worried continually about the emotional & physical health & the academic process of their children. Families clashed repeatedly with school officials over rampant illnesses & deplorable living conditions & devised strategies to circumvent severely limiting visitation rules. Family intimacy was threatened by the schools' suppression of traditional languages & Native cultural practices. Although boarding schools were a threat to family life, profound changes occurred in the boarding school experience as families turned to these institutions for relief during the Depression, when poverty & the loss of traditional seasonal economies proved a greater threat. Boarding School Seasons provides a multifaceted look at the aspirations & struggles of real people.

Author Biography

Brenda J. Child is an associate professor of American studies at the University of Minnesota.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction the Legacy of Boarding School Letters	p. xii
Star Quilts and Jim Thorpe	p. 1
From Reservation to Boarding School	p. 9
Train Time	p. 26
Illness and Death	p. 55
Working for the School	p. 69
Runaway Boys, Resistant Girls	p. 87
Conclusion	p. 96
Red Lake Students Who Attended Non Reservations Schools Circa 1929	p. 101
Flandreau Enrollment Figures, 1893-1939	p. 108
Flandreau Enrollment Distributions by Tribe and by State, 1937-38	p. 110
Haskell Institute Cemetery Burials, by Tribal Name on Tombstone	p. 112
Notes	p. 117
Bibliography	p. 135
Index	p. 139
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