Contemporary American Indian History

The Boarding School Assimilation Process

Clothing

The assimilation process began when students entered the school.  Cultural aspects such as hair, clothing, language, meals, Religion, and clothing were all changed.  When arriving, Personal belongings such as medicine pouches and beadwork were taken from the children. Each student received government regulation clothing of uniform-style.  Brown and gray were common colors.  The boys were likely to wear a suit with hats and the girls a sleeveless jumper, blouse and stockings.  Heavy shoes/boots were given to all students.²⁶

Haircuts

First, children were “fine-combed for lice with kerosene.”²⁷  Then, hair was cut.  For Indians, “the physical cutting of hair is a manifestation of the loss of a loved one, a loss of a relationship, and a loss of a part of self.”²⁸  Hair had cultural and spiritual significance.  Lone Wolf of the Blackfoot tribe, a student at Carlisle, stated ‘”[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.”²⁹ 

Names

Students’ names were changed when they came to boarding schools – another step to becoming civilized.  Luther Standing Bear, a Carlisle student, reflects on the experience:

Although we were yet wearing our Indian clothes…one day when

we came to school there was a lot of writing on one of the blackboards.

We did not know what it meant, but our interpreter came into the room

and said .Do you see all these marks on the blackboards? Well, each

word is a white man's name. They are going to give each one of you one

of these names by which you will hereafter be known." None of the

names were read or explained to us, so of course we did not know the

sound or meaning of any of them. Each child in turn walked to the

blackboard with a pointer and selected his future Anglo name.³⁰

Indian students were told that their names were “unpronounceable, pagan, and sometimes even embarrassing.”³¹  At times, students even ridiculed each other after teachers did the same. 

A tenth-grade girl at Flandreau asked to be known by the very

American sounding ‘Alice Carley,’ rather than her actual name,

‘Lydia Blowsnake.’ When the Indian agent back on her reservation

sent checks to her at school using the name ‘Lydia Blowsnake,’ the

girl was filled with shame and embarrassment.  As Lydia explained to

the agent, ‘I just hate to get [the check] cause they make fun of my

name, and I don’t want them to know that’s my name.”³²

The assimilation process also made students feel badly about themselves, their identities.  This continued with forbidding the students to speak in their home languages. 

Language

An important part of the assimilation process is developing knowledge of the dominant language. Indian students came from various backgrounds and all needed to give up their language upon entering school.  They were forbidden to use their indigenous languages and were punished when caught doing so.  For many who remained for long periods at the school, they forgot how to speak their home language with fluidity and were disconnected from their native communities causing quite a bit of difficulty when returning home.³³ Wright, a Pattwin Indian who was sent to boarding school at six years old, remembers and recollects a conversation he had with his grandmother,

‘ “I remember coming home and my grandma asked me to talk Indian

to her and I said, ‘Grandma, I don’t understand you,’ “. “She said,

“then who are you?’”  Wright says he told her his name was Billy. 

“ “ Your name’s not Billy.  Your name’s TAH-rruhm,’ ‘ She told him. 

“and I went, ‘That’s not what they told me.””³⁴ 

John Rogers, of the Ojibwe tribe had a similar experience to that of Wright.

He entered [Flandreau school ] as an Ojibwe speaker and approached

the foreign language tentatively.  As he recalled, with a short while,

‘I learned to speak and understand a little of the white man’s

language.’ By the time Rogers left Flandreau, he and his siblings

‘had forgotten much of the Indian language during our six years

away from home.’ When Rogers and his sisters were finally

joyously reunited with their mother in northern Minnesota, Rogers

found ‘we couldn’t understand very well what she said’ but

personally vowed ‘to learn once more the Chippewa language’

in order to please her.”³⁵

Outing Program

Parents and students alike were very interested in the vocational component of boarding schools.  Formal training to be used to obtain employment was their goal for school attendance.  Usually one half of the school day was geared toward vocational training - manual labor techniques such as farming, carpentry, blacksmithing for boys and  – domestic studies for girls to include housekeeping, sewing, and cooking. Practice happened at the school.  In many instances, the students’ work kept the school running. 

The Outing Program was an extension of this on-campus work and very similar to Pratt’s program with the prisoners. Through living with families and working for them, they would become better integrated into society.  The “sharing” of their vocational skills was considered a contribution to the dominant society.  As a “work-study” program, it really benefited local employers with a cheap and readily available labor source.  Boys were sent out to work on ranches while girls were sent to cook, clean, and babysit.  Wages were paid to the school and kept for students.  Afterwards, some students had difficulty getting their earnings.³⁶  Students were sent out without protection or supervision, sometimes even farmed out from their assigned position to another employer. 

Pupils at Haskell, where the program was quite evolved, signed an

outing contract agreeing to be industrious, helpful, and to ‘bathe once

a week.’  Girls promised not to go out unchaperoned, and boys were to

refrain from tobacco or alcohol use.  Patrons also were expected to

follow certain rules, which mostly involved keeping a watchful eye

over students.³⁷ 

Experiences varied especially for young women.  Girls were usually overburdened with work demands and, at times treated unkindly.  One student, Betty, explained her situation in that “‘she tried but could not handle both baby and small boy as well as to house in employer’s absence.’” Other times, students were treated kindly, much like family.  For example, some were taken on family trips.³⁸