2. Chapter 8: Accommodation
“If many students resisted the boarding school, others reached an
accommodation with it. For some this came in the form of a
grudging acceptance of the institutional pressure for compliance, the
need to go through the motions and bide one’s time until the ordeal
was over - resistance in the guise of accommodation. But
others…actively cooperated with the institution that would transform
them” (240).
“Accommodation was not synonymous with surrender” (240).
3. Making the Case for Education
- Parents persuaded that schools offered the next generation advantaged
- Tribal leadership deeply divided on schools
- School officials searched for ways to manipulate student opinion
- School performances devised fictional accounts of old-time Indians having educational
conversation experiences
4. The Parental Factor
- Tribal elders were beginning to accept children acquiring some education.
- Schools wanted to try to involve the tribal community:
- Parents were invited into the classroom to witness their child’s progress.
- Select tribal elders were brought east to see the nation’s industrial might for themselves.
- The Indians spent time taking in the sights and seeing the progress of boarding school
students that was made through education.
- The purpose was for education to gain support from tribal leaders and for leaders to
believe that education was the key to their future.
- Tribal delegations were invited to visit off reservation boarding schools.
5. The Parental Factor con’t
- Frequent communication between superintendents and parents/ parents
and students through letters. Parents were beginning to show their
acceptance of the boarding school experience.
- In a letter to his son, Cloud Bull wrote “You said in your letter that you felt
bad because they cut your hair. Never think anything of that kind. You
have gone there to learn to be a white man.” (pg. 251)
6. Patterns of Accommodation - Acceptance
- Some students internalized the civilization-savagism paradigm
- “We rejoice that we are emerging from the unknown ages of darkness” (255).
- Shaped their perspective on the meaning of Indian-white history
- Themes:
- Indians were savages, but could climb the ladder of civilization
- Indians must sever all ties with the past
- Work is the “birth and civilizer of the human race” (256)
- Indians are uncivilized because they are lacking in knowledge of manual training
7. Patterns of Accommodation - Acceptance con’t
- Indians must understand that they have suffered from a distinct
advantage, thus the work ahead would not be easy
- The progress of Indians becoming civilized will take generations
- Better able to conquer self-hate if they conceptualized Indian-white
history as the conflict between levels of civilization
8. Patterns of Accommodation - Pragmatism
- Options are limited: Assimilation or extinction
- Whites will never allow Indians to live on their own terms
- Indians cannot hope to survive with their ever-increasing dependency on
white society
- Must adapt
- Education essential because it ensured survival, not because it facilitated
one’s climb up the ladder of civilization
9. Discuss: How does the teacher convey the necessity for learning white man’s
language
The following excerpt from a dialogue (pg. 259) between a teacher and student illustrates the
“pragmatic rational.”
Teacher: So you want to do like that when you are a man, do you; have
somebody talk for you at the store, or go around and point to this and that,
holding up your fingers to show you how many you want and saying
“muncha”; then pay for one thing and get your change - all because you can’t
count how much they all cost, and being afraid all the time you are being
cheated and not getting all you pay for; or have to go away without what you
want, all because you cannot talk English like almost everybody around here
can do? I don’t believe your father and mother want you to do that way, and I
can’t think you want to do that way yourself.
10. Patterns of Accommodation - Pragmatism con’t
- Education is an essential weapon in the next generation’s defense of tribal
interests
- Only protection is a boundary line; need to learn to get along with white people
- Other views: Education offers an escape from the conditions at home
- Poor food and clothing
- Unhappy family situation
- Students enjoyed school life
- Developed strong affection for their teachers
11. The Effects of Time
- Between 1880-1920, there were many changes in the Indian way of life.
- Boarding schools became less mysterious because the first generation of students
returned and could prepare the next set of students.
- Psychological changes- after some time at the off-reservation boarding schools, many
Indian children began to find enjoy some things about the school and thus would register
for another year.
- Some students would not return even after their schooling was completed, and they
would look for work.
- A quote from a student after returning home from school: “I felt out of place again.
How these sudden changes made a Navajo student feel is only understood by one
who has experienced them.”
12. The Role of Choice
- Student reactions to the boarding school experience were unpredictable.
- Many students exhibited resistance. Even students who did cooperate wanted to do so
on their own terms.
The choices of American Indians were not unlimited, and the choice of
what life would be in the future was difficult.
- Choices: continue the American Indian nomadic and traditional lifestyle, or begin a
stationary lifestyle of stock raising.
- The ultimate test of the boarding school was to see if students would live
up to policymakers’ expectations.
13. Discuss
How might differing accommodations among children in
the same class/school/family affect their lifestyle or
development? (e.g. socially, psychologically, etc.).
14. Works Cited
Adams, D. W. (1995). Education for extinction: American
Indians and the boarding school experience 1875-1928.
Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.
