The Cultural Genocide of Boarding Schools

Grace Raymond Hebard is a University of Wyoming trustee, a researcher, a women's right activist, and a collector. She collected manuscripts, transcripts, and newspaper articles of historical events that occurred in Wyoming [2]. Among those papers were three newspaper clippings from various perspectives that depicted the Shoshone Mission School experience on the Wind River Reservation: “Interesting Program of Work Planned for Indian Children,” “Two Wyoming Indian Tribes Prepare for Weird Tribal Rites,” and “Classroom News: Religious Instruction” [2]. The Shoshone Mission School Newspaper clippings indirectly juxtapose the oppressive, implications of indigenous boarding schools with the ignorant, white oppressor perspective in order to display the repercussions of indigenous, cultural genocide and to raise a call to action.

Historically, indigenous communities have been viewed as uncivilized, simple minded beings due to their non-western traditions. The white peoples ignorance of other cultures and their traditions resulted in an alienated perception of indigenous humanity. The Shoshone Mission School papers from the Grace Raymond Hebard Collection include the titles “Interesting Program of Work Planned for Indian Children'' and “Two Wyoming Indian Tribes Prepare for Weird Tribal Rites" [6]. The white man belittles the Shoshone tribes through the utilization of a controlling tone and words such as “weird” and “planned.” Reyhner describes that the goal of white colonizers was to make “civilized,” Christian farmers and laborers out of seemingly savage, indigenous children [5]. As such, it can be seen that white man’s words hold power and influence over western society. They have the ability to implant the idea into colonizer society that indigenous tribes are to be worked and observed as animals rather than the idea that indigenous tribes embrace a different culture that suits their spiritual/physical needs.

Out of the cultivated animalistic perception of indigenous people and their cultures arose a colonial desire to assimilate those they believed to be untamable into a tame society. The forced assimilation of indigenous tribes to western society has resulted in irreversible damage to traditional, Native American language. In the artifact “Two Wyoming Tribes Prepare for Weird Tribal Rites'' the journalist claims that “The present day sun dance of the Shoshones and Arapahos is but a shadow of what was celebrated by the most-savage tribes of the early days…” [6]. Over the course of time, colonizers implemented ideas that cultural activities should be objectively and western-ly correct not subjectively and culturally. The savage perception of indigenous tribes resulted in the stripping of not only cultural activities but spoken languages. After being forced to adopt an English only policy in the late 19th century at the boarding schools, advocates and indigenous teachers like Sarah Winnemucca argued the importance of race based education as it establishes a sense of relatability between Native American teachers and students through the implementation of bilingualism and cultural integration [1]. Boarding school educators and instructors failed to recognize the importance of indigenous humanity and culture to the education of said indigenous students. How can a faculty expect easy integration with extreme policy that excludes the cultural communication of an entire group of people? The non acceptance of indigenous language resulted in the oppression of precious cultural values and traditions that had already been in existence for generations.

Destruction of culture was also seen in the displacement of indigenous identity by assimilation of religion. Under the “Religious Instruction” paragraph of the Shoshone Mission School artifact “Classroom News,” the reporter writes “He [Mr. Lawrence Stueland] said that we should all come and confess the wrong doings that we did and learn what we should have done” [7]. The values learned from US Protestant Christianity strongly contradicted indigenous cultural values. Reyhner explains that US boarding schools that promoted Protestant Christianity enforced individualistic tendencies, while destroying indigenous cultural values that instilled respect for others, humility, and cooperation [5]. By white washing indigenous identity, one destroyed original intuition that had been cultivated in indigenous children at a young age at home. It completely disrupted traditional values and replaced it with a confusing reality that caused the misshaping of an identity that is split between two different realities. This created in-tribe complications because assimilated Indians that returned after 5 years of schooling were considered traitors [5]. In Navajo tribes, this created a party of people called “non-linguals”: partially assimilated students who couldn’t fit in with neither white nor Navajo tribes [5]. This then creates a multigenerational problem that is heavily felt in the present. Indigenous people are left wandering the world with no identity, cultural roots, or a sense of belonging.

With many indigenous people being faced with the injustice of boarding schools, many are seeking reclamation of their experiences. This is presently being observed through physical, educational, and emotional reparations. In Canada, reclamation of boarding school experiences is being done through testimonial imagery, land reclamation, relearning of indigenous tongue/voice, as well as the transformation of material objects in the boarding schools into art [4]. At the University of Wyoming, cultural restoration for the Northern Arapaho tribe is being done through a VR medium that provides a physical and spiritual connection with life in Laramie Valley before it was taken [3]. All across the US, immersion programs are being created that enforce a strong cultural identity by teaching the importance of a specific indigenous culture alongside English [5]. Reparations are being made for the under-represented indigenous tribes that were affected by the horrors of boarding schools. Western society is called to listen to the stories of those that have been strongly oppressed by greedy, narrow minded colonizers. As a predominantly white state, Wyoming has very rich indigenous roots. Land has been stolen from innocent individuals that had well established lives, cultures, and traditions. What Wyoming can learn from this is to be aware, educated, and listeners of the perspectives present in this state. It is time to be a state that seeks justice for Wyoming and all of her inhabitants.

[1] Anne, R. G. (2005). Indian Heart/White Man's Head: Native-American Teachers in Indian Schools, 1880-1930. History of Education Quarterly, 45(1), 38-65. https://www.libproxy.uwyo.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/indian-h eart-white-mans-head-native-american/docview/237059980/se-2?accountid=14793

[2] Hebard, G. (1998, June). Grace Raymond Hebard paper, 1829-1947. Grace Raymond Hebard papers - Archives West. Retrieved April 12, 2022, from https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv383641?q=Grace+Herbard+Collection

[3]Kelly, P. A. (2020). Ceh’e3teekuu!--Listen--This is Arapaho Land. American Indian Quarterly, 44(4), 415–433. https://doi.org/10.5250/amerindiquar.44.4.0415

[4] McCall, S. (2020). Re- Framing, De-Framing, and Shattering the Frames: Indigenous Writers and Artists on Representing Residential School Narratives. Studies in American Indian Literatures32(1), 1-25. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/764470.

[5]Reyhner, J. (2018). American Indian boarding schools: What went wrong? what is going right? Journal of American Indian Education, 57(1), 58-78. https://doi.org/10.5749/jamerindieduc.57.1.0058

[6]University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center, Grace Raymond Hebard Papers, Accession Number 400008, Box 10, Folder 15

[7] University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center, Grace Raymond Hebard Papers, Accession Number 400008, Box 10, Folder 18