Cheyenne-Arapaho Education 1871-1982 [1 ed.] 0870814621, 9780870814624

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NATIONAL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY SAN DIEGO

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CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

1871-1982

EDUCATION

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NATIONAL LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY SAN DIEGO

(CCHEYENNE-ARAPAHO EDUCATION 1871-1982 Ce

HENRIETTA MANN

UNIVERSITY

PRESS

OF COLORADO

© 1997 by the University Press of Colorado Published by the University Press of Colorado

P.O. Box 849 Niwot, Colorado

80544

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.

The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in

part, by Adams State College, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Mesa State College, Metropolitan State College of Denver, University of Colorado, Univer-

sity of Northern Colorado, University of Southern Colorado, and Western State College of Colorado.

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI

Z39.48-1948

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mann, Henrietta, 1934—

Cheyenne-Arapaho education, 1871-1982 / Henrietta Mann.

p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87081-462-1 (casebind : alk. paper) 1. Cheyenne Indians—Education. 2. Arapaho Indians—Education. I. Title.

BOD. C53M35. 1997 371.829'973—de21 97-21814 Clip

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DEDICATION (~e>

To Al, Alden, Montoya, Jackie, June, and “The People,” all of whom were placed upon the sacred red earth to walk in balance, beauty, love, and respect.

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TABLET ORSCONTENTS (ew

PREFACE

XI

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 1.

INTRODUCTION:

Xiu CHEYENNES

AND ARAPAHOES,

1

A RETROSPECTION

2.

EARLY DAYS IN THE WHITE EDUCATION, 1871-1880

MAN’s “ClVILIZING” WEB OF

19

3.

OfFF-RESERVATION SCHOOLS: ASSIMILATION OR “THE BLANKET”

39

4.

“THE PEOPLE” AND MISSIONARIES’ SCHOOLS

69

5.

SCHOOLS ON THE CHEYENNE

ARAPAHO

MANUAL

CHEYENNE

MANUAL

RED Moon

AND ARAPAHO

ISLAND

LABOR AND BOARDING SCHOOL LABOR

AND

BOARDING

SCHOOL

SCHOOL

CHEYENNE

90

94

SEGER INDIAN INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL CANTONMENT

ey

87

BOARDING

SCHOOL

AND ARAPAHO

SCHOOL

97 100 (CONCHO SCHOOL)

103

6.

LEGISLATED

INTO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

HZ

7.

“THE PEOPLE” SPEAK AND ACT ON EDUCATION

1385

8.

CONTEMPORARY

155

9,

CONCLUSION: THE ROAD OF LIFE—PAST, PRESENT, AND

ON “THE PEOPLE’S” TERMS

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FUTURE

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

EDUCATION

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TABLE I-l

THE Four SACRED PERSONS: THEIR SYMBOLISM

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AND ASSOCIATIONS

TABLE 3-1

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO INDUSTRIAL

TRAINING

PENNSYLVANIA, TABLE 3-2

ENROLLMENT,

INDIAN

56

SCHOOL, CARLISLE,

1882-1899

INDIAN STUDENT

ENROLLMENT,

INDIAN INDUS-

58

TRIAL TRAINING SCHOOL, CARLISLE, PENNSYLVANIA,

1901-1910 TABLE 8-1

SCHOLARSHIP

PROGRAM,

TRIBES OF OKLAHOMA,

1962-1967

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

CONCHO, OKLAHOMA,

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The piercing of ears in Cheyenne culture is symbolic of opening the mind to learning, understanding, discipline, and knowledge. Even though my ears were pierced as a child, my graduate education would not have been possible without the expertise, guidance, counsel, and patience of my committee. I would have never begun, remained on schedule, and completed without Richard Ellis, who has consistently provided excellent guidance and counsel for the three years of my graduate study. Helen Bannan became my academic and personal support system with her diplomatic advice and encouragement. Alfonso Ortiz provided the expertise critical to a person striving to maintain the tradition of Indian excellence. Louis Rosasco unfailingly provided the patient wisdom requisite to understanding Indian education. The diversity of my committee has given me the dimension and depth to feel confident in making this contribution to “The People.’ From my heart, I say Hah-ho, an Arapaho thank-you, to my four good and wise teachers.

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Cal ‘plang ’ Carlisle’s mission was to convert its students and ultimately to transform them into “white” yeoman farmers and domestics. The school graduated its first class, composed of fourteen students, on May 22, 1889. Kish Hawkins, a Cheyenne, was included in this

first group of graduates. Carlisle, contrary to public opinion, was not a university; in fact, it only went to the ninth grade, though it required ten years of schooling because the first grade took two years to complete.*® In 1892 Pratt assessed thirteen years of educational experience with Indians, noting the “wonderful” nature of the change, demonstrated primarily by non-Indian dress and command of the English language. Increased congressional appropriations for the school resulted in steady progress in improved facilities and more systematized classes and industrial training.°? On October 10, 1892, 322 Carlisle boys and girls participated in the Columbian Quadri-Centennial parade in New York, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the “discovery” of America. Each student, Pratt reported: [clarried a small American flag and at the head of the column Richard Davis, one of our stalwar[t] young Cheyennes, supported by two small boys[,] carried a large banner, on which was inscribed “United States Indian Industrial School, Carlisle, Pa.,’ followed by the motto “Into

Civilization and Citizenship.”©° z

Following the parade in New York, the boys also participated in one in Chicago on October 20.°! Based upon his experience, Pratt determined that education for Indians had to stress four areas:

ites Second. Third.

A usable knowledge of the language of the country. Skill in some industry. The courage of civilization.

Fourth.

A knowledge of books, or education, so called.

He considered English to be integral to education, and a practical trade

56

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

EDUCATION, 1871-1982

almost as important. He fervently believed that the outing system was the means to civilization, and that it had to be complemented by an education that conformed as closely as possible to the public school model. Succinctly, he wanted to transform “a consumer and wanderer” into a producer and citizen, a helper instead of a burden. On the one hand, Pratt recognized Indians as competent human beings, but on the other, he wanted to remove their every vestige of Indianness. The Cheyennes and Arapahoes wanted to be able to travel on the road of self-sufficiency rather than walk the road to extinction. Thus, within an eighteen-year period, from 1882 through 1899, the allied tribes gave 943 children to the white system under Pratt’s care. Table 3-1 presents the annual enrollment at Carlisle by tribe, but it does not account for attrition by death, outings, or return to the reservation. In that period, the most students were enrolled in 1882, with the fewest in 1894

and 1895. Also, during that trme 376 Arapahoes and 567 Cheyennes were at Carlisle, making a total of 943 students held hostage for the good behavior of their people.® Although he was a career officer in the army and dedicated to military discipline and force, Pratt treated the students not as hostages but as children whom he sought to expose to the vast panorama of white education and living. He was committed to educating Indian children, albeit in an alien atmosphere far removed from the reservation, family, and “barbaric” influences of tribal life. Under his direction, Carlisle be-

came a model school and established standards of Indian education for improving the quality of American Indian life, particularly in developing the knowledge and skills with which to earn a livelihood. TABLE 3-1 CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO INDIAN

INDUSTRIAL

Wear

TRAINING

ENROLLMENT

SCHOOL, CARLISLE, PENNSYLVANIA,

Arapaho

Cheyenne

1882-1899*

Total

1882 1883

34 30

57

91

43

ts.

1884 1885 1886

45 27 25

49 39 28

74 66

1887 1888 1889

G2 24 22

43 32 oS

ips)

53 56 ee)

OrF-RESERVATION

SCHOOLS: ASSIMILATION OR “THE BLANKET”

Dy

TABLE 3-1 (CONTINUED) Year

Arapaho

Cheyenne

Total 79

1890

36

43

1891

29

Sif

66

1892

19

22

41

1893

15

16

31

1894

3

12

15

5

10

15

1896

1895

=

=e

=

1897

12

38

50

1898 1899 Total

10 8 376

34 31 567

44 39 943

*No figures were available for 1896.

Pratt believed in what he was doing and the type of education offered at Carlisle, a system he had perfected from the time he first worked to educate his Plains Indian prisoners at Fort Marion. Based upon his experience, he began to challenge the actions and philosophy of his superiors, which a civil servant in those days just did not do. In addition, his address to the Baptist Ministers Conference in early May 1904 attracted much publicity, particularly some statements about the bureau that he was requested to verify. Rather than respond, he forwarded a copy of his entire speech to the secretary of the interior; a month later, he was in-

formed by the secretary of war that he was relieved “from all duty under the Interior Department, to take effect June 30, 1904.64

During the twenty-five years he was associated with Carlisle, Pratt was a“father” to “4,903 Indian boys and girls from seventy-seven tribes.”°> Table 3-2 documents the enrollment and attrition by deaths for a portion

of Pratt’s superintendency at the Carlisle school. The time period between 1901 and 1910, however, extends six years beyond Pratt’s term.® The highest enrollment was 1,087, in 1904, and the lowest was 948, in

1905. The most deaths occurred in 1904 and the fewest in 1902. The enrollment had grown substantially from 147 in 1879 to 1,009 in 1910. In 1910 four Arapahoes and thirty-five Cheyennes were attending the school. Of the overall enrollment, “the average age of the boys at Carlisle is nineteen years, and that of the girls is eighteen years.”

58

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

EDUCATION, 1871-1982

Superintendent Friedman further reported that although the school gave the students freedom to choose a religious denomination, it required them to become Christians, a practice heartily endorsed by Washington. The school was intertribal, and it “nationalized” the Indian.°’

TABLE. 3=2 INDIAN STUDENT ENROLLMENT INDIAN INDUSTRIAL TRAINING SCHOOL, CARLISLE, PENNSYLVANIA, 1901-1910 Year

Enrollment

Deaths

1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909

1,007 ROWS 1,033 1,087 948 15025 1,033 1,021 1,023

4 1 3 8 7 7 3 4 4

1910

1,009

8

In 1918 the Interior Department was notified that the Carlisle Barracks were needed by the War Department for medical purposes, and that it was exercising its prerogatives according to law. Thus, after nearly four decades, the Indian Industrial Training School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, closed its doors on September 1, 1918, and the Indian students were

transferred to schools closer to their reservation homes.°® The educational achievements that Pratt enjoyed with Indian students at Carlisle prompted Congress, in 1882, to substantially increase appropriations for off-reservation schools. Several training schools for Indians were opened throughout the nation, in which academic training was subordinated to industrial training, military discipline was imposed, and the outing system predominated. The first such training schools were Genoa at Genoa, Nebraska; Haskell Institute (which became Haskell Indian Junior College in 1965), in Lawrence, Kansas; and Chilocco (Haworth

Institute), in Chilocco, Oklahoma. All three opened in 1884. They were followed by Grand Junction Training School, Grand Junction, Colorado; and Albuquerque Training School, Albuquerque, New Mexico, both of which opened in 1886. Other training schools were Carson (Stewart Institute), Carson, Nevada; Santa Fe (which became the Institute of American

Indian Arts in 1962), Santa Fe, New

Mexico; Pierre, Pierre,

South Dakota; and Fort Totten, North Dakota. All four of these opened

OFF-RESERVATION SCHOOLS: ASSIMILATION OR “THE BLANKET”

5 ice)

in 1890. The off-reservation school movement accelerated so that by the end of the century, there were twenty-five such schools in the United States, most of which were situated near urban areas.

Some parents objected to their children being taken so far from home to places where they had to remain for three to five years. Even more objectionable was the fact that some children were practically kidnapped to fill quotas. This practice became so intensely competitive, and increasingly unsatisfactory, that finally each school was assigned certain recruiting areas. Off-reservation education was not limited to industrial training. Agent Miles reported in 1882 that two Cheyennes were enrolled in Fort Wayne College, Indiana. The students were Robert Hamilton Burns and Harry White Shield, who were sent away to school on September 1, 1882. Burns returned on September 1, 1887, after a five-year absence. White Shield did not return until a year later, on January 27, 1888, after being gone from the reservation for six years.°” In 1883 fifteen Cheyenne and Arapaho girls were sent to an industrial training school at West Branch, Iowa, and the reports on their

progress were good. A year later, off-reservation quotas created problems in filling reservation schools. By that time students were being placed not only in Carlisle, but also in such schools as Haskell. Superintendent James Marvin of Haskell reported the arrival in 1885 of forty-two Cheyennes and thirty-six Arapahoes. Included in these seventy-eight students were thirty children, twenty-four girls and six small boys, who were an experimental group. They had been transferred to Haskell to “test the feasibility of training younger pupils, especially girls, away from all camp association.””? All the students attended school for at least half a day, but the younger ones and the boys assigned to dining room duty sometimes attended school the entire day. All those old enough to work spent the other half of the day in industrial training of a “practical character.” Haskell placed its entering students in one of five grades, depending upon whether they had never been in school, could read, knew how to divide, or had studied geography or English composition. Regardless of level, however, each grade emphasized speaking English. Students under ten years of age were reported as having “made rapid progress in changing from Indian to English,” whereas those over age sixteen encountered more difficulty with the language. Further describing them, Marvin said:

60

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

EDUCATION, 1871-1982

The characteristics of Indian pupils are, quickness to observe through the eye and ear, slowness to manifest any emotion, reticence in the presence of strangers or of oth-

ers whose confidence they have not proved. They are imitative; teachable in the use of tools and in methods of work. They are very sensitive to ridicule, quick to observe any personal slight, and to resent any apparently unjust discrimination. . .. Penmanship, drawing, and descriptive lessons are favorites, while the abstruse problems of arithmetic have few admirers. Their love of approbation is very strong, and yet they often manifest a contemptuous indifference to reproof.’! Traditional Cheyenne education methodology was evident in the matter of approbation, shame, and reproof, as a Cheyenne was taught never to disgrace self or family. Ridicule and fear of mortification were sometimes used to mold proper behavior, which was expected to result in approval and the respect of parents, family, friends, and community. These concepts apparently carried over into the white classroom. Off-reservation schools eventually appealed to both students and parents. In 1886 Haskell had an enrollment of 225 children from the two tribes. In 1887 Agent A. D. Williams reported that of nine students originally scheduled to go there, parents withdrew permission for all but one. Death and rigid discipline were cited as reasons for this “deep-rooted prejudice” against Haskell. Their fears apparently were allayed later, because by 1888 a total of 101 Cheyenne and Arapaho students were enrolled.’ Haskell became an institution. Criteria for admission in 1917 were that “pupils must have finished the third grade and must be fourteen years of age.”’> Obviously, over-age students were a problem, because the bureau had to adopt regulations that in 1923 required “special authority” from Washington to enroll “any student over 21 years of age.”’+ Furthermore, preference was given to those with one-fourth or more degree of Indian blood. The institute was structured into seven broad activity areas: Boys’ Industrial Department, Girls’ Industrial Department, Academic Depart-

ment, Business Department, Physical Training, Religious Societies, and Literary Societies.” With sentiment running against off-reservation boarding schools in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Haskell was slated for closure 1n 1933, but this action was later rescinded. It became noted for its

commercial department and many of its graduates went to work for the

OrF-RESERVATION SCHOOLS: ASSIMILATION OR “THE BLANKET”

61

bureau. With the emphasis upon post-high-school graduate education in the 1960s, the school became Haskell Indian Junior College in 1965, and has had a Cheyenne, William Arthur Hill, serve on its Board of Regents. After nearly a century, Indians were afforded the opportunity to become problem solvers rather than just the “problems” the government ethnocentrically labeled them in 1885. Education and agriculture were coordinate solutions in the “‘civilizing policy” of the late nineteenth century. One of the schools founded primarily for agricultural training, and among the earliest of off-reservation schools, was Chilocco, also known as Haworth Institute. Its other two goals were academic and vocational training. The first building ... opened its doors to 123 students from the Kiowa, Commanche [sic] and Wichita Agency and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency on January 15, 1884. These students arrived in the middle of a very cold winter. They spent about a month rumbling northeast across the plains in a wagon train supervised by a Mr. Frank Maltby, clerk and industrial teacher.’° Cheyennes andArapahoes were among the first pupils at this school, and by the 1886-1887 academic year five Cheyennes and nine Arapahoes constituted a portion of the student body. A total of 215 students was enrolled for that year, representing twenty-one tribes. Seventy-five of the students who had entered Chilocco in 1884 had already completed their three-year education contracts, and most of them returned to the reservation, but a few remained at the school for additional coursework.’”

The attendance of Cheyennes andArapahoes had declined to three by 1891. Superintendent Benjamin S. Coppock reported that “good work” had been done “in the school rooms, in the shops, in the house,

upon the farm. The moral, the spiritual, the literary, the industrial culture ... has been subjected to careful inquiry and oversight.”’® Sending students far from home, even just to Chilocco, caused loneliness and some runaways. Escape attempts apparently became so widespread that “a bounty of $5 per head” was paid, a practice later discontinued when the school simply began filling the vacant slots.’? Some, however, wanted to be at Chilocco, such as Fred

Mann, White Buffalo

Woman’s son. He and two companions arrived at the school in late 1909, stating that they were going to remain only a year.°? Mann’s coursework consisted of the usual English education, and a choice of industrial training courses ranging from farming to harness and shoemaking. Girls were taught domestic science and domestic art courses, which included

62

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

EDUCATION, 1871-1982

everything from learning to cook to the care of milk and butter making.*! By 1921 Chilocco had added two years of work to its curriculum and was “therefore giving work which corresponds to that of the High ” school was strongest in School Course of the State of Oklahoma.The agriculture, followed by printing and engineering.*? In 1932 “this great school” provided an education in the five areas of “academic, vocational, religious and character training, social ethics, and extracurricular activi-

ties.”8? Cheyenne and Arapaho students, in varying numbers, took advantage of its educational offerings and were consistently represented in the student body. In 1969 Chilocco became controversial after Senate subcommittee hearings held at the school characterized it as “the end of the line.’A Bureau of Indian Affairs team subsequently reported student brutality by school personnel, and newspaper headlines alleged “Students Beaten and Handcuffed for 18 Hours!” This necessitated a Senate hearing and an FBI investigation, though the long-delayed FBI report exonerated the school officials.84 Despite the school’s efforts to continue in a positive manner, the adverse publicity eventually exacted its toll. The Chilocco Indian Agricultural School closed its doors to Indian students on June 15, 1980, six years short of a century.®° Because of the quota system, some students repeated their threeyear terms at different schools. Margaret Horse Roads, also referred to as Margaret H. Roads, attended Chilocco in 1915, but it is said that she attended Genoa Indian School in Nebraska as well.8° Edward G. Burns,

a twenty-seven-year-old Cheyenne, went to Genoa on September 29, 1914, as did Anna Shortman, an Arapaho, in September 1918.87 In 1918 the commissioner questioned why thirteen pupils from Colony, Oklahoma, were at Genoa. Superintendent Sam B. Davis responded that “the leading schools in Kansas and Oklahoma solicit and enroll pupils from Nebraska and South Dakota, therefore, I know of no reason for not enrolling a limited number of pupils from other states.” He further justified his actions by stating that a good educational experience required a multitribal group of students and that students from the Cheyenne and Arapaho areas had been enrolled for the past several years to provide this diversity.°° Margaret Roads, as she called herself, was a niece of White Buf-

falo Woman. She returned from Genoa quite the lady, dressed in the strange clothes of a white woman, and wearing an elaborate hat orna-

mented with wax fruit. She left her hat on her first evening home, almost as if to torture the screaming, crying children who begged for the fruit on

OFF-RESERVATION SCHOOLS: ASSIMILATION OR “THE BLANKET”

63

it.’ A long time afterward, White Buffalo Woman laughed at the incident, but at the time it had been sobering to realize that many others, like

Margaret, had been thrust into the shadowy world of marginality. Fort Marion,

Syracuse, Hampton,

Fort Wayne

College, Carlisle, Haskell,

Chilocco, and Genoa had changed the young people, and other schools had contributed to the alienation of ageneration of people as well. Twelve Arapahoes and two Cheyennes had been sent to school in Phoenix, Arizona. Katie Yelloweyes, a Cheyenne, had been placed in Lincoln Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. An additional twenty-three students had been enrolled in the Whites lowa Manual Labor Institute,

located in Houghton, Iowa. Others had been placed in the Whites Indian Manual Labor School in Wabash, Indiana; among them was George Bent, Jr., the one-quarter-blood, thirteen-year-old son of George Bent.”” It was just as Sweet Medicine had prophesied. White Buffalo Woman observed that those the white man took did not know much. They knew how to speak English, but spoke imperfect Cheyenne. One Carlisle student could not utter the simple phrase that he was going to shoot a rabbit.?! True, they had many new skills—they knew how to make wagons, harnesses, shoes, and so forth, and could do everything the

white man could—but there were few places to apply these skills in the camps. Some of them acted like the Ve’ho’e, the white man who thought he knew better and eventually brought misfortune to himself by misusing knowledge before learning that the traditions of The People were deeply rooted in a unique way of life. The grandfather to all Cheyennes, the Keeper of the Sacred Arrows, requested that the story of “White man” and his eyes be used to illustrate the uselessness and danger of culturally inappropriate knowledge. White man saw a powerful medicine man one day, who was able to send his eyes to the top of trees to observe life from a different and wonderful vantage point. White man begged for this powerful gift, and the medicine man shared his knowledge, telling him not to do this more than four times in one day. Eager to use his newly acquired skill, he sent his eyes to the nearest tree and called them back, but he said that was only for practice. He tried a second time, a third, a fourth, and fifth time, which to him was only

the fourth time since the first one had only been for practice. He called his eyes back, but they would not return, and the insects told him they were spoiling, attracting flies, and being eaten by the birds. White man cried and cried,

64

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

EDUCATION, 1871-1982

to no avail. After a while a mouse gave him one of his tiny eyes, and a buffalo felt sorry for him and gave him one of his, which was much larger than a human eye. This caused a visual distortion, but White man was happy; he could see again.” «

In the context of their story, the white man suffers from a perceptual distortion. The People viewed the returned students differently than he did. To white educators, the returned students were models of white

civilization and Christianity, change agents, the vanguard of Cheyennes and Arapahoes who had thrown away their blankets in the interest of assimilation. The elders had said, however, that such students were to be

the means of maintaining the ways of The People. Their skills were new and strange, but time and experience would eventually transform them in culturally beneficial ways. They were the interpreters of culture. Notes (Jew

1.

United States Department of the Interior, A History of Indian Policy, prepared for the Bureau of Indian Affairs by S. Lyman Tyler (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1973), 314 (hereafter cited as Tyler).

2.

“Notes on Educational Policies and Activities on Behalf of Indians,’ author unknown, January 29, 1912, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75, Central Classified Files, 31978-12-810 General Services, National Archives and Records Service, Washington, DC (hereafter cited as NARS, RG75), 28.

3.

Tyler, A History, 91.

4.

United States Department of the Interior, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs (hereafter cited as Report of the Commissioner), 1875, 269.

5.

Richard Henry Pratt, Battlefield and Classroom: Four Decades with the American Indian, 18671904, ed. Robert M. Utley (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964), 107, 138-44. On

page 137 Pratt lists a Cheyenne, Making Medicine, O-kuh-ha-tuh (Oakahaton as one of his prisoners. Pratt states that Making Medicine was arrested as a gives his age as thirty-three. His English name became David Pendleton. Cheyenne oral tradition, he was not selected as one of the original prisoners.

or Oakerhater), ringleader and According to He was a little

boy who followed his older brother, whose name is not known, into exile because he loved

him so much. It is said that the military tried to run him back, but he was so persistent that they gave up and let him go to Fort Marion with them. Ibid., 121. Ibid., 138, 158-62. Ibid., 163.

ow so NO

Miles to Hayt, April 27, 1878, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75, Microcopy 234 (hereafter cited as M234), roll 123.

10.

Report of the Commissioner, 1878, at 55.

11.

Pratt, Battlefield and Classroom, xii—xiii.

12.

Miles to Hayt, June 1, 1878, M234, roll 123.

Orr-RESERVATION SCHOOLS: ASSIMILATION OR “THE BLANKET”

65

Report of the Commissioner, 1878, at 55. Pratt, Battlefield and Classroom,

124.

Ibid., 165-66. Mizner to Assistant Adjutant General, Department of Missouri, July 17, 1878, M234, roll

123)

Red Hat, untitled manuscript. Red Hat, interview, July 17, 1981.

Ten Years Work for Indians at Hampton Institute, Virginia: 1878-1888 (Virginia: Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, n.d.), 63.

Ibid., 9. Evelyn C.Adams, American Indian Education: Government Schools and Economic Progress (1946: reprint, New York: Arno Press & The New York Times, 1971), 52.

Report of the Commissioner, 1879, at vii-ix.

Ibid., 232-33. Pratt, Battlefield and Classroom,

190.

Ten Years Work for Indians, 9-10.

Ibid., 24. Report of the Commissioner, 1880, at 182-85. Ten Years Work for Indians, 13. Report of the Commissioner, 1890, at 24.

Ibid., 1885, at xiii. Ten Years Work for Indians, 37.

Report of the Commissioner, 1890, at 308-9. Pratt, Battlefield and Classroom, 218-19.

Ibid., 220. Ibid., 224. Ibid., 230. Campbell to Hayt, October 7, 1879, M234, roll 125.

Miles to Hayt, October 8, 1879, M234, roll 125. Campbell to Hayt, October

10, 1879, M234, roll 125.

Pratt, Battlefield and Classroom, 231-33.

,

Ibid., 235. Elaine Goodale Eastman, Pratt: The Red Man’s Moses (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1935), 84-85.

Miles to Trowbridge, May 28, 1880, M234, roll 126. Miles to Trowbridge, July 20, 1880, M234, roll 126. Miles to Trowbridge, July 28, 1880, M234, roll 126. “Record of Pupils Attending School off the Reservation,” Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75, Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, Concho, OK, Federal Archives and Records Center, Region 7, Fort Worth, TX (hereafter cited as FARC, RG75).

47.

Report of the Commissioner, 1880, at 180.

66

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO EDUCATION, 1871-1982

48.

Pratt, Battlefield and Classroom, 259.

49.

Report of the Commissioner, 1880, at 178-81.

50.

Ibid., 67-68.

Ole

Report of the Commissioner, 1881, at 66.

52.

Pratt to Hayt, August 27, 1881, Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, Carlisle Indian School File, Oklahoma

Historical Society, Archives/Manuscript

Division, Oklahoma

City, OK

(hereafter cited as OHS, C&A). Dos

Report of the Commissioner, 1882, at 178.

54.

Pratt to Miles, June 12, 1882, OHS, C&A, Carlisle Indian School File.

5D:

“Record of Pupils Attending School off the Reservation,” FARC, RG75.

elon

Act of Congress approved July 31, 1882 attached to letter, Lane to Secretary of the Interior, July 16, 1918, OHS, C&A, Carlisle Indian School File.

ie

Report of the Commissioner, 1889, at 6-8.

Do:

Ibid., at 367; Pratt, Battlefield and Classroom, illustrations.

59:

Report of the Commissioner, 1892, at 690-91.

60.

Ibid., 1893, at 452-53.

61.

Pratt, Battlefield and Classroom, 294.

62.

Report of the Commissioner, 1895, at 399.

63.

Information compiled from Reports of the Commissioner, 1882-1900.

64.

Pratt, Battlefield and Classroom, 336-37.

65.

Ibid., xiii.

66.

Friedman to F E. Hoffman, statistician, The Prudential Insurance Co., August 17, 1910, OHS, C&A, Carlisle Indian School File.

67.

1910 Annual Report, Carlisle School, Superintendents’ Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports from the Field Jurisdictions of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75, Microcopy

1011, roll 9, Federal Archives and Record Center, Region 7, Fort Worth, TX

(hereafter cited as M1011). 68.

Report of the Commissioner, 1918, at 36.

69.

“Record of Pupils Attending School off the Reservation,’ FARC, RG75.

70.

Report of the Commissioner, 1885, at 229-30.

Wate

Ibid., at 232-33.

Wee.

Reports of the Commissioner, 1886, at 116; 1887, at 238-39; 1888, at 91.

WS

Peairs to Dunn, April 4, 1917, OHS, C&A, Haskell Institute File.

74.

Mote to Bonnin, January 16, 1923, OHS, C&A, Haskell Institute File.

TO.

Brochure, Haskell Institute, n.d. (but between

76.

C. Leon Wall and Beulah Widney Wall, Tomahawks over Chilocco (Oklahoma City, OK: Kin

1917-1923), 5, 7.

Lichee Press, 1979), 11a.

vae

Report of the Commissioner, 1887, at 414.

78.

Ibid., 1891, at 580, 582.

WE.

Wall and Wall, Tomahawks over Chilocco, 11e.

80.

Wise to Dunn, Nov. 19, 1909, OHS, C&A, Chilocco

81.

1910 Annual Report, Chilocco

Indian School File.

Indian School, M1011, roll 18.

Orr-RESERVATION SCHOOLS: ASSIMILATION OR “THE BLANKET”

67

82.

Blair to Perkins, August 9, 1921, OHS, C&A, Chilocco

83.

Vivian C. Hoag, “Educational Advantages at Chilocco,’ Oklahoma Indian School Magazine

84.

Wall and Wall, Tomahawks over Chilocco, 15, 85, 142, 202.

85.

Wallace Allen, Education Specialist, Education Division, Anadarko Area Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Anadarko, OK, telephone interview by author, October 1, 1981.

86.

Margaret Horse File.

87.

“Record of Pupils Attending School off the Reservation,’ FARC, RG75.

88.

Davis to Merritt, October 23, 1918, OHS, C&A, Genoa

89.

Henry Mann, Cheyenne oral tradition, collected July 17, 1981.

90.

“Record of Pupils Attending School off the Reservation,” FARC, RG75.

UE

Red Hat, interview, July 17, 1981.

2%

Cheyenne oral tradition.

Indian School File.

1, no. 3 (May 1932): 5 [OHS, C&A, Chilocco Indian School File].

Roads

to Dunn, April 30, 1915, OHS, C&A, Chilocco

Indian School

Indian School File.

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CHAPTER

FOUR

“THE PEOPLE” AND MISSIONARIES’ SCHOOLS

“The People” were intensely spiritual, believing in an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, beneficent Being whose spirit was present in everything in the universe. They walked in balance with all creation, in which the natural world and human beings were interrelated and interdependent. Each tribe and individual observed ceremonial ritual prayers to maintain harmony with “The Man Above” and “The Great One.” Furthermore, the sacred and secular were interwoven into a holistic way of life in which everyone and all things were accorded respect. Sophisticated value systems and codes of ethics governed their behavior and relationships with other people. They were warm, compassionate, respectful, loving people, who cried with grief, who hurt when subjected to the harsh realities of life, who laughed with joy, and who looked only to the good in life. Yet these same people were allegedly savages, pagans, heathens, and infidels, who had to be taught the “comforting truths of the gospel” and the white man’s religion. Beginning in reservation days, a steady succession of white people concerned themselves with the Indians’ spiritual welfare as well as with their progress toward civilization, both of which were to be attained through education. The elements in the tripartite assimilation process for Indians thus became education, Christianity, and civilization. ¢ Brinton Darlington, the beloved elderly agent for the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, was a devout Quaker who was appointed to his post as part of the implementation of Grant’s peace policy. Upon his death, another member of the Society of Friends, John D. Miles, became the agent. In 1877 Mr.and Mrs. Elkanah Beard, also Quakers, and Reverend Samuel

S. Haury, a Mennonite, were doing missionary work with the tribes, scattering the “bait”to attract them into the “Gospel net.”! The following year, Lawrie Tatum, Quaker agent for the Kiowas and Comanches, whose agency was located south of the Cheyennes’ and Arapahoes’, sometimes assisted Beard in teaching “the cardinal principles of Christianity.”

70

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

EDUCATION, 1871-1982

In 1880 Agent Miles informed the Mennonites that his Society of Friends was to do missionary work solely with Cheyennes and that the Arapahoes had need of some group to work among them. Although the Quaker missionaries Elkanah and Irene Beard confined their work only to the Cheyennes, the Quakers operated schools for both tribes. The Mennonites, however, were expected to confine their missionary and educational work to the Arapahoes. The investigating committee of the Board of Mennonite Missions visited the agency and conferred with Miles, and they subsequently recommended that the Mennonites secure the necessary permission to establish a mission for the Arapahoes.? The Mission Board wrote Miles to this effect, seeking permission for Reverend S. S. Haury to locate among them permanently, and requesting that he be assigned suitable acreage upon which to build, plant a garden, and lay out mission farms. Their primary purposes were “to prosecute the Christian Missionary work among the Arapahoes” and to “preach to them or to téach them the Christian religion.”* In addition to teaching about Christianity, they were also intent upon teaching “The People” to cultivate the soil. On May 11, 1880, permission was granted to the Mennonites to enter the reservation and establish a mission. Under the direction of the minister, S. S. Haury, a large multipurpose building was made sufficiently ready for occupancy in August 1881.° It contained a“kitchen and diningroom in the basement, a school-room and three private rooms on the first, five rooms on the second floor, and two dormitories in the garret.”

The mission at Darlington could accommodate twenty-five students. The building and mission school activities were financed by the Mennonite Church. The church, however, hoped to augment its resources with government-issued rations and annuities to mission schools for Indian children. Although the building was incomplete, the school opened in October 1881 with an enrollment of thirteen students. The curriculum consisted of“*common elementary branches in the English language” and industrial training—farming for the boys and “housekeeping and common needlework” for the girls. The goal of the school, however, was to teach “Biblical and Christian knowledge and inculcation of Christian principles.” Christian education for the adults was limited to Sunday school and occasional religious instruction in the camps, contingent upon the services of an interpreter, until Haury learned the language. He also intended “to effect a Christian family, and to build up a Christian home.””®

“THE PEOPLE” AND MISSIONARIES SCHOOLS

7\

The“Red-white men” (Germans), as the Mennonites were called, were dedicated to the same goals as government schools. In addition, however, Mennonites

saw the need to educate Indian women

and lift

them from their “miserable state.” Haury successfully secured the services of a returned Carlisle student as his interpreter. Agent Miles reported to Pratt that Henderson, one of his former students, was employed as an assistant and interpreter to Reverend Haury at the mission school.’ The school was four months into its first year when the new mission building was completely destroyed by fire, on February 19, 1882. Three Indian children and the Haury’s nine-month-old son, Karl, were caught in the blaze; though they

were carried to safety, they died from smoke inhalation.® The tragic death of the four children and the destruction of the mission building did not stop the mission work, however. Major George M. Randall of Fort Reno loaned Haury two hospital tents to use for the school. The wash-house was converted into a temporary dwelling for the Haurys, and the loft in the stable became the boys’ and girls’ sleeping quarters.” Despite having to resort to makeshift facilities, the school reopened in April with eighteen students, and lasted until the end of June. Congress appropriated $5,000 toward rebuilding the mission, which became a joint venture between the government and the church, and construction of a larger building made of brick and stone was begun immediately. At the end of his first year at the mission, Haury reported that it would require patience and many years to Christianize and civilize the Indians, and “‘to convince them that it is an honor for man to work.”

School, work, and becoming Christian were new to the children. Even though some exhibited interest in baptism, Haury did not oblige, because the Mennonites did not want “a large number on our roll as church members.”!° Following the off-reservation school pattern implemented by the government, Haury took fourteen Arapaho boys to Kansas in June 1882.1! Utilizing Pratt’s concept of the outing system, he placed them in the homes of farmers around Halstead, Kansas, to learn about farming through

practical work experience. It was anticipated that they would remain there for the summer, but could stay longer if they so elected. They were expected to learn about home life and duties and to be extended the same educational advantages as the farmers’ children.'? “The purpose of doing this was to bring these young Indians in touch with Christian family life, and to give them an opportunity to become acquainted with

U2

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

EDUCATION, 1871-1982

Christianity by a closer daily association with Christians.” This outing experience was a total immersion process where “they might see and study Christian civilization in the very midst of it?t3 Christian civilization was the entire thrust of Mennonite mission efforts. They rapidly expanded their role to include off-reservation education, which they had not originally requested, a significant move on their part. Additional developments were just as critical to their expan. government was planning sion and entrenchment on the reservationThe to abandon Fort Cantonment (near present-day Canton, Oklahoma), about sixty miles northwest of Darlington. Little Raven and other prominent Arapaho chiefs lived in that area, which made it an ideal site for another mission, in addition to the fact that it was more centrally located for missionary activity. The military abandoned Fort Cantonment on October 2, 1882, and on December

1, 1882, all but one building was trans-

ferred to the Mennonites.'* The one building not transferred to the Mennonites was the “large stone hospital building 114 feet long, all completed except one wing.” It had been “given by order of the Department Commander Gen. Jno. Pope” to Little Raven, an elderly principal chief of the Arapahoes. The hospital building was to become his as soon as the military vacated it. His daughter Anna had just returned from Pratt’s school at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and was to become the “Queen of a stately mansion.” It was important to the Mennonites and all concerned to have the support of the elderly statesman, as noted: ““ “Raven’s’ influence will be excellent in establishing a station for educational, industrial, and religious training.”!° According to Arapaho oral tradition, Little Raven went on a delegation to Washington, D.C., and was taken on a tour of the city. He visited the United States Mint and saw money being made, and he also saw the White House. Afterward, while visiting with the president, he commented that the president was the big chief of white people and lived in a large white house.As he too was a big chief of the Arapahoes, and was repeatedly told that he had to live like a white man, he too wanted a big white house in which to live. His logic was irrefutable, and he was given the large white hospital building as a symbol of his leadership.'° “Raven's” endorsement was definitely advantageous to Mennonite efforts. Within a relatively short time, Haury had already built and lost one mission building, instituted off-reservation, outing-type education, and acquired a rent-free site for another mission, in addition to supervising the construction of a replacement for the one destroyed by fire. Haury’s monthly report for October 2, 1882, stated that the school had not opened at Darlington because the building was “not completed

“THE PEOPLE” AND MISSIONARIES SCHOOLS

yet.” He did, however, make arrangements to accommodate

US

twelve stu-

dents, two girls and ten boys. The Arapaho boys taken to Kansas over the summer had returned in September, each having earned from $20 to $40, and were attending school on the reservation.!’Conditions remained virtually the same for the following two months, although in November the students were “taught in manual labor, and received religious instructions of 40 min. every day.’!* In December they were reported as having performed manual labor for several hours each day. “The larger boys done a good deal of Lathing in the Building, receiving 50 cents a day.’!? When Haury was transferred to the Mennonite Mission at Cantonment, H. R. Voth was selected from among the fourteen mission workers to take charge of the Mennonite mission and school at Darlington. He reported to Haury, who was appointed superintendent of both schools. The mission building at Darlington was completed in December 1882, and the school opened once again with adequate facilities to board fifty students. The attendance in the new school was reported to be about twentyfive for the remainder of the year, and students were “happy in their enjoyment of school privileges.” Few children ran away because, in the estimation of the missionaries, it was “punishment to the pupils to be sent back to camp.” The curriculum consisted of the “elementary branches of the English language,’ industrial education, and Christian religion, “the most important branch of training in our school.” The missionaries did not confine education to youth only. Mr. Voth instituted an adult education class, which met three evenings a week, for one hour each session, from February 5, 1882, to May 4, 1883. Eleven

Cheyenne and Arapaho agency employees attended school for these three months, and were given instruction in primary reading, writing, and numbers, as well as in the English language. The pupils were reported “to be very interested in their work,” and the class was declared “insignificant” but “encouraging.” ’ One of the activities undertaken during the year involved placing ten boys with “good Christian families” in Kansas for the second year in a row. The boys earned from $5 to $13 a month, and some of them wanted to remain in Kansas during the school year to attend public school. The new mission school at Cantonment could not open before July 1, 1883, because of extensive repairs required on some of the buildings. In the fall of 1883, however, the missionaries anticipated expanding the scope of their mission by enrolling Cheyenne children in addition to Arapahoes.

7A

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

EDUCATION,

1871-1982

In summary, Haury judged the mission school endeavors over the 1882-1883 school year as encouraging, though filled with obstacles. He committed the church to continuing its work, confident in the knowledge that “the Gospel of Christ will at last conquer the hearts of our Indians and change their lives and customs; itwill civilize them. ee In 1884 Haury reported attendance as being between thirty and thirty-six at Darlington and eighteen at Cantonment. Most of the younger children, he stated, understood the English language well, speaking “it freely among themselves.” They were “taught the common English branches, as reading, writing, arithmetic, geography.” Their classes lasted until noon, with the afternoon devoted to industrial education. The boys were sent to “the field and garden,” and as part of their instruction in farming cultivated thirty acres at Darlington and fifty acres at Cantonment. The girls were “taught to sew, to knit, to mend, and to do other housework.” Both girls and boys were also taught *‘above all other things the Christian religion.” The Mennonite Mission at Darlington was established solely for the Arapahoes; the Cantonment mission was to work with both tribes. The Cheyennes, however, would not send their children to school with

the Arapahoes, preferring to wait for “the construction of a school building for them exclusively, having had the promise of one.” The Cheyennes’ refusal made the Mennonites less effective in their aim “to break up the tribal connections of these people, which will do away with their tribal obligations and customs.” Furthermore, they could not reach as many children, because school was the “means in changing the savage and wild heathenish life of these Indians to a civilized, quiet, and useful Christian life’?! Blind to everything except conversion, the “Red-white men” ignored freedom of religion. The United States government, founded upon freedom and equality, was ambivalent in its application of these principles to Indians, and because of this ambivalence had established a pattern of continually shifting Indian policy. In 1885 it began to examine its Indian policy once more, particularly in relation to schools. The commissioner reported in that year that “the Government should manage its own schools, and the different religious denominations should manage theirs separately.’ Succinctly, the commissioner was proposing a separation from “sectarian influence and control.” Nevertheless, he did encourage various denominational groups “‘to assist in the great work of redeeming these benighted children of nature from the darkness of their superstition and ignorance.’ The issue of sectarian education at government expense had not as yet affected the Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation. In that same year

“THE PEOPLE” AND MISSIONARIES SCHOOLS

(1885), the tribes numbered 3,500.

WS

Agent D. B. Dyer reported that

“these are nearly all ‘Blanket Indians, ” with no written language, laws,

or government; more specifically, “they have no use for 4,297,771 acres of valuable land,” having leased a significant portion of their reservation to cattlemen. The Arapahoes were more progressive and cooperative, although “many of the young men are as headstrong as the worst Cheyennes.” Furthermore, “parents of the children do not appreciate the benefits to be derived from an education.” Contrary to Dyer’s report, the Mennonites reported that attendance had “been remarkably regular,’ and saw a steady increase in enrollment. The school at Darlington was filled to capacity with Arapaho children. From the time schools were established on the reservation, Arapahoes had been “very willing to send their children to school,” even requesting that two-year-olds be enrolled. Cheyennes, however, did not want to place their children in school, “for no other reason than . . . they see in the schools and other educational and missionary work the future overthrow of their heathenish customs and life?’ The “Red-white men” were not aware of the prophecies of Sweet Medicine and Erect Horns, or they would have understood the Cheyennes’ extreme reluctance to give up their children to the white man’s schools. Nonetheless, by the end of the school year, fifteen Cheyenne children had been enrolled at Cantonment, although there were at least one hundred school-aged children in the area. The children advanced well in their studies, particularly in speech and English composition. Industrial education likewise progressed at both schools, marked by increased acreage under cultivation. Training among the girls was also reported as successful. A unique feature of these schools was that the Indian students ate “at the same table with the teachers and workers.” Families were encouraged to live in the houses at Cantonment, so

efforts were by no means limited to children. Haury had eleven Arapaho families and one Cheyenne family living in houses, and each had “a cornfield from 3 to 15 acres.” While families were being congregated around the mission in an effort to start a colony, some children were being sent away. For the third year Indian students had been sent to Kansas, five of whom had been placed with Mennonite families. The other five, who were “pretty well advanced in the English language, attended college at Halstead, Kansas, for eight months” and worked on farms for the remaining four months. It was an objective of the missionaries “to educate some of the natives and prepare them for teachers as soon as possible.” Familiar with sound

76

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

EDUCATION,

1871-1982

educational philosophy, they recognized the need for Indian teachers and workers, who though “less scholarly equipped have the greater advantage of sympathy and knowledge of the special needs of their people.’*? The missionaries were sensitive to cultural differences and saw the need for relevancy even though their goal was to Christianize rather than to pre-

serve cultural integrity.

Webs

Captain Jesse M. Lee, who assumed the position of acting agent on August 15, 1885, was not as open to understanding as the Mennonites. He stated in his annual report for 1886 that “one year is too short a time in which to note the progress of a barbarous race,” further lamenting the lack of missionary work on the reservation and characterizing it as a “heathen land.” He also argued the need for a strong military force, but not so much to control Cheyennes and Arapahoes as “to protect these Indians against encroachment of white thieves and trespassers, who are, all things considered, worse than the meanest Indian.” Obviously, though,

not all relations were hostile; by 1886 twenty whites had intermarried into the tribes. In that same year, there were 650 children between the ages of six and sixteen years on the reservation, and 225 pupils in off-reservation institutions. Twenty-three of them were in the Mennonite College at Halstead, Kansas, studying to become teachers. Of those on the reservation, 312 were

in school.

Thus, by June 28, 1886, more

than 60

percent of school-aged children had been attending schools of one type or another. In the same period, seventy-four children attended the mission school at Cantonment and forty-seven were in school at Darlington. Most of the Darlington students appeared “to enjoy going to school,’ though they were allowed “to speak their language only in their plays, and in their sleeping rooms.” The particular emphasis in these schools was teaching the children “to work with their own hands.” In addition to the usual English education and industrial training, they had their all-important religious instruction, using Foster’s Gospel Story as their textbook. Whereas “great progress” was noted in farming, evidenced by three hundred Indian farms with fences, wells, and working Indians, The

People persisted in following their age-old traditions, much to the consternation of the missionaries. “Medicine-making” was considered the most detrimental to progress, particularly because the medicine makers neglected agricultural pursuits “and created much disturbance in the schools.” Participation in the Medicine Lodge by the younger men was declining, which was partially attributed to the “influence of the schools.” It was reported also that at the last school funeral, none of their “superstitious funeral ceremonies” was observed. As a further indication of progress

“THE PEOPLE” AND MISSIONARIES SCHOOLS

Ve).

toward civilization, the Indians had begun to seek the “comfort, and assistance of their white friends” during illness—and their illnesses were frequent. The Arapahoes were rapidly declining in number, one-thirteenth of their entire tribe having died over the harsh, snowy winter of 1885 and 1886. In addition, many died from consumption, “principally caused by syphilitic disease,’ which “undoubtedly, in their first instances, [they] contracted from the whites.’ The general health of the students, unfortunately, had deteriorated along with the health of those in the camps. From this standpoint the agent predicted that the Arapahoes would be practically extinct in ten or fifteen years. Extinction and assimilation were daily confrontations. Sixty percent of Cheyenne and Arapaho children were being educated; they had established three hundred farms; many of them faithfully attended religious services. They were simultaneously holding to their own ways of life, however, especially to the sacred ceremonies. As Lee acknowledged: much of their faith is the same as ours, but it will be generations before they can understand the efficacy of infant baptism, or comprehend the Trinity, the miracles, the inspiration of the Scriptures, and other mysteries connected with the Christian religion.To many of their minds these things are as incomprehensible as their religious observances are to us.74

The tragedy was that it was only the Arapahoes and the Cheyennes who were expected to change and embrace the Judeo-Christian ethic, and it was their spirituality that was denigrated. Indian Service personnel and missionaries did not confine their efforts at cultural suppression to the spiritual aspects of Indian life. They were quite intolerant of tribal languages as well. In his 1887 report, the commissioner of Indian affairs*expressed his commitment to monolingualism and stressed the “importance of teaching Indians the English language.” He further elaborated upon the language issue by stating that “this language, which is good enough for a white man and a black man, ought to be good enough for the red man.” Thus, the Indians’ expressions of culture were relegated to nothingness, and the English language assumed the dominant role as the only “civilized” language in

America.

.

The commissioner implemented his language policy on December 14, 1886, by directing Indian agents that “in all schools conducted by missionary organizations it is required that all instructions shall be given

78

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

in the English ruary 2, 1887, tion in which regulation was

EDUCATION,

1871-1982

language.” This was followed by another directive, on Febordering that “no school will be permitted on the reservathe English language is not exclusively taught.” Yet a third issued on July 16, 1887, which read:

Your attention is called to the regulation of this office which forbids instruction in schools in any Indian language. This rule applies to all schools on an Indian reservation, whether Government or mission schools. The edu-

cation of Indians in the vernacular is not only of no use to them, but is detrimental to their education and civilization.”°

The commissioner subsequently clarified his position regarding mission schools, making an exception for “preaching of the Gospel to Indians in the vernacular.” This policy, formulated in “the very best interest” of Indians, essentially invalidated their languages, except when used as a means to Christianize and lead them to salvation. It cannot be denied that a language barrier existed between missionaries and whites and Arapahoes and Cheyennes. More than language, however, it was a basic cultural barrier, which was readily apparent in religious and economic differences (as but two obvious examples). The People had evolved a prosperous hunting economy prior to white contact, whereas the Mennonites were oriented to agriculture. Unfortunately, such drastic differences were not viewed as being equally valid ways of life, but became a matter of superiority and inferiority, characterized primarily by such terms as Christian and pagan, industrious and indolent. Because the Indians were viewed as “pagan” and “indolent,” they had to become Christian farmers and farmers’ wives, which required Christian proselytizing. The Mennonites’ first mission was to evangelize, but transforming Indian youth into agriculturists also ranked high on their priority list. Since the off-reservation mission school concept had become institutionalized into the Mennonite Indian educational system, an industrial school had been established in the Mennonite school in downtown Halstead. It operated for about two years before the idea was abandoned because of philosophical and educational differences with its host institution. Christian Krehbiel did not wish to discontinue this work; so in 1887 he moved the Indian industrial school to his farm, where it was operated in a fam-

ily-type situation. Krehbiel’s ultimate purpose was to reach “children, who could presumably be more easily won,” so that the “gospel would be carried to their parents.””°

“THE PEOPLE” AND MISSIONARIES SCHOOLS

79

The “Red-white men” proselytized and used education as the means for Indian students to become Christians, but the fact remained

that they did not want to have too many Indians on their church rolls. Consequently, no tribal members were admitted into the church until 1888, when Maggie Leonard, a mixed-blood woman, was baptized.’ The following year, in 1889, the Mennonites expanded their mission sites by adding one at Seger Colony. They now had four locations: (1) Mennonite Mission School, Darlington; (2) Mennonite Mission School, Cantonment; (3) Indian Industrial Contract School, Halstead; and (4) Mennonite Mission, Seger Colony. The curriculum, schedule, and edu-

cational philosophy had altered little since the inception of the schools, except that the missionaries were even more determined to inculcate Christianity as the foundation for civilization. Despite geographic differences, the three schools operated rather uniformly. The facilities at Cantonment had been intended for temporary use only, but the church planned to remain on the reservation, so it began constructing a new school building, which was to be “three stories high, with basement under the whole house. It is being built of stone and brick, and will be large enough to accommodate seventy-five children besides all the necessary employes [sic].’ The new site at Seger Colony did not have a boarding school component and was only a mission with a farm. The last of the four sites, in Kansas, was a contract school for which

the government paid $125 per pupil. In 1888 and 1889, twenty-eight students were in school at Halstead; three returned home and five of those remaining were baptized into the church. The school superintendent reported in 1890 that the Kansas school’s purpose was threefold: “religious, educational and industrial” —goals consistent with the two schools in the Indian Territory. In assessing their work among Cheyennes and Arapahoes, the missionaries were satisfied that “considerable changes for the better” had indeed occurred.78 , In 1890 the Board of Indian Commissioners met at Lake Mohonk and considered, among many other issues, “the advisability of continuing the contract school system.” One of several arguments was that it was unconstitutional and a merger of church and state to fund schools “managed by any religious denomination.” Another was that because of its responsibilities for Indian children, the government hadesthe

right to

choose their place of education and to accept the facilities offered by the church mission boards.” The result was a resolution, unanimously adopted,

to give “a common-school education to all Indian children at Govern-

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CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

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ment expense, but until full provision is made . . . the work of the contract schools be not crippled but continued and fostered.” Another concern at the national level was school attendance and the need for a compulsory attendance law, which was hampered by lack of facilities and the general poor health of Indian children. In view of these concerns, the solution was to enforce the authority already delegated to agents to withhold rations, annuities, and other privileges from parents of truant children.?? The year 1890 was significant to the Cheyennes and Arapahoes. White Buffalo Woman saw some of their children turn to Christianity, but, just as important, she saw those who still loved and revered the good, old ways. Times were harsh, and many days White Buffalo Woman’s heart broke as she witnessed the disorientation and traumatization of her kinsmen, confined as they were to the tiny reservation island from which the buffalo, their economic mainstay, had disappeared. Erect Horns had instructed The People to protect the sacred buffalo hat and never to abuse it, warning them that if they did the buffalo would leave them. The hat was desecrated in 1873 when the wife of the temporary keeper, Broken Dish, removed one of the horns before he relinquished the hat to the Kit Fox soldiers for transfer to the rightful keeper.°° Circumstances in the late nineteenth century had forced them into dependency upon the whites’ government for rations and annuities. With the loss of two of their sacred arrows and abuse of the hat, the

Cheyennes’ totality and power as a people were diminished, and they were plagued with misfortune. Despite these calamities, they faithfully continued the ritual prayers associated with their tribal symbols, the Sun Dance and Arrow Renewal. By 1890 White Buffalo Woman and The People had heard of the miraculous, hopeful news ofa messiah who lived far to the west on the Walker River Reservation in Nevada. The prophet Wovoka was a Paiute Indian, who was also known as Jack Wilson. On a day of a solar eclipse, probably on January 1, 1889, it was thought that Wovoka had died, because his body grew cold and he lay as if dead for several days. Upon awakening, he gave his divine revelation to the Indian world:

Taken up to the other world ... he saw God, with all The People who had died long ago engaged in their oldtime sports and occupations, all happy and forever young. It was a pleasant land and full of game. After showing him all, God told him he must go back and tell his people they must be good and love one another, have no quarreling,

“THE PEOPLE” AND MISSIONARIES SCHOOLS

8l

and live in peace with the whites; that they must work, and not lie or steal; that they must put away all the old practices that savored of war; that if they faithfully obeyed his instructions they would at last be reunited with their friends in this other world, where there would be no more

death or sickness or old age.°!

In addition, he told them that if they danced for four days and five nights at six-week intervals, eventually a natural calamity would destroy the white people and everything they had created, leaving a renewed earth, abundant with buffalo, in which only Indians would live once again. Thus, they danced, awaiting the day of deliverance. Because Indians believed that their dead ancestors were

to return, whites called this “dance

of

goodness” the Ghost Dance. White Buffalo Woman wondered at the ability of people “to bring something up,” as she observed the dancing, singing, and preaching. The agent reported that the religious meetings had effectively halted all industrial work. In addition, the missionaries

discerned that some

of their

teachings had indeed been absorbed, particularly those relating to Christ and the resurrection. They referred to this religious movement as the “Messiah Craze ... caused by a strange mixture of gospel truths and pagan superstitions.”>? Cheyennes andArapahoes stopped attending religious services and began dancing their old ways back and their oppressors, the white men and “Red-white men,’ to oblivion. Based upon the Christian elements in the Ghost Dance doctrine, however, the missionaries interpreted the

movement as an acceptance of Christianity by older people and decided to intensify evangelistic work among them. The year 1891 was characterized as “not a very favorable one for missionary work,” because of ghost dancing, allotment, and per-capita payment of monies derived from thesale of unallotted reservation lands. Consequently, school attendance was unstable and missionaries were unable to fill their schools. The People were in a state of transition, tenaciously holding to their ways; they said that they had already given up too much, but at the same time they recognized the need for concessions if they wanted “to keep their young people.”*? Primarily because of education and mission work, a generation gap was developing where there had never before been one. Cheyenne and Arapaho youth began to exhibit signs of changing, and this prompted missionaries to focus upon working with adults and contending with the language barrier. When Rodolphe Petter of Switzerland was called into

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1871-1982

Christian work in 1890, he accepted, immigrating to the United States and studying a year at Oberlin College. By the end of 1891, he was at Cantonment, assigned to work with Cheyenne adults only. He was an excellent linguist who became proficient in the Cheyenne language and also developed the English-Cheyenne Dictionary, a monumental work in the area of Indian languages. In addition, he translated portions of the Bible and many church hymns into Cheyenne. Mennonite missionaries began to influence adult Cheyennes only after Petter arrived. The Cheyennes told him in his first year, “We have no time for you,” but accepted him in time because he learned their language. By speaking their language, he could enter into Cheyenne thought processes and make religion cross-cultural, thereby winning more souls for Christ. The Mennonites intended to work permanently among the Cheyennes and Arapahoes and anticipated receiving acreage under the allotment process. “Allotment,” the breaking up of reservations, was the result of the General Allotment Act of February 8, 1887, also known

as the

Dawes Act. It provided for allotment of reservation lands to individual Indians: 160 acres to each head of a family, 80 acres to single individuals over eighteen years of age, and 40 acres to all others under the age of eighteen. Further, the secretary of the interior was to confirm occupancy of not more than 160 acres in any one tract by religious organizations already occupying reservation lands. With allotment of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation in 1891, the Mennonites expected to receive 160 acres for each of their three mission sites. Instead, they had to divide 160 acres among the sites: Darlington received 40 acres; Cantonment

was allotted 80 acres; and

Washita (Seger Colony) was assigned 40 acres. They were disappointed, but it was typical of their entire year, which had been “a very hard one.” They were encouraged, however, by being requested to conduct some funeral services, which they considered “‘a great step towards Christianity?’*4 Mission work was not as entrenched as the missionaries would have liked it to be. In 1893, the mission school at Darlington had to close for the year because there were not enough students to warrant its operation. Mission work not only suffered at Darlington, but also experienced a setback at Cantonment. On February 1, 1893, the mission school building

burned down; though they immediately began constructing another facility, it was not completed until November of that year. The Indian industrial school at Halstead, Kansas, was the first of

the Mennonite schools to close. It had been in operation for eleven years,

“THE PEOPLE” AND MISSIONARIES SCHOOLS

83

to the satisfaction of both students and government, but it closed in 1896,

the “year all the contract schools were discontinued by act of Congress.”*° Enrollment at the Darlington school increased from fourteen in 1894, to twenty-seven in 1895, to thirty-nine in 1896, and to forty in 1897.°° Because of financial exigencies created by the termination of government assistance to sectarian schools, the Mennonite Board of Missions closed the school component in 1898, but continued to operate at Darlington as a mission. The mission school at Cantonment continued to operate several years longer. Its enrollment increased slightly from fifty-seven in 1894 to sixty in 1899 and 1900.°’ The commissioner of Indian affairs reported in 1901 that there was no provision in the appropriation act for “continuance of the contract-school system.” As a result, the Mennonite Mission

School at Cantonment closed on June 30, 1901. Its 60 students were among the 3,532 students enrolled in mission boarding schools in 1901 28

In 1894 the government established a day school on the Whirlwind allotment near present-day Fay, Oklahoma, located about forty miles northwest of Darlington. Its enrollment was sixteen in 1897 and twentyfive each in 1899 and 1900. Because parents camped around the school, lived away from their allotments, and did not farm, they were considered

a “source of considerable trouble and annoyance” and “among the most nonprogressive of the two tribes.” The Whirlwind Day School was therefore closed in 1901, and it became a government issue station.°? It subsequently reopened in 1904 as St. Luke’s Mission Day School, supported by the Protestant Episcopal Church. Its goal was to educate sick children who were ineligible to attend elsewhere. St. Luke’s encountered the same problems as the original school when parents began camping in its vicinity. The same objections were raised, and the school consequently closed in 1916.4° The Protestant Episcopal Church had worked in the field prior to this. The Reverend J. B. Wicks of the*Diocese of Central New York accompanied one of his students, David Pendleton, a full-blood Cheyenne, to the reservation, arriving in June 1881. Pendleton, a former Fort Marion

prisoner, had studied under Wicks for three years and become an ordained deacon of the church.*! After they built a mission, Pendleton worked among his kinsmen for many years, preaching to them in the Cheyenne language. Wicks spent most of his time with the Kiowas, Comanches, and Wichitas to the south, until 1885 when his health failed

and he left Indian mission work.*? The Society of Friends actually preceded all other missionary groups to the reservation. The first Quaker missionaries were Elkanah

84

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EDUCATION,

1871-1982

and Irene Beard, who left in May 1881 and were replaced by Reverend Ervin G. Taber. He became superintendent of the Cheyenne school in 1882, and his former position remained vacant. Two years later, in 1884, the Quakers left the field to the Mennonites and Episcopalians.*9 White Buffalo Woman watched the parade of missionaries—Quakers, Mennonites, Episcopalians—and was respectful of them, particularly of Making Medicine, David Pendleton, who had become a preacher, a

“sacred-talking white man” who could tell the great mysteries of the white man

in Cheyenne. She was in awe of the “Red-white

man,”

Rodolphe Petter, who easily learned their language and put it in a book. From her vantage point of the world, she saw the Mennonite Mission School at Darlington constructed, destroyed by fire, reconstructed,

and closed as a school. She was aware that Fort Cantonment had been given to the Mennonites, that the school had burned down and been replaced by a bigger and better one, and that it too had closed. She watched the children being taken off to school at Halstead, Kansas, year after year, until the whites quit taking them. The schools all closed because the government had stopped providing financial assistance. This was understandable, but she was puzzled by the closure of the school on Whirlwind’s allotment. The white man had always encouraged them to send their children to school, but when the parents cooperated and moved to the school, the white man objected to that as well. His ways were indeed strange! In spite of the good, strong ways of The People, the white man was slowly changing some of the young people. This saddened White Buffalo Woman, but she knew that The People’s road of life had to be flexible and provide for adjustments. The People had adjusted to mission schools, and those schools had already disappeared, while the ways of The People persisted just as they always had. Cheyenne and Arapaho traditional spiritual ways are deeply rooted in the sacred earth and will endure, though other religions and philosophies appear and disappear. They already have withstood the test of time. Notes Mew

1.

United States Department of the Interior, Annual Report ofthe Commissioner ofIndian Affairs (hereafter cited as Report of the Commissioner), 1877, at 85-86.

Za

bide aS

3.

Saateo ve

Henry Peter Krehbiel, The History of the General Conference of the Mennonites of North America (St. Louis: A. Weibusch

& Son Printing, 1898), 282.

“THE PEOPLE” AND MISSIONARIES SCHOOLS

85

Krehbiel et al. to Miles, April 14, 1880, Letters Received by the Office ofIndian Affairs, Record Group 75, Microcopy 234 (hereafter cited as M234), roll 126. Krehbiel, The History of Mennonites, 285. Report of the Commissioner,

1881, at 75.

Ibid., at 194. Ibid., 1882, at 62.

Co OND Krehbiel,

The History of Mennonites, 290-91.

Report of the Commissioner, 1882, at 59, 61-62.

The exact number of those taken to Kansas is in conflict. Miles in his report notes that fifteen were taken. The record of off-reservation pupils notes that eighteen Arapahoes and three Cheyennes were taken to the Mennonite College, Halstead, Kansas, on June 12, 1882.

Report of the Commissioner, 1882, at 57, 62. Krehbiel, The History ofMennonites, 296.

Ibid 291—92% Miles to Commissioner of Indian Affairs Hiram Price, August 5, 1882, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75, Central Classified Files, 31978-12-810 General Services, Na-

tional Archives and Records Service, Washington, D.C. (hereafter cited as NARS, RG75), 13865-1882, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency (hereafter cited as LR, C&A). 16.

Alfred Whiteman, Jr., great-grandson of Chief Little Raven, Arapaho oral tradition collected in the 1970s (confirmed by Virginia Cole Trenholm, The Arapahoes: Our People [Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970], 241). Comments parallel to those of Little Raven were made by Spotted Tail, who had also visited Washington several times. On his trips to the east, Spotted Tail, Sinte Gleska, a Brule Sioux, learned how the white men

lived. 7

Monthly Report of the Mennonite

Mission School, October

2, 1882, NARS,

RG75,

18530-1882 LR, C&A.

18.

Ibid., November

1, 1882, NARS, RG75, 20267-1882, LR, C&A. 3, 1882, NARS, RG75, 22320-1882, LR, C&A.

19.

Ibid., December

20.

Report of the Commissioner, 1883, at 68-69.

21,

Ibid., 1884, at 77-78.

22.

Ibid., 1885, at xiv.

28).

Ibid., at 74-75, 78, 81-82.

24.

Ibid= 1S86mratal

25):

Ibid., 1887, at xx—xxiil.

26:

7a 119 S21 255 124-27.

Samuel Floyd Pannabecker, Open Doors: The History of the General Conference Mennonite Church (Newton, KS: Faith and Life Press, 1975), 305.

Dike

Ibid., 306.

28.

Report of the Commissioner, 1889, at 310-12.

29:

Ibid., 1890, at xiv—xy, 4.

30.

Father Peter John Powell, “Issiwun: Sacred Buffalo Hat of the Northern Cheyenne,” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 10 (1960): 32-34.

Ole

James Mooney, introduction to The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890, by Anthony FE C. Wallace (1896; reprint, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965), 14-15.

86

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

EDUCATION,

32.

Krehbiel, The History ofMennonites, 319.

33.

Reports of the Commissioner, 1891, at 350.

1871-1982

34.

Ibid., 1892, at 379.

35.

Krehbiel, The History of Mennonites, 341.

36.

Reports of the Commissioner, 1894, at 238; 1895, at 242; 1896, at 245; 1897, at 228.

37.

Ibid., 1894, at 238; 1899, at 284; 1900, at 327.

BSallbid

aes

190 1harsi>:

SOM

Ibid SeiS975 at 223518998 ate

40.

George Posey Wild, “History of Education of the Plains Indians of Southwestern Okla-

85

OOO

mats

7 1 SU

leat.

homa Since the Civil War,’ Ed.D. diss., University of Oklahoma, 41.

Mules to Commissioner

of Indian Affairs Hiram

1941.

Price, July 30, 1881, NARS,

13622-1881, LR, C&A. 42.

Wild, “History of Education of the Plains Indians,’ 130.

43.

Krehbiel, The History ofMennonites, 302.

RG75,

CHAPTER SCHOOLS ON THE CHEYENNE

FIVE AND ARAPAHO

ISLAND

Cw

White Buffalo Woman was seventeen years old in 1869 when the Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation was created and became the permanent home of The People. She said that the elders often spoke of the time when the Cheyennes lived on a large island. Though the reservation was minute, they still considered it their island home. By way of review, federally subsidized church group schools had preceded mission schools on the reservation and had been in operation since 1871. Since the beginning of reservation life, Arapahoes had been more supportive of formal education, and consequently were called “progressive,’ whereas Cheyennes were labeled as “backward.” Although a handful of Cheyennes had placed their children in school along with the Arapahoes, it was not until 1876, when the buffalo were practically extinct, that the Cheyennes as a tribe gave up their children to the white man to be educated in his ways. They insisted, however, that a separate school be maintained for their children, and their preference was fol-

lowed at first. Arapahoes attended the school at Darlington and Cheyennes went to the school at Caddo Springs, located several miles north of the Darlington Agency. ARAPAHO

MANUAL

LABOR AND BOARDING SCHOOL

The Arapaho Manual Labor and Boarding School was started in temporary quarters in 1871, pending construction of a permanent structure. The facilities were completed in 1872, and school opened in September of that year. Except for brief absences, John H. Seger was associated with the school almost from its inception, assuming the superintendency of the school on November 15, 1880. He stated in his annual report ending June 30, 1881, that 120 students had been in attendance. Upon his return, he noticed that most of the older students were not in school, and he found them in the camps

88

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once more wearing blankets. Realizing that they could not find employment, Seger arranged to send sixteen of them to Carlisle instead. One of the major problems he encountered with students was their“reluctance to converse in the English language,” although they spoke it in the classroom. He therefore mandated use of the English language in every aspect of the school experience; those exhibiting the most fluency were extended certain privileges, such as getting to play certain games or eating at certain tables in the dining room. Winter was severe that year, and except for cutting wood and grading the road, most of the work was done indoors. Teachers thus became well acquainted with their students, and this familiarity led them to conclude “that the children were more easily managed and were more diligent in their studies than the white children in other schools.’ The summer of 1881 was as hot as the winter of 1880 had been cold, and the intense heat ruined the school’s crops except for “a few early vegetables and some oats and millet.’ Seger compared the boys’ fields “favorably with the best farms in the States”’ The boys were instructed in all phases of farm work, and the girls in all “the practical duties of the housewife.”! D. B. Hirschler became superintendent of the Arapaho school on May 26, 1882, at an annual salary of $900. Classes for the 1882-1883

school year began on September 5, 1882, with forty-eight students. Their textbooks were the Analytical Reader, White’s arithmetic, Montieth’s

geography, and Webb’s word method.” The children did “quite well, both in their literary & physical work,’ but had been expected to do better.? They appeared “to be satisfied, realizing that they have a great many advantages in the school in comparison with camp life. Some even said that they did not like camp anymore.’ Despite dissatisfaction registered about camp life, the students returned to camp to attend one of their Arapaho religious ceremonies in November 1882.4 The school curriculum was the standard nineteenth-century one for Indians, in which the three basic subject areas were a common English education, industrial training, and religion. Even though Miles considered the school by 1883 to be a government school, all the children attended Sunday school and evening devotionals, which were considered “beneficial to them in respect to their spiritual life”’ Furthermore, the children enjoyed music, and one boy named Kiser could “play at least thirty hymns on the organ,’? In 1884 Agent Dyer became displeased with low student attendance, stating that the schools “were certainly little credit to teachers, Indians, or any one else connected with the work.” The Arapaho chiefs

SCHOOLS ON THE CHEYENNE

AND ARAPAHO

ISLAND

89

consequently “issued an edict that the schools must be filled up,’ which resulted in good attendance for the last few days of the term and the

following year as well.© The superintendent of Indian schools reported in 1889 that the Arapaho school was “of low rank,” that the buildings were in poor condition, and that “low-class Indians” wandered in and out of the school from the nearby camp. He recommended that improvements be made to the school facilities, that it be enclosed by a high fence, and that the camp be moved three or four miles from the school. He “found the Arapahoes slowly advancing towards civilization.” School attendance was still a problem in 1890, and Agent Charles F Ashley withheld rations from Arapaho and Cheyenne families who refused to place their children in school. This situation was further aggravated the following year by the Ghost Dance, which caused many Arapaho students to run away. When the Office of Indian Affairs examined its curriculum in 1890, it stressed the development of citizenship through learning the significance of national holidays, adopting a uniform course of study, and using standardized textbooks. This new curriculum was followed in 1891 by the enactment of an Indian compulsory attendance law passed by the last session of Congress.” In 1893 Agent A. E. Woodson, in a rather unprecedented action,

appointed a three-member Board of School Commissioners for each school, to serve one-year terms. They were to visit the school on at least a monthly basis to monitor the care and education of students, assist the superintendent in recruiting and retaining students, report uncooperative parents, and promote the school and education of all school-aged children. Thus, The People became involved in education. Superintendent Isaac W. Dwire reported 104 students in attendance that same year, four more than could actually be accommodated. By this time the structure for Indian education had been established; the Arapaho school had not deviated from that three-point orientation except to incorporate national holidays into its curriculum as directed. Columbus Day and Easter were observed. Arapaho chief Row of Lodges concluded the Easter services by stating: “I do not know why God made the Indian and white man different, but I am glad we shall share alike in the resurrection.”!° Row of Lodges had apparently accepted Christianity, which would have influenced the younger members of the tribe to do likewise. The following year, Agent Woodson recommended the construction of two additional schools in more distant parts of the reservation,

90

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EDUCATION, 1871-1982

stating that “many children of school age” were “growing up in ignorance that ought to be educated.” Even after twenty-three years, education had not assumed dominance: “the same old customs prevail, the same old superstitions and belief in the efficacy of medicine men.” As a people, the d authority of chiefs and “the Cheyennes and Beapsnne still acknowledge headmen” and were “influenced in all their conduct by them.”!! The Arapahoes respected Woodson, who became their agent at a critical time of increasing Indian-white contact, following the allotment of their reservation. Carl Sweezy characterized him as “fair in all his dealings.”!* They also liked John Seger, a long-time associate of the Arapaho school. Although the school was initially built for Arapahoes, it did accept Cheyennes, and one of them was Little Bear Woman’s mixed-blood daughter, Mary. She got her name from Seger, who “called all the boys | John orJoe and all the girls Mary or Minnie or Martha, with their mother’s Indian names added on, so he could tell them apart.”!° Her full name became Mary Little Bear. * The People had to make another adjustment when the agency was divided into three areas—Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, Cantonment Superintendency, and Seger Superintendency— on November 30, 1902. The following year, Levi Chubbuck investigated agricultural conditions at the agency and reported that a Teacher’s Institute had been hosted at Darlington on March 12-13, 1903. He further noted “a good school farm of 230 acres” and use of appropriate methodology to emphasize farming, a goal spelled out more than three decades before.!* In his 1907 annual narrative report for the agency, Superintendent Charles E. Shell referred to the proposed merger of the Arapaho and Cheyenne schools that had been under consideration for some time. He recommended combining them based upon salary savings and breakdown in “tribal jealousies.’!° The schools were subsequently consolidated in 1908, thus dissolving the tribal uniqueness maintained through the two schools. CHEYENNE

MANUAL

LABOR

AND BOARDING

SCHOOL

The second industrial school building on the Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation was completed on August 26, 1879. Agent Miles reported, on September 1, 1880, that two manual-labor schools had been in operation for the previous ten months. Thus, the Cheyenne Manual Labor and Boarding School located at Caddo Springs must have opened Lay ro For the school year beginning September 1, 1880, eighty males and fifty-four females were reported as being enrolled. Three of them

SCHOOLS ON THE CHEYENNE AND ARAPAHO

ISLAND

9]

died, nine were sent home because of illness, and nine transferred to the

Carlisle Indian Industrial School, resulting in an average attendance of about 114.The literary progress of those remaining was “rapid and thorough,’ and some even preferred to study at recess rather than go outdoors to play. Superintenden W.t J.Hadley reported that students undertook their work details promptly and cheerfully, exhibiting great care in everything they did. The girls were careful to sweep every corner, to hide their stitches, and not to pucker the fabric while sewing. They also performed well in the dining room under the supervision of employees. The boys had a well-tended twenty-acre field of crops and a very good three-acre garden. In addition, they had put up hay for the stock, gathered wood for the winter, and drawn water for the entire school. They were also “laying pipes to carry the water from the spring to the house.” Evening devotionals and Sunday school were the means of religious instruction. They were successful inasmuch as gospel hymns and scripture recitations replaced dancing, gambling, and The People’s accompanying “peculiar” chants.!° Superintendent Taber reported that school for the 1882-1883 academic year began on September 18, 1882, with only twenty-five students. By the end of the month, eighty-three students (fifty-three males and thirty females) were in school. Of those, eighty could read and write understandable English, and thirty-six could work in the first four rules of arithmetic. They were interested in learning white ways. Classes for a typical day were scheduled from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. In addition, both boys and girls performed five hours of manual labor, from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. and from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. Instruction in manual labor for boys consisted of cutting wood, cutting hair, tailoring, milking, doing kitchen and dining room work, and cleaning school rooms. Girls were taught to sew, wash, and mend clothes, as well as to do chamber, kitchen, and dining room work. The teachers used four different textbooks: McGuffie’s readers,

Ray’s arithmetics, Monteith’s geographies, and Spencer’s System of Penmanship. Taber reported that “the children who have come in, take hold of their school work with a good degree of interest, and seem contented and happy.”!” In November 1882, a total of 122 attended school. They were healthy, bright, and making “commendable advancement in their studies and in speaking English.” To increase efficiency, Taber recommended employing an industrial teacher.'® Virtually the same conditions existed the following month, except that a nurse was needed in addition to the

92

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industrial teacher. Furthermore, two students were turned away “because of lack of room.”!? Students were crowded into their sleeping quarters as it was. From ten to twenty shared a room, with two or three squeezed into one bed. This crowding, it was stated, often contributed to poor health conditions

of the children.

aD

On August 18, 1883, there were 6,139 tribal members, including

some from the northern groups. Most Cheyennes had been sending their children to school for about seven years, and the results of education were beginning to show. They could “solve examples readily in compound numbers, form sentences containing given parts of speech, do good work in intermediate geography, and read understandingly in the fourth reader.’ As Superintendent Taber assessed the schoolwork over the year, he concluded that “‘in its various departments we feel that under the blessing of God it has been one of success.””? In 1885, however, Agent Miles lamented the fact that Stone Calf’s band, and a few others, had “not furnished a child for school the past year.’ He recommended that they be compelled to do so because the government could not “afford to raise any more wild Indians’?! To counteract the “savage Indian problem of common land ownership,’ Congress passed the Dawes (General Allotment) Act on February 8, 1887, to civilize through individualized land ownership. This act authorized the president to allot reservation lands to individual Indians, thereby conferring citizenship upon them, and to hold the land in trust for twenty-five years. Such civilization was seen as the antithesis of Indian life, as exemplified in a statement made by Daniel Dorchester, superintendent of Indian schools: In what condition shall the Indian be absorbed into our life; diseased, degraded, and debauched, or elevated, enlightened, and ennobled; hateful or helpful; faithless and frail or full of faith and fortitude; a pauper, a vagabond, a

criminal, or an intelligent, industrious, and loyal citizen? The answer will depend upon the manner in which the Government pushes forward its educational and other civilizing work among our Indian populations.” The Indians had to be assimilated by whatever means necessary, whether education, civilization, or allotment. They had to become like white men. The routine of the Cheyenne school was severely disrupted by allotment in 1891 and by the opening of the reservation to white settlement at noon on April 19, 1892. After individual Indians had been as-

SCHOOLS ON THE CHEYENNE AND ARAPAHO

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signed their allotments, the surplus lands were sold for $1.5 million and subsequently opened to homesteading. Approximately 30,000 white people, “Boomers,” rushed into the reservation at noon; by evening, the Cheyennes and Arapahoes were a minority on what had formerly been The land base of The People had become even smaller. their reservation. It was now a tiny island surrounded by a teeming mass of white people. In 1883, the Cheyenne school was one of five located on this former reservation. It was filled to capacity in 1894 with “bright and active” children, and the year was marked by good relations with parents. About two hundred Indians attended the end of school festivities, but the

superintendent reported that, after a huge dinner, the children went home “to the hovels of idleness, ignorance, and filth.’ Agency personnel kept the students from the “uncivilizing influences” of camp life as much as possible, permitting them to go home only for the summer and during Christmas vacation. The Cheyenne school had a record-breaking attendance of 175 in 1895. As good as the government boarding school facilities were for Cheyennes and Arapahoes in 1896, though, 400 of 900 school-aged children had never been in school. Even after twenty-four years of educational involvement on the reservation, the government had not fulfilled its treaty promise to provide a teacher for every thirty Cheyenne and Arapaho children, and school facilities were woefully inadequate. Furthermore, the curriculum of government schools was indiscriminate.Therefore,

on August 10, 1901, Estelle

Reel, superintendent of Indian schools, standardized the curriculum of government schools by directing her staff to implement a uniform course of study consisting of thirty-one subjects ranging from academics to vocational-type courses. Her goal through the course of study was “to give the Indian child a knowledge of the English language, and to equip him with the ability to become self-supporting as speedily as possible.”* In its first year of operation, the Cheyenne boarding school could accommodate only seventy students, but by 1903 it had a capacity for 140 pupils in its six major buildings. The boys’ building, in addition to being a dormitory, housed employees and the school office, as well as some classrooms. The girls’ building was a dormitory too, but it housed the chapel, bakery, dining room, kitchen, and some school rooms as well.

The buildings were lighted by kerosene lamps, inadequately heated, and improperly ventilated. The school’s water supply from Caddo Springs, however, was the best in that part of the country. Of the 4,800 acres set aside for the school, 700 acres were under cultivation as the school farm.?°

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Superintendent Shell reported in 1907 that El Reno businessmen had furnished prizes for the closing activities of the year, in which there The boys had competitions in were literary as well as industrial contests. milking, plowing, harnessing, and the like. Girls competed in such events as making butter, making beds, cooking, darning, and mending. Fifteen individuals were employed at the school that year, and 121 students were enrolled.”° Levi Chubbuck, in his 1903 field inspection report, questioned the wisdom of two schools being located so close together, and he recommended that they be age-graded, with the Cheyenne school providing an education for the younger children and the Arapaho school the older ones.?” His recommendations apparently were not considered, however. In 1908 the Cheyenne and Arapaho schools were consolidated into one school at the Cheyenne Manual Labor and Boarding School site at Caddo Springs, and the merged facility became known as the Cheyenne and Arapaho School. j RED Moon

SCHOOL

The Red Moon School was located on the south bank of the Washita River, 100 miles west of Darlington Agency, in the northwest corner of the reservation. It was just a few miles east down the river from the scene of the Massacre of the Washita, near the present town of Hammon, Oklahoma, in Custer County. The site was ideal for a school

because of the 187 Indians who had taken allotments in its vicinity. The school was named for a Cheyenne chief, Red Moon, who resided in the area. Construction of the building—a large, wooden, two-

story structure with a capacity of seventy-five pupils—was begun in 1894 and completed in late 1896. In addition to its two dormitories, it housed a school room, sewing room, office, and employees’ quarters.2° The number of school-aged children warranted the school, but it was difficult to fill because Cheyenne parents still objected to the white man’s educating their children. Those who took their allotments near Red Moon were among the most conservative of Cheyennes, and White Buffalo Woman and her family were in that group. The quarter ending June 30, 1898, showed an enrollment of thirty-two students, nineteen males and thirteen females. Three of White Buffalo Woman’s children were listed as having attended Red Moon:

Florance

Mann, Miriam

Mann, and Fred Mann.?? With

only thirty-two students, the school was operating more than fifty percent below its capacity and was faced with an attendance problem that recurred throughout its history.

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In his first annual report, Superintendent John Whitwell took a different view of the Cheyenne’s conservatism, however, stating that the

school was situated “amidst a band of Cheyenne Indians noted for their persistent endeavors to prevent their civilization.” All but one of the eligible school-aged children were in school, but it was still not filled.To do so, it would have had to go outside the district to meet its quota of pupils for the following year. Instead of “‘a grunt,” the English language was used ‘“‘in the schoolroom and playgrounds, in the workshops and on the farm.” The girls had learned to sew and knit, knitting fifty pairs of stockings. The boys had a good farm enclosed by miles of fence, and the trees they planted on the school ground were evidence of their skill. Whitwell concluded by stating: “The dark cloud of nonprogression which has cast a gloom over this district for so many years is slowly but surely being dispelled by the sun of civilization.”>° Typical of the schools of that period, Red Moon focused upon teaching the English language and instilling practical skills. The commissioner of Indian affairs in his annual report for 1901, titled “Well-meant Mistakes,” commented upon Indian education as not being “calculated to produce the results so earnestly claimed for it and so hopefully anticipated when it was begun.” He stated that $45 million had been appropriated in the preceding twenty years to educate about 20,000 Indian pupils. In that year alone, he stated, an average of 16,000 students between the

ages of five and twenty-one were attending 113 boarding schools. Essentially, what the commissioner was proposing was that Indian education be taken over by the states.°! One of the government’s “well-meant mistakes,’ Red Moon did not establish too strong a record in attendance, which severely hampered financial support allocated on a per-pupil basis. The enrollment had decreased from the previous year’s attendance of fifty to forty-three, a loss of seven students, five of whom died’from tuberculosis.

Despite attendance problems, Red Moon’s staff was adhering as close as possible to Superintendent Reel’s new course of study. Further, the industrial training component of the school had progressed well that year, and they harvested thirty acres of corn, fourteen acres of alfalfa, and other minor crops. The school farm had become a model for the county, which was significant. In addition, the school cattle herd had rapidly increased, as did the hogs, which would make Red Moon an “ideal stock

farm” if growth continued.°? National policy, particularly in relation to Indian education, affected everyone in even the remotest reservation. In 1903 the commis-

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sioner of Indian affairs assessed the government’s role in education. He concluded that “to educate the Indian in the ways of civilized life . . . is to preserve him from extinction, not as an Indian, but as a human being.’ To

this end, he declared that the Indian had to receive a “practical education” oriented toward making a living, in which “the first step is the acquirement of the English language.” In addition, the government had to assume a “paternalistic” posture and teach the Indian to be a farmer,

while simultaneously instilling the white work ethic. After all this was accomplished, the Indian was to be sent home to apply what he had been “taught or starve.”%? Succinctly, this was a policy of assimilation, the policy under which all government schools operated at the turn of the century; they were not concerned with preserving the cultural traditions of American Indians. In that same year, forty-two students were enrolled in Red Moon,

twenty-one males and twenty-one females. Miriam Mann and Fred Mann were two of the students, who were also listed as having attended the school five years before.** These two of White Buffalo Woman’s children were thrust into a dual Cheyenne-white world, not to be assimilated but to become the new Cheyennes, who would use the white man’s knowledge and tools to build an environment in which the ways of The People could continue to evolve. In 1903 the Cheyenne andArapaho Agency was divided into three districts, and Red Moon, with a student population adequate to warrant continuation of the school, was placed under the superintendent of the Seger District. Forty-two students attended school in 1904; the number dropped to thirty-nine the following year because three boys transferred to off-reservation schools. No mention was made of academic progress, but industrial training, specifically farming, had grown to a “much larger scale” than was thought wise in 1905. Superintendent W. H. Blish recommended that portions of the school reserve be leased out, that the school cattle herd be reduced to eighteen, and that some high-grade stock be purchased to enhance the dairy program.*° Miss Emma

G. Dent was the only teacher in 1907, and she was

credited with the satisfactory “language and manners” of the thirty-four students. Their health was generally good, although they had to be vaccinated for smallpox because of an epidemic in the area. Their crops of alfalfa and alfalfa seed were good that year, and their cattle and swine herds were considered some “of the best in that section of the country.” The facilities were in need of repairs, though, and the superintendent recommended abolishing the school if renovation was not to be undertaken.*©

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Public schools further affected student enrollment, and finally, after thirteen years as a boarding school, Red Moon was closed in 1910, and its students were transferred to Seger Colony School.?”? Red Moon thereafter became a day school and continued in operation until July 30,

105.8

SEGER

INDIAN

INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL

Anticipating allotment, Cheyenne and Arapaho Agent Lee proposed the establishment of colonies away from the agency, and he requested John Seger to establish one about fifty miles from Darlington. Arapahoes say, however, that they were banished because of their practice of milking the cows dry every morning before anyone else wakened, and that Seger was enlisted to take the “renegades” across the Canadian River.°? Mary Little Bear was in school at Darlington when Seger assembled the students in the dining hall. With her limited English, she understood him to say that he had “talked to the Agent, and he has asked me to open a school and farming colony. It will be sixty miles away from Darlington, and will be for the families of my former students, who are

mostly Arapahoes.” She was envious of the Arapahoes, because Seger was a good man and she wanted to attend his school.*” Seger selected a beautiful site for his colony in a small, fertile valley southwest of Darlington Agency on the west bank of Cobb Creek in Washita County, fifteen miles south of present-day Weatherford, Oklahoma. The first of Seger’s recruits were sixteen of his former students from the Arapaho school. Before he finished, he had 120 Arapahoes ready to relocate with him, because of the respect and trust they had developed in him over the years.*! They left Darlington in 1886, and as they crossed the Canadian River they collected cottonwood sprigs, which they carried with them and planted in their new “farming Utopia,” called Seger’s Colony.*” The school opened on January 11, 1893, seven years after the colony was established, but provided a shortened school year of less than six months. Parents sent seventy-five children in response to Seger’s request for that number; however, eye infections reduced the average attendance to about sixty-eight. Because the school was new and policy had to be set, parents were invited to determine how to enforce discipline, and they voted to leave it to the discretion of the superintendent. The two teachers were above average because of their previous experience in teaching Indian children, but the students surprised both

teachers and parents by learning “very rapidly, not only in reading and writing but in the knowledge of the English language and how to apply

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it”’ In addition to academic work, the school offered industrial education, which consisted of farm work and care of stock for the boys, who

also assisted the girls in the “kitchen, dining room, and laundry.” Industrial training for the girls consisted primarily of general housework. The most significant aspect of the school was strong Indian parental involvement and support. sate took “a lively interest in the school to which their children were sent.” Seger credited this support as having been won

through the children and Sunday school lessons, as well as

through the “Great Teacher” himself. Christianity was emphasized in the curriculum, and had influenced community members to the point that one of them said: “We have give[n] up the Ghost Dance and joined the Sunday school.” Furthermore, students learned about their new white neighbors and pioneer life by building a miniature homestead on the playground. It was complete with a dugout and a shed, “sheltering the clay cattle and ponies, which have been ingeniously molded by the children.” The reservation had been opened to homesteading only one year before, so having white neighbors was a new experience. Six years before the Seger Colony was founded, Indians had set a precedent of self-governance by adopting a constitution and bylaws, at the suggestion of their agent. In their constitution, they “pledged themselves to send their children to school and to acknowledge the authority of the Government.” The Arapahoes had traditionally been governed by chiefs, though, and this white system of government was at variance with that structure. At some point early in the colony’s history, some Cheyennes joined their Arapaho allies by relocating to Seger, thereby electing to walk the “corn road” encouraged by Little Raven. Just as the Arapahoes had set an example in accepting formal education, they once again were in the vanguard in accepting farming as a substitute economy for that of the buffalo. In the year 1893, the tribes numbered 3,086 (1,042 Arapahoes and 2,044 Cheyennes). Of them 600 could read, 750 could speak English, and 500 had adopted white dress. Forty were engaged in civilized pursuits, and only one of them was a member of a church. Despite giving up the Ghost Dance, it appears that they continued their own religious traditions, and had not exactly stampeded to become Christians.* One of the students at Seger was Mary Little Bear, who ran away from Darlington to “Johnny’s Colony.’ Seger admitted her, assigning her to the sewing room where she was instructed to make “dresses for the girls and suits for the boys.” To her, “Sundays were exciting.”

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On Sunday mornings, they all assembled in the dining room, where the visiting preacher for the day said grace, after which they ate breakfast together. Following breakfast, the boys rearranged the room for church services by moving the tables against the walls and setting the chairs in rows, while the girls washed dishes. “When everything was ready Johnny rang the school bell, and they all gathered for services.” After morning worship services, the girls completed the noon meal they had begun the day before, and the boys rearranged the dining room. Following their Sunday meal of chicken, they had Bible school, which Seger taught. He would read a Bible passage and then ask one of the students to interpret it. Passages from the Old Testament were the most difficult: Mary had never seen lions, and she didn’t know why Daniel was supposed to be afraid of them. And Jael, pounding a tent stake through Sisera’s head! Why would anyone want to do that? Mary knew what a tent stake was, all right. It was hard to pound into the ground, let alone going through a head bone, as hard as stone. Then there was Judith, who cut off a man’s head!*# Indeed, some things about the white men were difficult to understand, especially some aspects of their religion. The day of intense sermonizing and religious instruction ended with a supper of bread and milk. Mary was a student for five years, and in 1898 Seger placed her in charge of the bakery and dairy. During her tenure there, the Reverend and Mrs. Walter C. Roe and Miss Mary Jensen of the Dutch Reformed Lutheran Church began working with the students. Over the years, Arapahoes and Cheyennes consistently supported the church and school. The school was usually filled to capacity, but some parents often enrolled their children late. Seger quoted one man as explaining: “My boy is not late because I did not want him to come to school. On the contrary, I have thanked God every day he has been at home that he had attended this school. He has been my eyes, my hands, my ears.’*° This man was typical of those parents who appreciated Seger’s efforts at educating their children so as to make them functional in white society. Seger was exceptional in his relationships with The People, and Carl Sweezy said: “We liked him so much that we gave him an Arapaho name, ‘Neatha? which means ‘White Man. And he liked us so much that

he in turn named one of his sons Neatha Seger.”*° Finally, after thirteen years as superintendent of the Seger Colony school, he left the position in 1905. Others assumed administration of

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the school, but eventually the school “was discontinued effective June 30,

1932 and reopened as a Day school in the Fall of 1936.47 It remained in operation until the 1940s, when the facilities were leased to the Colony Union Graded School District No. 1,and Seger Indian Industrial School ceased to exist.4® CANTONMENT

BOARDING

SCHOOL

Cantonment Boarding School was located seventy miles from Darlington, in the north central part of the reservation, four and one-half miles northwest of present-day Canton, Oklahoma.The school was built on a knoll covered with buffalo grass, overlooking the North Canadian River less than a quarter of a mile away. The new school building, large enough for 120 to 125 students, was completed in 1898. Cantonment was a government reservation industrial boarding school, “industrial in that one-half of each day is devoted to those pursuits which it is expected the pupils will follow when they return home.’ The educational goals of the school were consistent with national goals in that they were “predicated upon the final abolishment of the anomalous Indian reservation system.’4? When school opened in the new facilities, only fifteen students were in school. Before the year ended, however, the enrollment had in-

creased to 101. One teacher was “slow to do any work asked of her outside of the schoolroom,”’ but aside from her, the others did well in academic work. The assistant industrial teacher was Paul Good Bear, a

full-blood Cheyenne, who was credited with success in working with his people and contributing to the advances made in gardening, farming, and planting “an orchard of 145 trees.” In addition to Mr. Good Bear, other Indians who had returned from off-reservation schools were employed as assistants, though the superintendent stated that their salary of $5.00 per month was inadequate.°? At least these students had not returned to the blanket. At the turn of the century, it was Indian Affairs policy to transfer Indian students to off-reservation schools in the interest of enlarging their aspirations, citizenship, and “ultimate civilization.’ Off-reservation schools,

consequently, increased their enrollment by 676 students; reservation boarding schools also increased by 1,222 pupils. Day schools, however, decreased in enrollment by 248 students.?! As late as 1901, a quarter of a century after the tribe had acquiesced to placing its children in school, Superintendent Horace E. Wilson reported that “the Cheyennes are still at heart opposed to sending their children to school.”°* Cheyenne students were enrolled at Cantonment,

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but not in proportion to Arapahoes. Other than an enrollment figure of 105 for the following year, nothing else is known about the school, because no annual report was submitted, according to Agent George W. H. Stouch. He reported that intense personnel conflicts had created problems that adversely affected the performance of the students and the school.** With the tripartite division of the agency in 1903, the districts became the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, the Seger Superintendency, and the Cantonment Superintendency. Byron E. White was appointed superintendent and special disbursing agent for the 775 people in the Cantonment district, of whom 237 were Arapahoes and 538 were Cheyennes. One of his first actions was to make a space analysis of the school,

and he reported the capacity as being eighty, instead of the higher figures cited earlier by his predecessors.>4 In 1910 the curriculum was geared to the “State course of study,” but after twelve years no student had yet graduated. Industrial training that year was “incidental.” The schools innovatively adapted their instruction in mathematics, however, to Indian needs, such as weighing

stock, purchasing cloth by the yard, marketing grain, and determining the average yield of corn per acre.°? This community-oriented course was unique for that day and age. Three years later, general interest in the school was reported to be good, and attendance exceeded that for previous years, despite high employee turnover and a lack of supplies and clothing. The superintendent predicted that if the government kept pace with the favorable attitude toward the school, “the Cheyennes and Arapahoes need no longer be considered among the most backward and non-progressive Indians in the country.”°° In 1915 the Indians were reported as “awakening to the fact that the school at Cantonment is maintained for them.’ Academic course work approximated the state curriculum, but it also emphasized industrial education through practical work experience. The boys were instructed in various industries, but primarily in agriculture; the girls were thoroughly trained in home economics. Contrary to earlier statements concerning tribal progress, the superintendent recommended continuation of the school because “these Indians are considered among the most backward and non-progressive in the country.’?’ Attitudes had obviously changed. . By 1921 the facilities had badly deteriorated, and a substantial investment was necessary if the school was to continue. Its small, twostory frame building was also used as a dormitory, kitchen, dining room,

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and assembly hall. Prevocational training was offered in accordance with the newly revised government course of study, but it was impeded by the The superintendent nevertheless lack of proper and adequate equipment. registered satisfaction with employees and students. In addition, he recommended that an Indian school of some type be maintained at Cantonment for the next ten years. Because of the high incidence of tuberculosis, though, he felt that the school should be converted into a sanitorium

school and that the Concho School should be designated as the school for the entire agency.°° Hugh L. Scott of the Board of Indian Commissioners inspected the Cantonment Agency and School in 1920. He reported that out of a total population of 733 Cheyennes and Arapahoes, 232 were schoolaged children. Of them eighty-four attended Cantonment, fifty-six went to school elsewhere, twenty-five lived outside the district, ten were physically unable to attend school, and forty-four were smaller children who did not attend school at all. He concluded that the school was “well administered” and the students “happy and contented.” He did, however, comment upon their diet: Their food is good and is plentiful with the exception of milk which should be furnished in plenty from non-tuberculous cows (tested) for all young animals need milk to thrive and especially those with a tendency to tuberculosis, which a large proportion of these children are reported to have in some form.>? As thorough and observant as Scott was about his inspection of the school, he nonetheless exhibited his bias by referring to the Indian children as “animals,” a prevalent but unfortunate attitude of those whose goal it was to “civilize” the Indian in well-managed schools like Cantonment. Flora Warren Seymour, another member of the Board of Indian Commissioners, also inspected the Cantonment School and Agency in 1923, noting that a little over half of the Indians spoke English and that the health conditions were poor. Seymour made six recommendations, ranging from new uniforms for both boys and girls to a small but fully equipped hospital complete with employees. She noted that there were twenty-five Ponca and Otoe students in addition to the Cheyenne and Arapaho students. Superintendent E. J. Bost reported, in the last year of the school’s operation, that Cantonment had a capacity of 100 students and that it had been filled “for the past six years,” although 50 percent of the student

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body were Ponca and Otoe students. He also reported the academic work of the school as “‘very satisfactory,’ and claimed that the students “received the usual industrial training as outlined in the course of study for Indian schools.” Bost emphasized Cantonment’s excellent relations with public schools and questioned the closing of the school. Despite these achievements, however, the Cantonment Boarding School was “closed and discontinued as of June 30, 1927776! CHEYENNE

AND ARAPAHO

SCHOOL

(CONCHO

SCHOOL)

By 1927, twentieth-century education had not altered perceptibly from that of the previous century. Specifically, continuing education goals for Indians were different from those for whites. The white child was “educated to prepare him to take a place prepared for him by his father, while the Indian must make a place for himself in life’’® Still, education was beginning to affect reservation life, as more students abandoned their tribal languages for the foreign English language, adopted the white man’s dress, and subscribed to the white work ethic. Education was

used as a means of eradicating Indianness, a way of civilizing Indians, and, as viewed by humanitarians, a way of saving them from extinction. Federal Indian schools were geographically divided into five districts, each under the responsibility of a supervisor who visited each school at least once a year to assure quality performance of personnel and academic excellence. Cheyenne and Arapaho schools were in the fourth district. In addition to the supervisors, there were five special agents and seven inspectors, who monitored the climate of the schools.°° By 1904 one Indian graduate of Hampton Institute had earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree and was employed at Columbia University, New York, as an instructor. This was a unique situation in view of the BIA policy that “education to work has been the dominant factor; literary training has been given the subordinate place.”4 The emphasis on work predominated at all schools, and the Cheyenne and Arapaho schools were no exception. Two separate schools had been maintained, one for each tribe, since the tribes had first sent their

children to be formally educated in the white man’s schools. Eventually, though, the Arapaho school and the Cheyenne school were consolidated into one, the Cheyenne and Arapaho School, by an act of May 29, 1908.°° This consolidation occurred under the administration of Charles E. Shell,

who, according to Carl Sweezy, “showed nothing of the interest and sympathy with our problems that we had learned to count on, and seemed to be ready to do away with everything about our lives that was Indian.’°°

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CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

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The new combined school was located at Caddo Springs, the site of the old Cheyenne school (about seven miles northwest of what is now El Reno, Oklahoma, in Canadian County), “on a high, somewhat rolling prairie, the ‘second bottom’ of the North Canadian River?’ Agent Shell

recommended “the sale of the Arapaho Boarding School plant, together with surrounding farming land comprising 632 acres, to the Grand Lodge ” transaction “was consummated in Washof Masons of Oklahoma.The ington on or about Feb. 28, 1910,” at a cost of $73,822, with a cash

payment of $25,000.The agency personnel were given ten days’ notice in which to vacate the premises, which caused them much hardship; the

Masons took “possession of the property about March 10, 1910.” The monies derived from the sale were to be used to supplement federal funds for construction and repair at Caddo Springs.°° Like its prototypes, the Cheyenne and Arapaho School used the three-point Indian assimilation approach: civilization, religion, and education, both scholastic and industrial, with an ernphasis on farming and homemaking. It also used the prescribed state course of study as the basis for its curriculum, even though the state course had been “criticized as being unsuitable even for the public schools.’ The highest grade in the new school was equivalent to “fifth grade work in the public schools,” and industrial education was oriented to “practical work” in agriculture and home economics. Religious instruction was characterized as “unusually good,” with the Christian Endeavor Society “a valuable factor in the religious work.”©? When Supervisor W. M. Peterson visited the school in 1912, he reported an enrollment of 139 students (seventy-four boys and sixty-five girls) who were appropriately placed in grades, in which instruction was “not particularly modern” except in the lower grades. All but the very smallest children spoke English, and their schedule was as follows: The morning session begins at 8:30 and lasts until 11:30, with ten minutes intermission, primary pupils being dismissed at 11:00 o’clock. The afternoon session continues from 1:30 until 4:15, with the same length of intermission. An evening hour is held from 7:00 till 8:00 0’clock.””

Students did not have an adequate supply of books, and the blackboards were out of their reach, but they did have enough maps and globes. The school and furniture were

new, clean, and in excellent condition, al-

though lighting was a problem.7! The scholastic component of the school had three teachers, each of whom taught a class held in one of three rooms: “primary grades in

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Kindergarten room, first, second and third grades in Primary room, and fourth, fifth and sixth in Intermediate room.” The superintendent reported that the school met community needs, in that students were taught cleanliness, citizenship, home management, and farming. Furthermore, the school fostered “pride in children” and was a refuge from “the terrors of disease.”’? In 1915, Inspector H. S. Traylor objected to employees playing baseball on the Sabbath, some boys attending prize fights with male employees, the night watchman’s use of “vile and profane language,” and public dancing in the dining room. In his estimation, all of these tended “to lower the standards of the students.”’° Aside from extracurricular objections, the superintendent reported that industrial training was intensified with each succeeding year and that a dairy barn had been built. Electric lights had been installed and a new hospital was “nearing completion.”’+ Because of decreasing enrollment caused by public school emphasis, Cherokee students from eastern Oklahoma were accepted into the school in 1918.

By 1919, however, the school was overcrowded,

with students representing nine different tribes: “Cheyenne, Arapaho, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Sioux, Shawnee, Seneca and Creek?”

With this change in student composition, the school was renamed Concho, the Spanish name for Shell, the agent who was initially responsible for consolidating the school and giving it an intertribal orientation.’ In 1921, there were 343 children between the ages of five and eighteen in the Cheyenne and Arapaho district. Of these, 236 were eligible to attend school; the remainder were either married, ill, or absent

from the area. Of the total school-aged population, 142 were attending Concho, 69 were in public schools, and 25 were in off-reservation schools. The high percentage of school attendance was the result of Oklahoma’s rigid enforcement of its compulsory school attendance law for all except handicapped children.’’ , In 1923 Concho School had the distinction of having “the largest proportion of Indian employees of any schools” visited by Flora W. Seymour of the Board of Indian Commissioners.’® In that same year, one of the matrons had three successful girls’ home building projects singled out as exemplary programs and valuable educational tools.’? The capacity of Concho in 1926 was nominally 200 (100 boys and 100 girls), but with some additions, the school could accommodate

250 students, and it was filled to capacity each year. The school followed the prescribed course of study for Indian schools in both the scholastic

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and prevocational areas. Also, in that year, three grades were added “to include the ninth grade.”®° In 1927 the general superintendent of Indian affairs visited the area, and upon his direction the three Cheyenne and Arapaho districts were reconsolidated into one agency. The headquarters were located at Concho, although Clinton, Oklahoma, had made a bid to have it located there.®! In that same year, Concho instituted the “platoon system” for older pupils beyond the third grade. Under this system, students attended classes for three-fourths of the day and worked the other fourth. It differed from the routine of earlier school days, when students went to classes for half a day and were engaged in practical work experiences (referred to as industrial training) for the other half.8* Concho and Seger Colony Schools were two of eleven schools maintained by the government in Oklahoma, with both schools enrolling more than just Cheyenne and Arapaho students. The student body at‘Concho was made up of children from twelve different tribes, and Seger had students from thirteen tribes.® Indian Affairs educators and administrators had called for an Indian compulsory attendance law for many years. Finally, on February 14, 1929, the 70th Congress enacted Public Law 760, which among its other provisions enforced “compulsory school attendance of Indian pupils, as provided by the law of the State.’84 This federal statute, however, was not new to Cheyennes and Arapahoes, who had agreed to compulsory attendance of their children in the 1867 Medicine Lodge Treaty and had been subject to the Oklahoma law as well. The existence of the law, however, did not guarantee that parents or students would comply. This was true for the so-called outlaws, those nearing the age of eighteen, of whom seven were jailed. Those over age sixteen who could not be sent to reform school were charged with vagrancy, or action was taken against their parents.®° In 1930 the supervisor of Indian schools reported the number of school-aged children at the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency to be 724, broken down as follows:

In public school In Concho Boarding School In Seger Boarding School Off the reservation but reported in school In nonreservation schools

ood 162 Se af #5)

Total in school

614

SCHOOLS ON THE CHEYENNE

AND ARAPAHO

ISLAND

107

Ineligible

+4

Unknown location

10

Eligible but not of compulsory school age

43

Truants®°

13

Total not in school

110

He also reported that both Concho and Seger were overcrowded, recommending that Seger offer grades one to four and Concho grades five to seven. He further recommended that enrollment at Concho be limited to 160, and that only Cheyenne and Arapaho students be enrolled at both schools, “leaving other agencies to solve their own problems.”®’ In that same year, the superintendent requested an additional building, new equipment for the school plant and playground, and additional employees, as sixth-grade students were to “be taken off of work detail.” Complying with the recommendation of the district superintendent, the schools limited their industrial training to “dairying, farming, auto mechanics, shoe and harness repairing, carpentry and farm mechanics.” More than 10 percent of their student enrollment graduated from the ninth grade, and for the first time Concho students competed in the State Senior High School Interscholastic Meet. The highlight of the year was their basketball team’s winning the State Junior High School tournament. In concluding his 1930 report, the superintendent made the following recommendation:

The government schools here should be carried on for at least two more generations. The grandparents of the school children here were taken off the plains and are now very backward. The parents have improved by having been in school. The pupils in school are progressing much farther and when they have control of the home life there will be a different attitude and their children by reason of an education will be able to take theif places in the every day life of the community.*® Among those “backward” grandparents “taken off the plains” was White Buffalo Woman, who was about seventy-eight years old at this time. Some of her children had gone to school; one of them, Fred Mann,

was one of the parents “improved by having been in school.” White Buffalo Woman’s son Fred had been a student at Red Moon and at Chilocco. His second child and only son, Henry Mann, had gone to Red Moon Day School, Sandsville Country School, Pie Flat School, and to

Concho in the early 1930s. He was in that generation “progressing much

108

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

EDUCATION, 1871-1982

farther” than either his father or grandmother. Henry’s children and grandchildren were the two generations that with education would “be able to take their places in the every day life of the community”—that is, the white community. White Buffalo Woman had heard of the different “white fathers” that controlled her life, and had known

some of those at the agency;

however, she was intimately acquainted with their vacillating and arbitrary policies of assimilation. The revered matriarch lived long enough to hear of the good man, John Collier, who became commissioner in 1933, The following year, on May 22, 1934, White Buffalo Woman’s

grandson Henry, whom she had reared, had his first child. A daughter, she was named Standing Twenty Henrietta Mann. Toward the end of her journey on earth, White Buffalo Woman reminded her grandson of their life together: “I raised you, I taught you. You’re married. I’ve seen my [great-]grandchild, my prayers have been answered. I’ve had my time in this world; I have seen hard and good times; I am prepared for death at the end.” “The Great One” blessed both young and old, for White Buffalo Woman and her great-granddaughter shared two good, happy, beautiful, and loving years together. In 1936, the Cheyenne matriarch completed her journey with The People on their road of life. Just as bravely as she had confronted the tragedies at Sand Creek and Washita, she met her death, courageously singing her death song: ““Nothing is hard, only death for love and memories linger on. Don’t cry too much when I am gone.’®? White Buffalo Woman left the child to a journey characterized by a world of education that she never had to experience. Yet the child was of The People, and had been left an enduring legacy of Cheyenneness, though she had to make her place in a dual Cheyenne-white world. This history now becomes the story of Standing Twenty. It is told through her eyes, her thoughts, and her experiences, from the perspective of one educated in the white man’s formal system of education but who carries in her veins the same Cheyenne blood of her great-grandmother, White Buffalo Woman. It remains a Cheyenne story. To both Cheyenne females, then and in retrospect, John Collier was a sensitive and just man. As commissioner, one of his first actions was to amend the regulations governing religion in Indian schools, with the primary intent that children be encouraged but not compelled to attend religious services, both Indian and white. Parents or students over the age of eighteen were to have the option of requesting the services of a specific denomination or missionary, and school facilities were to be made

SCHOOLS ON THE CHEYENNE

AND ARAPAHO

ISLAND

109

available.”” The unique aspect of Collier’s amendment was recognition of the validity of Indian religions. He recognized the human dignity of the Indian, which was apparent in his administrative decisions. In August 1934, Collier and Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes directed memoranda to Indian Service education personnel stating that, despite earlier regulations forbidding such practices, “medieval forms of discipline” still existed in Indian schools. They had evidence of the following violations: ““Beatings by teachers; of Indian children compelled to kneel for many hours on concrete floors; of others required to stand for a quarter of a day immovable with their eyes fixed on a dead wall.” Seven individuals, all from one area, were

accused, and Collier filed charges against five, but all were suspended and faced dismissal pending further investigation. The secretary further stated that “corporal punishment, and stupid humiliating punishments of boys and girls, will not be tolerated’’?! It was a rare combination to find two men as understanding of Indians as Ickes and Collier. The commissioner was not only a humanitarian but a competent administrator as well.

Among

other criteria, his 1937 regulations for

admission to nonreservation boarding schools specified one-fourth degree or more Indian blood quantum, as well as completion of eight grades of schooling or the equivalent.”* Concho was considered a nonreservation boarding school because it accepted students from outside its own Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation area. In 1937 Concho added the tenth grade to its grade offerings, in 1938 the eleventh, and in 1939 the twelfth grade. Thus, by 1939 Concho offered a complete education in grades one through twelve.” Four 1939 Cheyenne and Arapaho graduates wished to remain at Concho another year to do more intensive academic work in preparation for college. Paul L. Fickinger, the associate director of education, discouraged this, however: [*tée! that there ws ancreat deal more which needs to be taken into consideration in connection with preparation for college than merely the determination of the individual to do so. Personally, it seems to me out of all reason that there should be as large a percentage of your graduating class determined to go to college. I am convinced that for most of them it would be a waste of time and money.”4

He ultimately did concede to their remaining at Concho for another year, but only as an experiment, although he was convinced that their The implication of all time would be better spent in vocational pursuits.

110

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

EDUCATION, 1871-1982

this was that the four were intellectually inferior and would surely fail, an attitude that condemned many a Cheyenne and Arapaho to low economic and social status. In September 1952, Concho

School dropped the ninth, tenth,

eleventh, and twelfth grades from its curriculum. The students stayed at Concho, but they were bussed into town by’ the local school district to attend the public high school. They were furnished a hot lunch that, along with the transportation, was reimbursed to the district from state contract funds.” This action was prompted by the policy instituted by Commissioner Dillon S. Myer mandating transfer of “Bureau responsibility for school operation for Indian children to public schools as fast as possible and feasible.””° In the 1950s, the curriculum, philosophy, and goals had changed very little over the more than four decades since the school was consolidated in 1908. Concho was still oriented toward Christianity. In 1956 the Baptist and Mennonite missionaries working among the Cheyennes

and Arapahoes arranged a Bible school “for all of the students as well as the employees’ children on the campus, and working students.” It culminated with graduation exercises and a display of articles and handicrafts manufactured over the duration of the Bible school.”” In addition, later

that year, all the students were presented with New Testaments “with their names engraved in gold.” The only event out of the ordinary was that twelve Concho students attended El Reno High School.”® Christmas 1958 was made more enjoyable with the donation of gifts and candy by some El Reno civic organizations. Some of the children also made trips to Oklahoma City to see Christmas decorations and Santa’s sleigh.”” Concho held a two-hour, morning summer school for twenty Cheyenne and Arapaho students in 1960; the summer was rounded out with two weeks of swimming lessons at the El Reno pool and a oneweek-long Bible school. In addition, the students participated in local and statewide events. For example, in that same year two boys’ baseball teams played in the El Reno City League and some Girl Scout troop members competed in the Lake Murray Kook-E-Olympics. Furthermore, the Explorer Scouts “took an educational tour through the southern states,’ visiting such sites as the Vicksburg battlefield and the battleship Texas, 10° The enrollment in fall 1960 included Arapahoes, Cheyennes, and elementary students transferred from the Riverside and Fort Sill Indian Schools, as well as others from “Idaho, North Carolina, Kansas,” and the

Shawnee Agency.'®! That fall was highlighted by the annual Cheyenne and Arapaho Buffalo Barbecue held at Concho School.!%

SCHOOLS ON THE CHEYENNE

AND ARAPAHO

ISLAND

ant

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Concho had a special Navajo program, but those students were transferred home when facilities were

built on their reservation. In September 1962, a demonstration school, separate from the Concho School, was established at the agency.! It offered remedial work for dropouts and potential dropouts and was in operation until late 1966.!°4 Of all the schools and programs, however, Concho School was the only one that survived, and it is the only government boarding school on what was once the Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation.

Beginning with the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, which was negotiated just a year before White Buffalo Woman was born, the Cheyenne and Arapaho land area grew successively smaller with each treaty. The Medicine Lodge Treaty not only dealt with land, but also specified compulsory education for all children between the ages of six and sixteen. After allotment, The People were interspersed with whites on 160acre tracts in seven counties in western Oklahoma. Over time, several different schools were located on the Chey-

enne and Arapaho land base. The first of these was the Arapaho Manual Labor and Boarding School at Darlington, followed by the Cheyenne Manual Labor and Boarding School at Caddo Springs. Seger Indian Industrial School at Colony was later instituted, followed by Red Moon School near Hammon and Cantonment School near Canton, all in

Oklahoma. The Cheyenne and Arapaho Boarding School, presently known as Concho School, was established at Caddo Springs, now called Concho,

several miles north of the original agency at Darlington. The government created these schools; they flourished, but when policies changed they were discontinued. They touched the lives of both tribes, just as Concho School still does today. Students have been acculturated in varying degrees by the government’s assimilation policy of using Christianity, edu-

cation, and civilization. As seen by White Buffalo Woman and Standing Twenty, however, students still maintain a cultural identification with their tribes, and know that they are Arapaho or Cheyenne. Notes (eo

1. 2.

United States Department of the Interior, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs (hereafter cited as Report of the Commissioner), 1881, at 71-73. Monthly Report of Arapaho Manual Labor & Boarding School, September 30, 1882, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75, Central Classified Files, 31978-12-810 General Services, National Archives and Records Service, Washington, DC (hereafter cited as

tl2

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

EDUCATION, 1871-1982

NARS, RG75, 18530-1882, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, Cheyenne

and Arapaho Agency (hereafter citd as LR, C&A).

Ibid., October 31, 1882, NARS, RG75, 20267-1882, LR, C&A. Ibid., November 30, 1882, NARS, RG75, 22320-1882, LR, C&A. Report of the Commissioner, 1883, at 66-67.

Ibid., 1884, at 75.

:

Ibid., 1889, at 329. Ibid., 1890, at 177-78; 1891, at 348. Ibid., 1890, at xviii; 1891, at 65, 67. Ibid., 1893, at 245, 251. Ibid., 1894, 237, 251. Althea Bass, The Arapaho Way: A Memoir of an Indian Boyhood (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1966), 60. . Alice Marriott and Carol K. Rachlin, Dance Around the Sun: The Life of Mary Little Bear Inkanish, Cheyenne (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1977), 28.

. Report on Agricultural Conditions at Cheyenne & Arapaho Agency, March 31, 1903, Office of the Secretary of the Interior, Indian Division, Record Group 48, Inspection Reports,

1901-1907, National Archives and Records Service (hereafter cited as NARS, RG48). it

Report of Superintendent in Charge of Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, August 20, 1907, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Superintendents’ Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports from Field Jurisdictions, 1907-1938, Microcopy

1011, roll 1, NARS, RG75

(hereafter cited as

M1011). 16.

Report of the Commissioner, 1881, at 73-75.

We

Monthly Report of Cheyenne Manual Labor & Boarding School, September 30, 1882, NARS, RG75, 18530-1882, LR, C&A.

18.

Ibid., November 2, 1882, NARS, RG75, 20267-1882, LR, C&A.

1

Ibid., December 4, 1882, NARS, RG75, 22320-1882, LR, C&A.

20.

Report of the Commissioner, 1883, at 60, 67-68.

Dale

Ibid., 1885, at 78.

22s

Ibid., 1889, at 342.

DS:

Ibid., 1894, at 239-40.

24.

Ibid., 1901, at 418-19.

2s

Statistic of Indian Tribes, Agencies, and Schools, 1903, NARS, RG75, Central Classified

26.

Report of Superintendent, Cheyenne & Arapaho Agency, August 20, 1907, NARS, RG75,

Files, Special Reports (hereafter cited as CFF). M1011, roll 1. UY,

Report of Agricultural Conditions, Cheyenne & Arapahoe Agency, March 31, 1903, NARS, RG48.

28.

Patt Hodge, “The History of Hammon and the Red Moon School,” Chronicles ofOklahoma 44 (1966): 133.

293

Ibid., 138.

30.

Report of the Commissioner, 1900, at 330.

Silke

Ibid., 1901, at 1, 3, 41.

Bye.

Ibid., 1902, at 284.

33:

Ibid., 1903, at 2-3.

34.

Hodge, “The History of Hammon,” 139.

SCHOOLS ON THE CHEYENNE

AND ARAPAHO

ISLAND

3

35:

Report of the Commissioner, 1905, at 298.

36.

Report of Superintendent of Seger Colony School, August 14, 1907, NARS, RG75, M1011, roll 1.

SWE

George Posey Wild, “History of Education of the Plains Indians of Southwestern Oklahoma

Since the Civil War,’ Ed.D. diss., University of Oklahoma,

1941, 198.

38.

Hodge, “The History of Hammon,” 136.

39:

Alfred Whiteman, Sr. (grandson of Chief Little Raven), Arapaho oral tradition collected in the 1960s.

40.

Marriott and Rachlin, Dance Around the Sun, 29.

41. John H. Seger, Early Days Among the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, ed. Stanley Vestal (Norman: University of Oklahoma

42.

Press, 1956), 106-07.

Bass, The Arapaho Way, 57.

43.

Report of the Commissioner, 1893, at 442-45, 702-3.

44.

Marriott and Rachlin, Dance Around the Sun, 49-51.

45.

Report of the Commissioner, 1900, at 499.

46.

Bass, The Arapaho Way, 58.

47.

Annual Report, Cheyenne-Arapaho Agency, 1941, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75, Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, Concho, OK, Federal Archives and Records Center,

Region 7, Fort Worth, TX (hereafter cited as FARC, RG75). Concho Agency, Annual Narrative

48.

Report, 056, FRC351285.

The exact date of closure of the Seger school is not known. Minutes of the CheyenneArapaho Business Committee, April 15, 1942, FARC, RG75, Concho Agency (hereafter cited as C&A, BC), stated that the Superintendent of Colony Public Schools had approached the council about the possible closing of Seger, in which event the public schools would like to use the government facilities and take Indian students into the public school. Later, the Concho Agency stated that the council had discussed “letting the Colony Public School use the Government building belonging to the Seger Day School,” and the contract was explained with the understanding that the land would revert to the tribes “when it was not needed for school purposes”; December 2, 1942, FARC, RG75, C&A, BC. Concho Agency, on December 4, 1946 (FARC, RG75, C&A, BC, FRC 351285), further

stated that the old “Boys’ Building” was being used as a school, but the Colony school board wanted a long-term lease so they could convert the buildings into a modern high school. In Resolution No. 81, January 15, 1947 (FARC, RG75, C&A, BC), the Concho

Agency, authorized the Secretary of the Interior to enter into an agreement with the Colony Union Graded School District No. 1 for the use of about six acres of land and the improvements thereon. Thus, it appears that the Seger Indian Industrial School closed between

1942 and 1946.The

author moved

longer in operation by then.

to Colony in 1947, and the school was no *

49.

Report of the Commissioner, 1899, at 6-8.

50.

Ibid., 1900, at 329-30.

Dae

Education Circular 43, September 19, 1900, NARS, by the Education Division, 18971909.

2s

Report of the Commissioner, 1901, at 318.

Doe

Ibid., 1902, at 282.

54.

Ibid., 1903, at 244, 249-50.

5D:

Annual Report, Cantonment Indian Agency, July 30, 1910, NARS, RG75, M1011, roll 1.

Sos

Ibid., 1913, NARS, RG75, M1011, roll 8.

Die

Ibid., 1915, NARS, RG75, M1011, roll 8.

RG75, Entry 718, Circulars Issued

114

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

EDUCATION, 1871-1982

58.

Ibid., 1921, NARS, RG75, M1011, roll 8.

Sy):

Hugh L. Scott, Report on Cantonment Indian Agency, June 1, 1920, vol. 3, 1919- 19248 Special Reports, Board of Indian Commissioners, NARS, RG75 (hereafter cited as SR, BIC).

60.

Flora Warren Seymour, Report on Cantonment Indian Sage April 18, 1923, vol. 4, 1921-1923, NARS, RG75, SR, BIC. “

61.

Annual Report, Cantonment Indian Agency, July 1, 1927, NARS, RG75, M1011, roll 8.

62.

United States Department of the Interior, Course of Study for the Indian Schools of the United States: Industrial and Literary, prepared by Estelle Reel, Superintendent Indian Schools, Office Indian Affairs (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1901), 264.

63.

Report of the Commissioner, 1903, at 7.

64.

Ibid., 1904, at 27-28.

65.

34 Stat. 444; Cheyenne and Arapaho Agricultural School-Reservation, 1941, FARC, RG75,

Concho Agency, Historical Data.053, FRC 351285. According to this latter document, the schools were not physically combined until 1910, although the law was enacted in 1908. 66.

Bass, The Arapaho Way, 77.

67.

Annual Report, Cheyenne & Arapaho Agency (hereafter cited as Annual Report, C&A

68.

Annual Report, C&A Agency, 1910, NARS, RG75, M1011, roll 14.

69.

Ibid.

70.

W. M. Peterson, Supervisor, Inspection Report, Cheyenne & Arapaho School, Section 3,

Agency), 1917, NARS,

RG75, M1011, roll 14.

October 25, 1912, NARS, RG75,

114527-3-12-810,

CCE

C&A

(hereafter cited as IR,

C&A School). ile

Ibid.

WZ

Annual Report, C&A

US

H. S. Traylor, IR, C&A C&A.

74.

Annual Report, C&A

Use

H. G. Wilson, IR, C&A

Agency, 1913, NARS,

RG75, M1011, roll 14.

School, May 21, 1915, NARS, RG75,

Agency, 1916, NARS,

RG75,

58437-15-806, CCE

M1011, roll 14.

School, January 27, 1919, NARS,

RG75, 8560-19-806,

CCE

C&A. 76.

Annual Report, C&A

Te

Ibid., 1921, NARS, RG75, M1011, roll 14.

78.

Seymour, Report on C&A

Wis

R. L. Spalsbury, Supervisor, IR, C&A

Agency, 1919, NARS, RG75, M1011, roll 14.

Agency, April 14, 1923, vol. 4, 1921-1923, SR, BIC. School, April 7, 1923, NARS,

RG75, 33867-23-

806, CCE C&A.

80.

Annual Report, C&A Agency, 1926, NARS, RG75, M1011, roll 14. The grades were added on a year-by-year basis, however. The seventh grade was added in 1926, the eighth in 1927, and the ninth in 1928, per Hugh L. Scott, Supervisor, Report on C&A Agency, December 15, 1927, vol. 6, 1926-1928, SR, BIC.

81.

Concho, OK, March

14, 1927, FARC,

RG75, Concho

Agency, Historical Data.053,

FRC351285.

S25

Buntin et al. to Commissioner

of Indian Affairs, March 26, 1927, NARS, RG75, 35244-

26-810, CCK General Services (hereafter cited as GS).

83.

Burke

to Congressman

CCEIGS:

F. B. Swank, March

27, 1928, NARS,

RG75,

13501-28-806,

SCHOOLS ON THE CHEYENNE AND ARAPAHO

ISLAND

15

H.R. 15523, Pub. L. No. 760, 70th Cong., approved February 15, 1929; NARS, RG75, 9747-30-801, CCE, GS. . Dias to Bonnin, May 3, 1929, NARS, RG75, 22020-29-806, CCK C&A. Holet to Commissioner

of Indian Affairs, June 20, 1930, NARS, RG75, 32695-30-806,

CCE C&A.

Ibid. . Annual Report, C&A

Agency, 1930, NARS, RG75, M1011, roll 15.

Henry Mann, Sr. (Horse Road), interview by author, September 21, 1979. . John Collier, “Regulations for Religious Worship and Instruction: Amendment January 15, 1934, NARS, RG75, 00-42-816, CCE GS.

No. 2,”

Collier to All Field Supervisors of Education and Superintendents, August 23, 1934; Ickes

to Superintendents, Principals and Teachers in the Indian Service, August 16, 1934, NARS, RG75, 00-34-801, CCE

GS.

Collier to Superintendents et al., June 28, 1935, NARS, RG75, 65295-37-806, CCE GS. Cheyenne and Arapaho

Agricultural School-Reservation,

1941, FARC, RG75, Concho

Agency, Historical Data.053, FRC

351285.

Fickinger to Hobgood, September

13, 1939, NARS, RG75, 59402-39-850, CCK C&A.

“Report on Expediting Transfer of Bureau of Indian Affairs Education Responsibilities in the Anadarko Area (Oklahoma),” .

1953, NARS, RG75,

Myer to All Area Directors, February

5473-52-801, CCE GS.

19, 1953, NARS, RG75, 5473-52-801, CCE GS.

Superintendent, C&A School to Area Director of Schools, July 13, 1956, FARC, RG75, Concho Agency, FRC385390. Ibid., November

14, 1956, FARC, RG75, Concho

Agency, FRC

385390.

Ibid., December

16, 1958, FARC, RG75, Concho

Agency, FRC

385390.

. Ibid., June 14, 1960, FARC, RG75, Concho . Ibid., September

Agency, FRC

16, 1960, FARC, RG75, Concho

385385.

Agency, FRC

385385.

. Ibid., October 18, 1960, FARC, RG75, Concho Agency, FRC 385385. . United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Oklahoma, FARC, RG75, Concho Agency, General & Statistical.000, FRC 179359.

. Acting Area Director

FRC179361.

to Clausen, August 30, 1966, FARC,

RG75, Concho

Agency,

CHAPTER LEGISLATED

INTO

SIX

PuBLic

SCHOOLS

(ew

In 1932 White Buffalo Woman was eighty years of age, and had experienced much that was joyous and tragic in the life of The People. She was among that select group of women of good character who often assisted in childbirth, the beautiful act of bringing new life toThe People, an assurance of their continuity as Cheyennes. She had somehow survived Chivington’s ruthless attack at Sand Creek, Colorado Territory, in 1964 and the equally savage attack of Custer along the Washita River, Indian Territory, four years later. The two tragedies had left a strong impression upon White Buffalo Woman, then a teenager. Until the day she died in 1936, well over half a century later, she never went to sleep without her moccasins on, motivated by nothing more than a desperate sense of survival. This elderly matriarch did not exhibit any hostility to the white race that had deliberately attempted to exterminate The People, but instead accepted them with all their strangeness. Toward the end of her journey on earth, White Buffalo Woman told her beloved grandson, Holy Bird Henry Mann, that she had seen hard and good times in this world and that her prayers had been answered in living long enough to see her great-granddaughter. Henrietta Mann, Holy Bird’s first child, was born in 1934. She was named Standing Twenty for an aunt, but upon graduation from college her name was changed to that of her maternal grandmother, Holy Bird’s long-dead mother. She became known as “The Woman Who Comes to Offer Prayer.” For two years White Buffalo Woman and Standing Twenty walked together with The People on their road of life. The older woman lovingly

wrapped the infant in her small calfskin robe and placed her in her cradleboard, talking to her all the while, telling her about being Cheyenne, of the hard and good times she too would face, and emphasizing her responsibility to The People. In 1936 White Buffalo Woman crossed over into the blissful Cheyenne world above, leaving the child to journey with The People and to live her time in a dual Cheyenne-white world.

118

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Unlike her great-grandmother, Standing Twenty had to view life from two perspectives: one had to be learned, but the other was intuitive, instinctive, and inherited, based on ancient childhood teachings— White Buffalo Woman’s beautiful legacy to the child. From this point on, the great-granddaughter is the observerWhite Buffalo Woman and all historian, although her great-grandmother Cheyenne grandmothers from the beginning of time speak through her. She was born into a period characterized by public school education, and into a time in which the Cheyenne and Arapaho reservation had already been fragmented by allotment. White people surrounded the small island holdings of The People. Four years after passage of the Dawes Act, the Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation was allotted, ushering in a new phase of education. Up to this time Cheyenne and Arapaho children had been educated principally in mission schools, off-reservation schools, and reservation boarding and day schools. They soon faced education in the white territorial school system. In his October 1, 1895, report, the superintendent of Indian schools commented upon the close relationship between allotment and state involvement in Indian education: In the measure in which the allotting of land in severalty to Indians progresses the limits of reservations are narrowed and the reservations themselves invaded by white settlers. These facts render it more and more imperative to enlist the active and sympathetic cooperation of the respective States in the work of Indian education and civilization.!

Superintendent W. N. Hailmann essentially was proposing to transfer Indian education to the control of the states. Acting Agent A. E. Woodson reported in 1896 that “of the 900 children of school age, about 400 have never attended school”—primarily because of inadequate facilities, although more parents were placing their children in schools located near their homes. He further reported that twenty-five students had attended public schools for which the government paid “$10 per quarter for each pupil.” Public school education was encouraged “as a better means for the adoption of civilized habits by constant contact with white children,” but these civilizing efforts were hampered by irregular attendance, the absence of industrial training, and daily association with “the evil influences of camp life?’ In 1896 the government contracted with forty-five schools for the education of 558 students, of whom

413 were

enrolled, with an

LEGISLATED

INTO PuBLic SCHOOLS

9

average attendance of 294.The government had instituted this policy in 1891 by contracting “for the coeducation of Indians and whites in State and Territorial schools.” In that initial year, the government contracted with eight schools for the education of twenty-one students, but only seven

actually enrolled, resulting in an average attendance

of four. In

1901 the government contracted with nineteen schools for the education of 121 students. A total of 257, however, were enrolled, resulting in an

average attendance of 131 students for that year.° Public school contracts were entered into with those schools willing to accept Indian students on the basis that they were “to be instructed in classes with white children and to be entitled to and receive all the privileges of white pupils.” Although the schools willingly accepted the tuition paid by the government, some did not adhere to the conditions of the contract and had to give them up when it was ascertained that Indian pupils were segregated into “separate classes, and in one instance in a separate building.’ Such contracts further prohibited paying tuition for “mixed bloods, whose parents, or either of them, are owners of taxable

real estate in the district.’ The government used the rationale “that if parents are taxpayers the children are entitled to the benefits of the free public schools.” Unfortunately for the policymakers oriented to “civilizing” Indians, few full-blood Indians sent their children to public school in the same proportion as did the “mixed bloods, approximating whites.” In 1906 Francis E. Leupp, commissioner of Indian affairs, conducted a survey on public schools in Indian Country. He reported the largest number, 125, concentrated on or near the Fort Lapwai Reserva-

tion, followed by the Cheyennes and Arapahoes with 77. The total of thirty-two agents and superintendents reported 446 public schools located on or near their reservations that Indian children could attend. Leupp also reported that although most of the schools only counted Indian students actually in attendance, others (Cheyennes and Arapahoes included) were “counted indiscriminately” in local school census figures for funding purposes. He further reported that white people objected “to the Indian pupils on the ground of their dirty habits, their diseases, and their morals,” and that prejudice was blatant at Fort Totten, Hayward, Pala, San Jacinto, Seger, and Tulalip, which prompted many full-blood

parents to send their children to government schools. Consequently, in 1906 the number of students enrolled in public schools was exceptionally

small.° By 1911 about 11,000 Indian children were enrolled in the public schools of this nation, the result of the government policy of having every eligible Indian child in school. Public school enrollment continued

120

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to increase annually so that by 1914, more Indian students were attending public schools than were attending government schools. This condition was explained by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert G. Valentine as follows: I have encouraged the entrance into the public schools of Indian children, because it affords training of the greatest value, and furnishes an excellent opportunity to begin the cooperation of the Government with the State in the education of the Indian that must surely come and which will hasten the solution of the Indian problem. State authorities are more and more coming to a full realization of the necessity of an early assumption of their obligation with reference to Indian education.® Whenever possible, the government worked out cooperative financial arrangements for education by the states, either by paying tuition, providing land and facilities, employing some teachers, or furnishing transportation. Such assistance was rendered with the idea that it would be withdrawn when it was no longer necessary. During the following decade, the government intensified attempts to transfer all responsibility for the education of Indian children to the states. By 1926 tuition payments to individual school districts reached approximately $311,000, for which some

10,340 Indian children were

being educated at government expense in 737 separate school districts. This figure did not include the additional monies paid from tribal funds for the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota and the Five Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma.’ Federal appropriations for the public school education of American Indian students had increased annually, but the goals of such an education, like the types preceding it, were still to “civilize” and homogenize. The public schools were no different in their attempts to transform American Indian children into marginal, dark-skinned white people, completely disregarding differences in orientation and world view that the tribal people had evolved since the beginning of time. As devastating as the denigration ofAmerican Indian cultures was the critical socioeconomic condition of tribal people in the 1920s. The allotment of lands had taken its toll on the affected tribes, as had the

assimilationist policies espoused by state and federal governments. John Collier, a well-known reform leader and commissioner of Indian affairs

from 1933 to 1945, characterized governmental policy as historically militaristic, in that it evolved from the Indian wars. He stated that it “did

violence to the simple facts of human life and human nature,” thrusting

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“Indians into an economic, spiritual, and social no-man’s land” and re-

ducing “some of them to almost psychopathic resentment, hopelessness, and apathy.” Such policies, he commented, had a tragic effect upon tribal economies, culture, and social and political institutions.

On the economic side, the historic policy systematically destroyed the Indian estate and thereby the possibilities of Indian self-support, first by treaty violation and later by the legalized capture of Indian lands through the allotment system. Culturally, it sought to wipe out Indian ways of life and Indian modes of thought, utterly regardless of their significance, beauty, or adaption to the intellectual and spiritual needs of the Indians. On the civic side, it sought to destroy Indian social and political customs and institutions, replacing them ... with a rigid and unyielding bureaucratic despotism in which the Indians themselves were expected to play none but a submissive role, and against which they had no legal protection or appeal.®

The genocidal effects of assimilation resulted in cries for reform to which the secretary of the interior, Hubert Work, responded on June 12, 1926. He commissioned the Institute for Government Research, now

the Brookings Institution, to conduct a comprehensive study on the socioeconomic conditions of American Indians and the effectiveness of the federal administration of Indian affairs. Dr. Lewis Meriam was assigned as the technical director for the study.” The report, entitled The Problem of Indian Administration and also known as the Meriam Report, was submitted on February 21, 1928. This monumental study stands as an indictment of the government’s assimilation policy that condemned American Indians to a disadvantaged life of poverty, suffering, discontent, ill health, and inferior education. This unfortunate situation, according to the sur-

vey team, was caused primarily by inadequate funding that did not allow the employment of necessary and qualified personnel. The findings of the survey team were staggering; the introductory statement to the report is representative of their conclusions. They stated that “an overwhelming majority of the Indians are poor, even extremely poor, and they are not adjusted to the economic and social system of the dominant white civilization.” Their initial recommendation,

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which pertained to the Indian Service, was to focus upon the task of education by developing a “comprehensive, well-rounded education program” directed to both adults and children, emphasizing the importance of family and community. Such a program was to prepare Indians “to merge into the general population,” but it was to be done in a manner that respected “the rights of the Indian ...as a human being living in a free country.”!° The Meriam Report was important in that it documented Indian Office failure to properly carry out its federal trust responsibility for the well-being of American Indian peoples. Its further significance lies in the fact that it provided the basis for the development of effective federal Indian policy in the mid-1930s. John Collier, who became commissioner of Indian affairs in 1933,

advocated Indian legislation that treated “Indians as normal human beings capable of working out a normal adjustment to and a satisfying life within the framework of American civilization, yet maintaining the best of their own culture.” This new policy, codified in the Indian Reorganization Act of June 18, 1934, had three major objectives: “Economic rehabilitation of the Indians, principally on the land. Organization of the Indian tribes for managing their own affairs. Civic and cultural freedom and opportunity for the Indians.”!! The act reversed the allotment process and prevented further erosion of the Indian land base. It also reversed the historic practice of genocide, deicide, and cultural denigration. Collier summarized the policy contained in the Indian New Deal as follows: That Indian property must not pass to whites; that Indian organization must be encouraged and assisted; that Indian family life must be respected and reinforced; that Indian culture must be appreciated, used, and brought into the stream of American culture as a whole; and that the Indian as a race must not die, but

must grow and live.!? Except for a few minor points, the Indian Reorganization Act excluded the native and tribal groups of Alaska and Oklahoma, which necessitated subsequent congressional legislation to include the tribal groups in those states. The Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act, sometimes referred to as the Thomas-Rogers Act, was enacted on June 26, 1936, and extended the provisions of the Indian Reorganization Act to the tribes located in that state. The act was “to promote the general welfare of the Indians of the State of Oklahoma, and for other purposes.” Section 3 provided that “any recognized tribe or band of Indians residing in

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Oklahoma shall have the right to organize for its common welfare and to adopt a constitution and bylaws, under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe.”!?The Cheyenne-ArapahoTribes of Oklahoma subsequently adopted a constitution and bylaws, which were ratified on September 18, 1937, thereby organizing under a white form of government that completely supplanted their traditional forms of governance. The Johnson-O’Malley Act, named for its sponsors, might be viewed as companion legislation to the Indian Reorganization Act, as the two laws were passed two months apart. The Johnson-O’Malley Act, adopted by Congress on April 16, 1934, authorized the secretary of the interior to cooperate with the various states in the education of Indian children. It further authorized the government to provide the states with funding to meet the special needs of American Indian children. Instead of continuing the practice of contracting with separate school districts for the education of Indian children, the Johnson-O’ Malley Act centralized the process. It authorized the secretary of the interior to contract with states or territories “for the education, medical attention,

agricultural assistance, and social welfare, including the relief of distress of Indians in each State or Territory, through the qualified agencies of each State or Territory.’!+ The act was amended in 1936 to include contracts with “state schools and state or private corporations, agencies, or instructions.” The 1928 Meriam Report, with its recommendations for reform in Indian Affairs, provided the basis for the reform legislation embodied six years later in the Indian Reorganization Act and the Johnson-O’ Malley Act. The political climate was changing primarily because of the just and humane attitudes of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s commissioner of Indian affairs, John Collier. Collier was an advocate of Indian rights and during the twelve years he served as commissioner, American Indians were not directly threatened with coércive assimilation. White Buffalo Woman’s great-granddaughter was born into this political climate on May 22, 1934, the month intervening between the passage of the two pieces of legislation. Action taken in faraway “Washingdyne” had a tremendous effect upon the education this child was to receive in southwest Oklahoma on the westernmost edge of the reservation. Standing Twenty was the oldest grandchild of Spotted Horse Fred Mann and the oldest child of Henry and Lenora (Wolftongue) Mann, who had met at Concho Indian School and married. The child spoke Cheyenne before she learned to speak English, and she was looked upon

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as a special child. In the traditional Cheyenne way, her parents elected not to have another child for many years (in this instance ten years), so that she could be given undivided love, attention, training, and the best of Cheyenneness. For five years, her mother, father, and extended family

participated in teaching her all that it meant,to.be one of The People, molding a strong sense of identity. At some point in those five years, she learned to speak English, probably because White Buffalo Woman had sent her son and grandchildren to the white man’s schools and they could speak varying levels of English. Henry received a federal loan to go into farming, and he was authorized to move his family into an older, two-story home located one-half mile west of the former Red Moon School. Concho’s industrial training was beneficial; Henry became a successful young farmer and his wife Lenora was an excellent homemaker. They made a home for all of Henry’s family, with his father helping with the farmwork and his sisters assisting in housekeeping, poultry tending, and gardening chores. Standing Twenty grew up in a stable and happy home with an extended family. The family lived on the western edge of Custer County, the area in which the most conservative Cheyennes had taken their allotments. In 1934 the Cheyenne and Arapaho jurisdiction encompassed portions of eight counties in southwestern Oklahoma: Blaine, Caddo, Canadian, Custer, Dewey, Kingfisher, Roger Mills, and Washita Counties. Tribal

allotments were checkerboarded throughout these counties, covering an area approximately ninety by seventy-two miles, with the longer portion running east and west. In response to a directive from Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier, George C. Wells, the supervisor of Indian education for Oklahoma, conducted a study of school attendance in the Cheyenne and Arapaho jurisdiction early in 1934. His report contained eight recommendations, some of which were directed to the Cheyenne and Arapaho School at Concho. He recommended that Concho School “be used indefinitely to supplement the work of the public schools.” He also recommended more adequate supervision of students enrolled in both public and boarding schools, specifically continuation of home visits for those attending public schools so as to promote more regular attendance. He further recommended that funding be continued for Indian children attending public schools, because the schools were “‘well located and compare favorably with those in other sections of the state.” Based upon an absence of professionals among the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, his final recommendation was to develop their leadership potential by encouraging college education.

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According to the Wells School Attendance Study, 104 children between the ages of six and eighteen were not in school in 1933. Of these, sixty-five were boys and thirty-nine were girls. Furthermore, of those in school during the 1933-1934 school year, only thirty-six of those who were nineteen years of age or older had continued in school. During the preceding five-year period, 180 had continued in school beyond eighteen years of age. In addition, 268 Cheyenne and Arapaho students were enrolled in public schools in 1933, and they maintained an average daily attendance of approximately 182.The tuition paid to school districts that year was $2,690.85. An additional $1,102.95 was spent on school lunches for 201 Indian children. Another $233.66 was expended on clothing items for forty-four students and $340.91 was spent for textbooks and supplies for 112 Indian pupils. A total of $1,677.52 was expended for lunches, clothing, textbooks, and supplies for the period endme December 31,1933. Supervisor Wells also reported that eight Cheyenne and Arapaho tribal members had graduated from public high schools in the preceding five-year period. It was interesting to note that of the eight graduates, only one of them was a full-blood; the remaining seven were of mixed blood, with two having as little as one-sixteenth degree Cheyenne or Arapaho blood. This fact appears to substantiate the position that mixedbloods preferred to send their children to public schools and full-bloods preferred to send their children to government schools.!° While white educators attempted to make the transition to teaching the culturally different child, and the government annually appropriated increased funds to states for the education of Indian children, traditional

Cheyenne and Arapaho leadership concerned itself with other than education-related matters. The mayor of New York City, Fiorello H. LaGuardia, and his wife visited the Cheyennes and Arapahoes in 1938. In an elaborate ceremony conducted by two chiefs and witnessed by some schoolchildren, Mayor LaGuardia was honored by being given an Indian name and a gift of an Indian headdress. He thus “accepted membership in the Cheyenne-Arapaho tribe” and was made a chief. His name appeared on a list of Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs along with that of Baldwin Twins, Keeper of the Cheyenne Sacred Arrows, and White Man, an Arapaho chief also known as White Shirt.'7 Standing Twenty had been taught to respect the chiefs, whose authority within the tribal structure had been established by their great prophet Sweet Medicine. Their decisions were regarded as final and binding upon the entire tribe. The People respected authority and over a long period of time had developed sophisticated law ways that provided for

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tight social control.!® This experience translated into submission to the strangeness of white authority and its inconsistent and transient laws. It was precisely this inconsistency and transience that puzzledThe People in their relationships with whites. Treaties, executive orders, the U.S. Constitution, Supreme Court decisions, statutes, regulations, ordinances, and rules governed every facet

of the existence of Indian peoples. This was true particularly in the area of education. Cheyennes and Arapahoes had agreed to compulsory education in the 1867 Medicine LodgeTreaty, their last treaty with the United States. All children between the ages of six and sixteen were to attend school, and within four years of the treaty the Arapahoes and a handful of Cheyennes had placed some of their children in school. However, it was not until 1876, when the buffalo were virtually extinct on the southern plains, that the Cheyennes as a tribe gave their children to the white man to be educated in his ways. In carrying out its treaty provisions concerning education, the United States government not only developed its own school system, but it also enacted legislation to provide funds for the public school education of Indian children. Additional regulations had to be formulated for the use of such funds, though, and by the mid-1930s, “50% of the tuition

money paid by the federal government to public schools” was to be used for enrichment programs: The enrichment program may include the employment of special teachers to assist in overcoming language and social deficiencies of Indian children, extending school program to community activities, purchasing of extra instructional supplies and library books for special use for Indian children for the entire school year.!?

Such monies were to be deposited in an account separate from the general maintenance fund and were to be used solely to enrich the educational experience of Indian children. In 1938 there were 20,051 American Indian children of school

age (that is, between the ages of six and eighteen) residing in Oklahoma. Of them, 78 percent or 13,495 were enrolled in public schools, and the

federal government paid $384,314 in tuition for 11,559 of them. Included in the numbers for whom tuition was paid were 2,552 Indian children attending school in the four western jurisdictions: Cheyenne and Arapaho,

Kiowa,

Pawnee, and Shawnee.

In the Cheyenne

and

Arapaho jurisdiction alone, tuition was paid for 335 of the 448 students enrolled in the public schools of that area.

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7

The school districts in the four western jurisdictions used their enrichment funds for four basic purposes, broken down into “instructional supplies, $15,162; library books, $9,447; special teachers, $3,864; ex-

tending the school program to the community, $3,657.” The following represented ways in which some program monies were used: To pay the salaries of teachers of agriculture, music, and remedial reading; to purchase reading material, library books, textbooks (for indigent Indian children), supplementary readers, tools, materials for industrial arts, home economics, agriculture, science and commercial work; to

extend school terms; to provide visual education programs; and to carry on 4-H club work during the summer months.”” Most public school officials responded favorably to the enrichment program concept. Some school boards even went so far as to use portions of their general maintenance funds to supplement program monies for the educational enrichment of American Indian students. This precedent, it was predicted, would result in “superior” schools in the state. Enrichment funds for Cheyenne and Arapaho students were used primarily to purchase “library books, pencils, and papers,” as well as to pay for school lunches. Funds were also used to “supplement the salaries of teachers in one-room schools to make the term nine months.”?! Public school tuition contracts were entered into with thirty-three school districts in the Cheyenne and Arapaho jurisdiction in fiscal year 1938, for a total of $21,987;

Hammon

School District #66, located in Roger

Mills County, was one of them. Hammon contracted for three Indian pupils, for which the district received twenty-five cents a day for tuition and twelve cents a day for lunches. Ten other students in the area attended Pie Flat and fifteen attended Quartermaster, two other school

districts with which the government had contracted for the education of Indian children.?? Standing Twenty heard her brothers and sisters (cousins, actually) and aunts talking about school. She was intrigued by the entire concept of the white man’s school and thought it would be wonderful to learn other things about them.

After all, she could already count to 100 in

their language and knew her ABCs, colors, and several nursery rhymes; besides, in her childlike mind, she could speak good Cheyenne because her grandfather told her so, and he had told her too that she was as good as any white person. Only four years old in May 1938, she persistently asked to go to school. Finally, her parents consented, but only if Ralph

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Jones, the education field agent, felt she could, for they knew he would

certainly say she was too young. Standing Twenty and her mother were waiting for Mr. Jones on his next scheduled trip to Hammon.The mother told him her situation, and much to her surprise Mr. Jones agreed to the.child’s going to school. He added in a whisper, supposedly not loud enough for Standing Twenty to hear, that “she would surely get tired and they could take her back out when she did.” Thus Standing Twenty left the secure Cheyenne world of White Buffalo Woman’s time and entered a dual world split between Cheyenne and white. She was no longer Yoeh-Yoe, a shortened childhood form of her Cheyenne name; she was to use her white name, like every white child, and henceforth be called Henrietta.

She was a happy child of a little over five years that morning in September 1939 as she was taken to the school in Hammon. It was not difficult for her to make friends, but she quickly learned that children could be cruel even if they were Cheyenne. Because Henrietta’s family did not live in the Indian camp northwest of Hammon, she was referred to as the “white girl” by her own kinsmen. Because she was Cheyenne, however, she was called a “dumb, dirty Indian” by her white classmates. School was not as happy as she imagined, and a little disillusionment began to build. She often went home and cried bitterly in her grandfather’s arms, and he always reassured her of her self-worth. As young as she was, she determined that she was in school because she wanted to learn wonderful, new things. It was not her fault that she was Cheyenne and did not live in a tent. Henrietta always sat quietly in the back of the room, never daring to bring attention to herself. She never volunteered answers, even though she knew them, but the teacher never called on her—or on any other Cheyenne students, for that matter. Her young mind sensed that the teacher thought all Indians were dumb and invisible. Furthermore, only white students were asked to dust the erasers, wash the blackboard, carry

notes to the office, or perform teacher privileges. Again, she sensed the teacher’s attitude that Indians were backward and incompetent. In the meantime her Cheyenne lessons continued at home. An aunt who spoke excellent Cheyenne came to live with the family. As soon as Henrietta came home from school and took off her school clothes,

she and her Aunt Ruth went into the living room, where school continued. Learning at home was fun, and even though her aunt was not trained

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as a teacher, Henrietta much preferred her method of education to that

of white teachers. At the age of five, Henrietta decided that she was going to be a teacher, and a good one, even though she had no role model except perhaps her Aunt Ruth. With time, Henrietta’ disillusionment grew and she became a loner, thrust into a marginality from which she never recovered. In her fourth year she went home and announced that she was tired of school and her parents could take her out as Mr. Jones had said. They explained that it could not be; she had insisted upon going to school and she had to stay. She cried heartbrokenly, knowing that the Indian half of her world could be so beautiful and good. Yet the other half, the strange one she so much wanted to learn about, considered the Cheyenne half ugly, dirty, dumb, and backward. Not even her wise and loving grandfather could console her. He could only repeat to her the words of his mother, White Buffalo Woman, who had told him to search for the good in life because it was too easy to see the bad. She accepted her parent’s decision, but she had no alternative. After all, she was still fascinated with the whole aspect of learning new things and she became an avid reader, which later became an excellent defense mechanism for her marginality. Perhaps the thing she disliked most about school was the lunches, particularly spinach. Her parents had to pay five cents for each lunch, even though the government was paying the school twelve cents for the Indian children’s lunches. During all her school years at Hammon, she was never aware of any enrichment program

for Indian students; if they existed, she was never asked to

participate. Henrietta maintained regular attendance, although she had to walk one mile to the bus stop. Shortly after she entered school, she contracted trachoma, a contagious eye disease prevalent among the children of that

area in both boarding and public schools. One day all Cheyenne children were called out into the hall and their hair was checked for lice. Though she had none, it was humiliating to ride the bus home and be confronted with taunts from white children about “lousy Indians.” Fifteen Indian students were enrolled in the Hammon public school system the year Henrietta entered in 1939. They represented only a fraction of the 445 Cheyenne and Arapaho students enrolled in forty different public schools within the jurisdiction. Thirty-five of the forty schools The education field agent, Mr. Jones, noted in his were contract schools. period ending November 30, 1939, that many the for bimonthly report

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children had been absent because they had to have their eyes treated, and that he had “had four Indian children fitted with glasses.” He also delivered “clothing to needy Indian school children.” In addition, he enrolled one Indian girl in beauty college at El Reno and negotiated with a business college to enroll some Indian students.” The government expected all children to be in a school of some type, but it sometimes failed to provide necessary services. An example of this was Clinton, Oklahoma, in 1941. Forty-six Cheyenne and Arapaho students were enrolled in the Clinton City Schools; six were in high school. The government was unable to arrange for their lunches. Consequently, the members of an Indian Women’s Club took upon themselves the responsibility of providing lunches for these children. They arranged for the use of a rent-free room, which was a part of the Indian Clinic, were paid five cents per day per pupil, and the WPA furnished commodities. The women divided themselves into shifts of three to prepare and serve lunch. On the day the Indian affairs supervisor of Indian education visited, they served “liver and bacon, mashed potatoes, cream gravy, biscuits, milk, and cherries for dessert.’ The supervisor was impressed with what the women were doing and commented: “I have seen many interesting things in the twelve years I have been in the Service but doubt if I have seen any more helpful enterprise carried on by the Indians themselves or one that is doing individual Indian children more good?’*4 Unfortunately, the historical attitude of most bureaucrats and white people has been to stereotype Indians and underestimate their capabilities. They have not attempted to understand that Indians cherish their children and live for and through them. The women only did what they had to; no one else was going to see that their children were fed. In early 1943, Cheyenne and Arapaho children attending four schools in Canadian County were tested for tuberculosis, and it was concluded that “the Indian children are in good health.” The superintendent of schools observed that “they certainly attend well and are average in their studies.”*° That same year, the education field agent reported that parents were taking more interest in their children’s education. His report also included the following statistical information: There are 861 Indian children eligible for attending school in the Cheyenne-Arapaho jurisdiction. Of these 778 are enrolled in school, 537 are in public schools and 210 in the C & A Boarding School. 15 are in non-reservation schools, 11 in private and mission

schools, 2 in the

Sanitorium, 1 in public school, and two in college. 48

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children are not enrolled and there are 35 of which we have no definite information.”°

Federal monies were used that year for several educational-related purposes, the uses of which were outlined by Mr. Jones in four meetings with Indian parents. Clothing was purchased for 15 Cheyenne andArapaho children and 249 were furnished with lunches. In addition, books and

supplies were provided to about 350 of them.?’ Tribal students attended institutions ranging in size from oneroom schools to “fully equipped 12 grade schools.” Ten students attended an especially attractive facility at Geary in Blaine County, which had an excellent library and offered agriculture, home economics, and commercial courses in addition to the usual curriculum. Not all were as good as the school in Geary, but most of them in the western portion of the reservation were well equipped with maps, globes, and charts. The school term within the jurisdiction usually lasted nine months, though some dismissed school for cotton picking so that children could help the family economy.”° The government’s humanistic orientation to Indian education did not last long, and it began a regression to pre-Meriam policy after John Collier left office. In his resignation, submitted on January 19, 1945, Collier summarized his three terms as commissioner under President Roosevelt in the following words: “Through your leadership and that of Secretary Ickes, it has been possible to establish democracy and practical opportunity for the hundreds of Indian tribes. The tide of Indian life was flowing toward cultural and physical extinction; it is now flowing strongly and securely toward greater life.”?? With the ending of World War II, policy shifted once more toward assimilation, and intensified with the appointment in 1950 of Dillon S. Myer as commissioner of Indian affairs.°° He and his successor, Glenn L. Emmons, were assimilationists, and they reinstituted pre-Meriam policies apparently with a vengeance. Loans for college students formerly authorized under the Indian Reorganization Act were discontinued. Federal schools in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Idaho, and Washington

were closed. Termination was introduced and some groups lost their status as federally recognized tribes. With relocation, many Indians disappeared into the impersonal urban sprawls of such cities as Los Angeles, Chicago, Oakland, and Minneapolis. Henrietta’s parents relocated to Los Angeles. After a six-year absence, Henrietta returned home to Hammon in her junior year and graduated as salutatorian of the 1951 class. She

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

cw,

EDUCATION, 1871-1982

entered Southwestern Oklahoma State University, Weatherford, and com-

pleted a bachelor of arts degree in July 1954. White Buffalo Woman's will to survive lived in her great-granddaughter. By getting a degree, she achieved an honor worthy of a name change, and her Cheyenne name Who Comes to Offer Prayer. Despite all attempts to became The Woman de-Indianize her, she maintained her tribal ties; such is the tenacity of

Cheyenne culture, as well as.that of Arapaho or any other tribe. Today, Cheyenne and Arapaho students continue in the public school system, enmeshed in a huge web of white people just as Sweet Medicine prophesied centuries ago. Notes Me

1.

United States Department of the Interior, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs (hereafter cited as Report of the Commissioner), 1895, at 337.

2ay

Ibid: W1896,. at 245.

3.

Ibid., 1901, at 25. The number of pupils contracted for in 1891 is not known accurately. The table indicated 91 but the narrative gave the figure of 21. Ibid., 1905, at 46. Ibid., 1906, at 46-47. Noid

eate29 SOM sate:

Ibid., 1926, at 7.

Ce ae John Collier, “A Birdseye View of Indian Policy: Historic and Contemporary,’ 1940, Buee reau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75, Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, Concho, OK, Federal Archives and Records Center, Region 7, Fort Worth, TX (hereafter cited as FARC,

RG75). Concho

Agency, Cheyenne and Arapaho Business Committee—Miscellaneous

Correspondence.067.4,

FRC351285.

9.

Lewis Meriam et al, introduction to The Problem of Indian Administration, by Frank C. Miller (1928; reprint, New York: Johnson Reprint, 1971), xi.

10"

Ibid 3-6; 21-22.

11.

Collier, “Birdseye View of Indian Policy.”

12.

Ibid.

13.

United States Department of the Interior, Ten Years of Tribal Government under I.R.A.,Tribal Relations Pamphlets—, prepared for the Indian Service by Theodore H. Haas (Lawrence, KS: Haskell Institute Printing Department, 1947), 43-45; FARC, RG75, Concho Agency,

Legislation Affecting Indians, FRC351286. 14.

United States Department of the Interior, A History of Indian Policy, prepared for the Bureau of Indian Affairs by S. Lyman Tyler (Washington DC: GPO, 1973), 129, quoting Report of the Commissioner, 1934, at 90.

15.

Margaret Szasz, Education and the American Indian: The Road to Self-Determination, 1928— 1973 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1974), 213, quoting 49 Stat. 1458.

16.

Report of Study of School Attendance under the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, Concho, Oklahoma by George C. Wells, January 31, 1941, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75, Central Classified Files, 31978-12-810 General Services, National Archives and Records

LEGISLATED Service, Washington, DC

INTO PuBLIC SCHOOLS

eis}

(hereafter cited as NARS, RG75), 54048-33-800, Central Clas-

sified Files, Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency. ie

Berry to LaGuardia, May

16, 1938, FARC,

RG75, Concho

Agency, Tribal Adoptions

(Constitutions & By-Laws).068, FRC351285. 18.

A comprehensive study of Cheyenne law way can be found in Karl Nickerson Llewellyn and E. Adamson Hoebel, The Cheyenne Way: Conflict and Case Law in Primitive Jurisprudence (Norman: University of Oklahoma .

Press, 1941).

Wells to School Officials, Treasurers, and Others Interested, November

17, 1936, NARS,

RG75, 44610-36-803, CCF, C&A. 20.

Seventh Annual Report of the Superintendent of Indian Education to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1938, FARC, RG75, Concho Agency, Reports-Field Supervisors.055, FR(C351285.

aR

Thompson to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, February 10, 1938, NARS, RG75, 10376-

37-803, CCE C&A. .

Armstrong to Berry, September

22, 1937, NARS,

RG75,

10376-37-803, CCE

C&A.

. Bi-monthly Report of Education Field Agents, Ralph H. Jones, November 30, 1939, FARC, RG75, Concho Agency, Reports-Education Field Agent.052.5, FRC351285. Thompson

to Fickinger, February

Thompson

to Commissioner

1, 1941, NARS, RG75, 28266-39-803, CCE C&A.

of Indian

Affairs, March

11, 1944, NARS, RG75, 30885-

42-803, CCE C&A.

. Activities of the Education Field Agent during the Fiscal Year 1942—43, June 30, 1943, NARS, RG75, 30885-42-803, CCE C&A. . Report of Education Field Agent, Ralph H. Jones, December 27, 1943, FARC, RG75, Concho Agency, Reports-Education Field Agent.052.5, FRC351285. Thompson

to Commissioner

of Indian

Affairs, March

11, 1944, NARS, RG75, 30885-

42-803, CCH C&A. 29.

Collier to President Roosevelt, January 19, 1945, FARC, RG75, Concho Agency, Min-

i0p

Dillon S. Myer had formerly been in charge of the War Relocation Authority, which was the agency responsible for relocating Japanese-Americans to concentration camps in the United States.To the office of commissioner of Indian affairs, Myer brought experience in the relocation of individuals and families, which was included in the policy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs when it relocated American Indians into urban areas in the early 1950s.

utes Cheyenne-Arapaho

Business

Committee,

1945, FRC351285.

SI

(HAP TERED EVEN “THE PEOPLE” SPEAK AND ACT ON EDUCATION (er

In the 115 years since the Cheyennes and Arapahoes signed the treaty at Medicine Lodge in 1867, education has been provided for all but the initial four years. The treaty stipulated that all children between the ages of six and sixteen were to be placed in school to receive an English education. The parties’ perceptions of education differed, however. Whites perceived it as a “civilizing” process whereby all vestiges of Indianness were to be removed. The People ideally expected such an education to make them functional in white society while simultaneously permitting them to remain Cheyennes and Arapahoes. Historically, biculturalism was not emphasized and Cheyenne and Arapaho children were directed away from their unique origins as The People. The assimilationist philosophy of white schools, consequently, has caused many Cheyennes and Arapahoes to view education with ambivalence, as articulated by the Keeper of the Cheyenne Sacred Arrows: Our children have gone to theVeho [White Man] schools. Some

have become

our eyes, ears, and mouths. Others

have learned the White Man’s ways and have turned away from their own people. Many others . .. do not know if they are Tsistsistas [Cheyenne] orVeho, and they are not at home in one world or in the other. ! The Keeper of Sacred Arrows saw the advantages of the white man’s education in those individuals who chose to assume the role of cultural interpreters. He also saw its destructiveness for those who were thrust into cultural marginality and were neither Indian nor white. They were the individuals Sweet Medicine had said would know nothing. The formal education process itself was a completely new experience for Cheyenne and Arapaho children, who immediately confronted a language barrier. Furthermore, they were expected to dress in awkward, confining clothing while learning about the white man and his strange ways in a setting removed from family and all that was familiar.

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Miriam Mann was among those early students. Her entire name was Crooked Nose Woman Miriam Mann and she was born in 1887 and is the only surviving child of White Buffalo Woman. She is also the greataunt of Henrietta Mann, with whom she shared her memories of early educational experiences. She recalled that when the agency superintendent asked for the children, an education agreement was negotiated between the government and the tribe. The tribe was to benefit by using the students as interpreters for the elderly. In return, the government was to care for, feed, clothe, and educate the children. They consequently went to school. Miriam entered the Red Moon Boarding School at the age of ten and was baptized almost at the door. Conversion was a part of the threepoint assimilation policy of educating, civilizing, and Christianizing Indians. The school was in session for ten months, from September to the end of June, which gave students a two-month summer vacation. Their coursework consisted of reading, writing, and arithmetic, and later in-

cluded history, which was added at the request of a group of Cheyennes referred to as Arapahoes, who lived in the west camp. Red Moon offered only three grades; when students had completed the three grades, they started all over again, repeating all three grades. They were allowed to go home only on Sunday afternoons, following morning church services, and they were expected to return in the evening. In addition to the three Rs, Miriam learned to sew and to knit.

She stated that one year they supplied the entire school with stockings. Once, when

she was working in the sewing room, one

of the ladies

started a fire while burning paper. Miriam ran out of the sewing room, unraveling a large ball of yarn behind her all the way out into the yard. After the fire was put out, she had to retrace her steps and roll the yarn back into a ball—a task she did not particularly enjoy. She also remembered another fire, which occurred at night and from which she fled in her long nightgown, chuckling at her state of dress as well as that of the others. While she was at Red Moon, a three- or four-member delegation went to Washington, D.C., to meet with government officials about

tribal business, which apparently included discussions about education. When they returned, they brought back uniforms that the boys and girls thereafter had to wear when in school. Red Moon was not just school. Miram stated that she would babysit every Saturday night when the teachers had a dance. She was not paid in money, but instead was paid with leftover refreshments, such as

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(Ey

oranges, cookies, cakes, and other sweets. Her friends always waited up for her, sitting in the dark, and they had a late-night sugar feast from her labors. In addition to babysitting, Miriam made belts for which the teachers furnished the buckskin and beads. She was paid $5.00 for each belt and

thereby earned money to help defray her school expenses. She also told about a rather unusual way in which she earned extra money from one of the white teachers, who had extremely long hair that hung down to her ankles. One day the teacher stopped by her desk, picked a louse out of Miriam’s hair, and placed it on the desk in front of her, much to Miriam’s embarrassment. The next day, as that same teacher knelt by her desk, Miriam picked a louse from the teacher’s head and placed it on the desk in front of her. The teacher reacted with loud cries of “Oh my! Oh my!” and immediately offered to pay Miriam twentyfive cents a day to help clean her head. The job grew tiring after a day or so because of the teacher’s long hair. Miriam pulled the eggs halfway down the length of hair and the teacher took them off the other half. Miriam informed her teacher that the task was taking her away from her beadwork, from which she could earn more money, and demanded fifty cents a day. The teacher increased her wages, but it took four weeks to completely rid the teacher’s hair of lice, as Miriam laughingly recalled. Judging from the teacher’s confidence in her abilities, Miriam must have been a model pupil. Although she never did anything for which to be punished, she told of a time when no one in the entire student body was allowed to go home for two Sundays, because four boys had run away. Another time, contrary to school rules, six girls who were caught smoking were spanked. Unfortunately, one of them was struck several times upon a painful boil, and Miriam vividly recalled her anguished screams, followed by prolonged crying. Other pupils had some unhappy times at school, but Miriam recalled very few, except when her younger brother, Spotted Horse Fred Mann, transferred to the Chilocco Indian School. Unaccustomed to such

separations, she became extremely lonely. Miriam remained at Red Moon for eight years, never advancing beyond the third grade, and she quit school at age eighteen. Miriam, a tiny, wrinkled, beautiful, wise woman

in an Indian

cloth dress, with head scarf tied pirate fashion, wearing plain moccasins and thin grey braids, gave her oral history from the frame of reference of the education agreement. It was as simple as “he asked for us and we went.”At age ninety-four, the oldest woman in the tribe, Crooked Nose Woman Miriam Mann Standing Water looked back in time to her boarding school experience. It was apparent that it had been positive as she

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talked, gestured, smiled, and laughed, recalling happy times with longdeparted friends and relatives. Only an occasional English word showed that she had attended a white man’s school, the first generation of her family to do so.” With each passing year, more Cheyenne and Arapaho children educated by whites. Some parents voluntarily placed their being were children in school, whereas others had to be threatened or forced to do

so. Florence Red Eye Black was threatened with having her lease money

withheld if she did not place her seven-year-old daughter Flora in school. Flora, better known as Jennie, was born in Montana while her parents were visiting there. Her father was Star Black, one of the sons of Black Kettle, the famous Cheyenne peace chief. In an attempt to Anglicize Indian names, the agent had given him the name of Star Black rather than Star Black Kettle, which would have more closely identified him as a descendant of the Cheyenne chief. In 1914 Jennie’s parents were camped -along with other tribal members in the valley of the North Canadian River below the school at Cantonment. Her mother walked her up the riverbank to school and enrolled her in the first grade. She attended Cantonment through the sixth grade, and one of her classmates was Edward Red Hat, the former

Keeper of Cheyenne Sacred Arrows. Jennie stated that the teachers were white women who taught them reading, spelling, and arithmetic for half a day. The other half-day was spent in manual labor, either in the laundry, sewing room, or kitchen, to which they were assigned on a rotating basis. They had to speak English only; if they were caught speaking Cheyenne, they were detailed to one of the three work areas for a week as punishment. She recalled that the students all dressed alike in clothing furnished by the government. The girls wore the same kind of dresses, long black stockings, and high-top laced shoes. They were also furnished with a nice change of clothing for Sundays. Jennie also nostalgically remembered the beautiful warm blue wool capes that they were issued. After she completed the sixth grade at Cantonment, Jennie transferred to the Clinton Public Schools and attended school in Clinton for two years. She later married Frank Pendleton, the son of David (Oakerhater) Pendleton, one of the Fort Marion prisoners who studied in New York and became a deacon in the Episcopal Church. When asked her assessment of the education she received, Flora (Jennie) Black Pendleton thought for a while and concisely stated, “It was O.K.”—in the peaceful tradition of her grandfather, Chief Black Kettle.* Edward Red Hat, the Cheyenne spiritual leader, was one of Jennie’s classmates at Cantonment. He told his granddaughter, The Woman

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Who Comes to Offer Prayer, that he was born in 1894, although he was quick to point out that the ages of children born in his time were not accurately known. He said that the white agent determined age by scrutinizing each child and then deciding, “You are X number of years old.” The child immediately became that age on paper for record purposes. Grandfather Red Hat said that a man called James Mooney visited The People and wrote about their Sun Dance. He described Mooney as being small in stature; thus, Mooney’s Indian acquaintances called him Kiah-stas, which translates into English as “Shorty” or “the Short Man.” Mooney asked not only that The People modify certain aspects of the Sun Dance, but also requested their children to educate. The Cheyenne chiefs considered his request and they agreed to send their children to learn the white ways so that they could become interpreters between the familiar Cheyenne universe and the strange world of the white man. Grandfather Red Hat emphasized that this was initially the sole reason to acquire a white man’s education, as perceived by traditional Cheyenne leadership. Thus, Red Hat went to school with the understanding that he would be educated to become a tribal interpreter. He attended school at the agency fora month until the school term at Cantonment was finished and then he transferred, eventually completing all the six grades offered. He went on to school at Chilocco where he played baseball and wrestled, two sports at which he excelled, observing that he “was happy at Chilocco and was treated well.’+ Red Hat later married Shell Woman

gone to Cantonment. Grandmother Black (Kettle) Pendleton spoke the and bad memories associated with verbal expression of their culture are

Minnie Bull, who had also

Minnie Red Hat said that Jennie truth. The sadness, pain, alienation, deliberate destruction of a people’s indescribable. Prohibition, denigra-

tion of culture, harsh punishment, and forced acculturation are implied

in the simple statement, “Oh! We were punished for speaking Cheyenne.” My grandparents’ facial expressions became masklike as they remembered the attempts to destroy their language.° Although some Indian languages became extinct following white contact, the tenacity of the Cheyennes in retaining language and culture was apparent in the interview of the Red Hats by their granddaughter Henrietta, which was conducted in Cheyenne. More important, it was done in the oral tradition of years past, without the use of a tape recorder or written notes.° Both the Cheyenne and Arapaho languages have survived. The tribes still have fluent native-language speakers, and many more possess a strong sense of identity as Cheyennes or Arapahoes.

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One of these individuals is Imogene Gould Hadley, a full-blood Arapaho who was born at the Seger Colony Mission (in present-day Colony, Oklahoma) on December 10, 1918. Her Arapaho name can be translated variously into English as Singing Woman, Many Song Woman, or Woman with Many Songs. As indicated by her name, she has composed some Arapaho hymns. Her parents are Alfreda Benton and the late Sam Gould, and today five generations of her family live in southwestern Oklahoma, beginning with her eighty-three-year-old mother Alfreda and reaching down to her two-year-old great-granddaughter Candi Lynn. Imogene was seven years old in 1925 when her mother took her to the Seger Indian Industrial School, which had been established by John H. Seger. She said: I was enrolled in grade 1B for the first year and was promoted to 1A the second year. The third year I was enrolled in grade 2B, and the fourth year I entered grade 2A, and so on. It took two years to complete one grade so that by the time I finished the fourth grade I had been in school eight years and was fifteen years old.’ Imogene stated that her coursework at Seger consisted of arithmetic, reading, English, history, and home

economics, with home

eco-

nomics comprised of cooking and housekeeping. She added: There were no books for home economics so the teacher would have to write her information on the blackboard.

There was one large room with a blackboard clear across one side of it, and the poor teacher would have to stand there and write and write, but so did we.®

The female students learned housekeeping by actually cleaning schoolrooms or the superintendent’s office “from top to bottom,” until they “actually sparkled.” According to Imogene, all students had to get up at six o’clock every morning when the bell rang. The matron would then come around and say, “All right, everybody out of bed.” If someone tried to sleep in, the matron would jerk the mattress out from under the sleeper, dumping her onto the bedsprings, and then replace the mattress on top of the unfortunate individual. Consequently, the students got up or had the mattresses pulled out from under them. Imogene said the girls all dressed the same, in a style like that of their matron, Miss Dunham, who wore a “real long dress, big black long

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stockings, and button top shoes.” The girls wore high-top button shoes, black stockings, and heavy blue denim dresses with white stripes. In the winter they wore heavy red sweaters that had big collars and buttoned all the way down the front. She said the big girls wore petticoats under their dresses, with sand in the hems to make them stand way out. Reminiscing about their school clothing, Imogene said, “We used to think we were dressed up.” She stated that all students from the third grade on up had to work in such places as the laundry, bakery, kitchen, or dining room for half a day. Some of them had to assist the cook in “[m]Jaybe peeling potatoes for a couple of hours.” She added that the school had a farm on which they planted cotton; when the cotton was ready, all the students,

even the small ones, had to pull bolls, using gunny sacks or baskets to hold the picked cotton. Other farm tasks, such as shocking feed or husking corn, were voluntary. In addition to studying academic subjects and performing manual labor, the students had to take part in military drill right after breakfast, regardless of the weather. Those who had been assigned to kitchen, bakery, or laundry duty during roll call drilled in the afternoon. Imogene said: We marched right after breakfast: 1-2-3, we had to know the drills. The captain would lead us and it was so bitterly cold sometimes that we could actually see the steam as we breathed. It was real hard when we were going to school. We used to get a spanking for everything that we did, and our matron was the fiercest one.”

Questioned about spankings, Imogene said that their matron was very strict. For example, she drew a line in chalk halfway between the boys’ and girls’ buildings, harshly telling the pupils not to go over the line. Sometimes a group of girls would teasingly put their toes over the line, but they might be seen by an officer who would then report the offenders to the matron. She would call the offenders in and put them over her knee one by one, pull up their dresses, and spank them with large wooden hairbrushes that had wire bristles. Imogene said that if the girls knew they were going to be spanked, they often padded their buttocks with towels to cushion the heavy blows. The matron was completely unaware that the girls did this and they were smug about not getting caught. Not all employees, Imogene pointed out, were like this particular matron. As an example, she mentioned a teacher named Miss Medley who “was really good.” She was strict too, but if the students did their

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work, she liked them. In fact, she became

so attached to one

of the

students, Imogene’s uncle Perry Gould, that she adopted him as her son— unusual for a white person, let alone someone in the Indian Service. Unlike the policy of most other Indian schools, parents were welthe Seger Colony School and were allowed to visit their children in come daily if they wanted. Imogene said that from four o’clock on, the students sat on the windowsills or on the porch steps watching for their parents or relatives to come walking over the hill and through the grove. They looked forward to seeing their families, but they also looked forward to the food, such as fry bread, pounded meat, boiled dry meat, bacon, or-

anges, or apples, that their parents usually brought along. She said they watched for visitors every evening and could recognize each individual from a distance, calling out to the right girl that someone was coming to seeinet In assessing how she felt about the education she had received, Imogene made the following observations: I was always anxious to get away from the building and out of work, but in looking back they really trained us right. I just finished the eighth grade, but I think I learned what I should have learned. I learned more than even college kids. 1 can do my own accounting. I can figure my budget and bank statements. I learned to work at government schools. When I do things I remember the theme we used to have to copy and recopy: “When you mean to do a thing never let it be by half, do it fully and freely.” I never do anything halfway.!° Imogene is a unique Arapaho woman, who looked objectively at her school experiences and determined to have the positive outweigh the negative. She finished the fourth grade at Seger, attended the Colony Public School for one year, transferred to the Concho Indian School for two years, and returned to Colony High School for one year. After twelve years of school she told her mother, “I’m getting old; I need to quit school.” She did and then got married, thereafter using much of her training from government schools to make herself a self-sufficient individual actively involved in the Indian affairs of her community. Indian cultural groups stressed self-sufficiency andThe People expected the dominant school system to adequately prepare their children to live in a dual world. White Buffalo Woman had the same expectations when she placed her grandson, Holy Bird Henry Mann, in school. He attended day schools and public schools for several years before she sent him to the Concho Indian boarding school in 1931, when he was sixteen.

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Henry described Concho as a military school where the students had to march everywhere in formation. They marched to the dining room, classes, detail, dormitory, assembly, church, and anyplace else they had to go. They were expected to stand in formation to answer roll call as well. A typical day began at 4:00 a.m., but varied depending upon the detail. For example, students on dairy detail had to be up at 4:30 a.m. to milk by hand. They placed the filled milk cans on carts and pushed them to the dining room, after which they got ready for breakfast. Students were required to learn different skills and their details rotated every six weeks among the farm, dairy, poultry house, carpentry building, and engine room. The pupils worked half a day and went to school the other half, studying arithmetic, English, spelling, geography, and history. They were required to address their teachers and all other employees as Mr. or Mrs. After a solid seventeen-hour day, bed check was at 9:30 p.m. if there was no recreation. Military control was imposed and, using old rifles, both boys and girls had manual arms and drill practice every Saturday afternoon. The boys went to town one Saturday and the girls went the next. Boys and girls lived in separate dormitories under the ever-watchful eye of the matron, who also stood watch at any social gatherings. Succinctly, commingling of the sexes and close physical contact were discouraged. All students were required to attend interdenominational church services every Sunday. Although preachers from all denominations took turns conducting services, the Baptists were there more frequently, and all delivered the message of Christianity through interpreters. The boys’ Sunday dress code required them to wear ties and to have their hair neatly combed. Henry recalled, “I parted my hair right down the middle, you should have seen me; I looked good.” Some students did not like school and ran off. Henry ran off once, hitchhiking all the way to Hammon about ninety miles away. His father whipped him and returned him to Concho the following day. Placing this event in perspective, Henry observed: A person can only stand so much pressure. They used to shake the children when necessary and slapped their hands with a ruler. We were more scared to complain because we would get punished. They took advantage of us. There was an instructor, the assistant farmer, who rode the riding

plough while we used the walking plough. They tried to force us to learn a lot of things. I was an orphan with only

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my grandma to look out for me. I was half scared of the teachers; they would keep me in, so I buckled down and studied. This is a part of life.'!

Cheyennes accept life as it is, so Henry determined to make the best of the situation. He was made an officer (leader), helping to supervise the beginning students who ranged in age from six to ten. He used to cut their hair, help dress them, and see that they took daily baths. He later won the American Legion Award, which was based upon scholarship, leadership, and Christianity. Throughout all this he remembered his grandmother’s teachings, especially her admonition to not become white and forget his heritage and culture. Punished at Concho for talking Cheyenne, he and his friends used to go away from the school to speak their language. As a secret outside activity necessary for their sense of self'as Cheyennes and Arapahoes, Henry and some other students formed a peyote group. They hid the peyote drum out in a stand of blackjack trees quite a distance from school, and they would sneak out there on Sunday afternoons to drum, sing, pray, and eat peyote. Kish Hawkins, a Cheyenne who was in the first graduating class at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, used to give them peyote. Commenting upon the persistence of Indian traditions, Henry said, “This shows that the white man

cannot take everything away; one can go underground.” Unfortunately, The People were forced either to resort to secrecy or to lose some critical aspects of their culture. Henry recognized the reality of the government policy’s assimilationist orientation, stating:

It seemed like they wanted to do away with our language and customs. We had to get used to some things; we took it; we thought it was good for us; maybe we just did not know any better. In looking back, I know what they were doing; they were brainwashing us, but there was nothing we could do; we had no power. That time there was no one to stand up for us. Now I’m different. Now I would stand up for my rights.!2 He remained at Concho

for two years, until he was eighteen,

though he said that it was worse than any other school he had attended. Reflecting typical Cheyenne attitudes toward life, he also saw something good in his experience there, observing, “In a way I was happy at Concho” Consistent with many Indians’ ambivalence toward formal education, he concluded that he had found a degree of happiness even at the worst school he attended.

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Henry met Lenora (Imogene) Wolftongue, another full-blood Cheyenne, at Concho, and they both quit school in 1933 to get married. Several years after the birth of their first child, Henrietta, Henry got a government loan to farm some tribal land near Hammon, Oklahoma, and he moved his family into a large two-story house that had once been a part of the Red Moon Agency. He became a successful farmer, but when World War II was declared he volunteered for service in the U.S. Army. Looking back in time, Henry commented that the militaristic training of government school had been good for him, but that white contact was an altogether new experience. He stated:

It was hard to play with white kids, so we Indians played with one another. I never associated with white people until army days. I appreciated Concho in the military. Manual

arms, marching, shining shoes, making beds, all

were good preparation for army life. In the service my lieutenant thought I had gone to a military academy, but I told him I had gone to an Indian school. I used to help drill recruits. The lieutenant said he wished white kids went to Indian schools.!*

If white people had attended government Indian schools, they would probably be more understanding of the Indian situation. Following his honorable discharge from the army, Henry tried to return to farming. The delayed effects of school, the trauma of war, and dependence upon the daily issue of alcohol while in combat, however, did not lend themselves to farming. He searched for a meaning to life, moving his family from one place to another, and in 1952 he and his family were sent by the government to Los Angeles under its relocation program of moving Indians from rural to urban areas. Finally, in 1975, after twenty-three years of intimacy with confusion, Henry conquered his alcoholism and began to rediscover the teachings of his grandmother White Buffalo Woman and to understand her ways. He said, “My grandmother’s ways still come to me today, especially at wake services.” He understood at long last that like her he too wanted to be free, like the water, but there was no escaping the invisible web of unreality the white man-spider had spun around The People. A kind, humble man, Henry never envied those who believed in the great American dream, for his experiences in school and in war had

left him with a realistic perception of white men and their ways and he wanted minimum contact with them and everything they stood for. Henry’s dilemma was a conflict between tradition and change, never a

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question of identity, as evidenced in the following statements: “White people would ask me, ‘I’m sorry, but aren’t you an Indian?’ and I always said, “Yes, but there is nothing to be sorry for or to be ashamed of; I am

proud to be an Indian’ ”!4 In his later years, he accepted his disillusionment with white society, which promoted an, education system oriented to assimilation with the purpose of divestingThe People of their Indianness, leaving them to flounder in a virtual no-man’s land where they were neither Indian nor white. Like Henry, his younger sister Flying Woman Ruby Ruth Mann Roubidoux attended both public schools and government schools. She entered public school at Quartermaster, a small, one-room country school

north of Hammon, in 1930 when she was eight. Ruby said they sat at large tables about the size of picnic tables, with about eight of them sitting on one long bench. She said, “I don’t know who my teacher was but she sure should have been honored because she taught me English. I did not know one word of English when I entered school.” Ruby transferred from Quartermaster to the Pie Flat Public School and then was sent to the Concho Indian boarding school. She and some girls ran off from Concho once, but got only as far as El Reno before some man caught them and returned them to school. Her brother Henry decided to send her back to public school following this incident. She went back home and graduated from the eighth grade at Hammon.

Her father then sent her to the Chilocco Indian boarding school, which he had attended as a young man. She went to Chilocco for four years, graduating from high school there in 1945. She took the basic high school courses, such as English, American history, Oklahoma history, science, basic arithmetic, and home economics. Of all the classes, she

liked arts and crafts most because it was Indian-oriented. She remembered weaving a beautiful Indian-design rug that the teacher liked so well that she kept it. Ruby summarized her school experience as follows: I think they were trying to let us keep our Indian culture, but at the same time teach us to be independent. I guess I would do the same thing all over again; I would have no other choices because my education was dictated by home conditions since my mother died when I was five. We went to school one-half'a day at Chilocco and worked the other half and they got a lot of free labor out of us. I did not like having to stay there for nine months.

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I did not send my children to government school because I felt they needed a full day education. I just wanted to do better with my children since I knew what they would get in boarding school. If they went to public school they could stay at home, go to school, and advance more.!°

Henrietta’s aunt Ruby verbalized that she felt her “education was great” and that she would repeat the experience if necessary. She chose, however, not to send any of her five children to boarding school, wanting better things for them; this leads one to conclude that she chose not to

express her more negative impressions of off-reservation boarding schools. In addition to personal interviews, the author circulated a brief,

informal questionnaire for information-gathering purposes only. Of five Arapahoes surveyed, two attended off-reservation boarding schools, Haskell Institute at Lawrence, Kansas, and Riverside Indian School at Anadarko,

Oklahoma. Both graduated from high school, but neither attended college. One said she liked everything about school, whereas the other enjoyed business and English classes but disliked mathematics and science. One was active socially as the boys’ basketball manager and belonged to the Pep Club, Indian Club, and Hospital Club.The other did not list any social activities or clubs to which she had belonged. One noted that she makes her“‘living on this education in business” that she received at Haskell and through Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) training programs and workshops. She is employed at the Concho School, whereas the other works at the Concho Agency. Both put their business backgrounds, acquired in BIA schools, to good use in working for their people at the tribal agency and school. Of the three Arapahoes surveyed who attended only public schools, two graduated from high school. One went on to receive an associate degree; the other attended the state vocational-technical school but did not complete the program. The other-completed eleven years of schooling in hometown schools located on the Cheyenne and Arapaho former reservation area. Of the two high school graduates, one attended schools both within and out of state, whereas the other attended schools only within the state. Two were socially active, but one did not report any involvement in any extracurricular activities.

Two had strong backgrounds in business. One indicated that although she took all the required high school courses, she liked art and history classes the best. Another liked shorthand classes and the company The third one enjoyed English, music, typof friends most about school. ing, going on biology field trips, and a favorite teacher. Only one indicated

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what things she liked least about school, which included homework, changing classes, tests, mathematics, and having to become accustomed to teacher

attitudes. One made no comments about the education she had received,

whereas the other two indicated positive attitudes toward education. One stated that she had no complaints; the other observed that her business training had been very beneficial to her current position, but she also expressed a desire to have completed the vocational-technical program and to have gone on to complete a college degree. As indicated by the young Arapaho woman, education has come to be valued by The People as a means of providing economic stability. The high cost of a college education, however, has been a major prohibitive factor in the education of Cheyenne and Arapaho people. Alfred Whiteman, Jr., said this was one of the reasons he never went to college,

even though three schools offered him athletic scholarships. The overriding cause was that he had been told in school that he was not “college material.” His father, Alfred Sr., was an Arapaho whose mother Anna was

the daughter of Chief Little Raven. Anna was among the first group of Cheyennes and Arapahoes to be educated at Carlisle. After Anna returned home, she married Whiteshirt. Alfred Jr’s Cheyenne mother was Nellie R. Rouse, also known as Emily Washee, who had attended Hamp-

ton Institute in Virginia. Like many others, prompted by the tribal alliance, Alfred Jr. was both Cheyenne and Arapaho, but he identified with his father and the English translation of his Arapaho name was Sitting Bear. He was born in Colony, Oklahoma, on August 28, 1928. As a child, Alfred lived with his grandfather, Whiteshirt, and his

grandfather’s second wife. Because he was bilingual, he acted as their interpreter. On Saturdays, when his grandmother went grocery shopping, she first had to buy him two sacks of tobacco—Duke’s Mixture, which came with a pocket knife. Then he would interpret for her. If she did not purchase the tobacco for him, the clerk would have to follow her throughout the store, getting the items she pointed out. Al was nine years old when his father took him home to go to school in El Reno, Oklahoma, where he graduated from high school

twelve years later. His first day of school was an experience he never forgot: We were in class when the bell rang and the children ran out and I did not know what was going on so I followed. Instead of playing I went around the corner and started to

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roll a cigarette. I looked up to see a circle of white faces staring at me. About that time I was jerked up by the back of my collar and marched to the office. They took my tobacco and could not understand my grandfather letting me smoke.!® Confused by the conflict, he was thereafter critical of Indianwhite relationships, stating years later: ‘In the estimation of whites, Indians are good so long as they are below them. Let an Indian become equal to or better than a white person then it becomes a different situation. Whites cannot tolerate Indians being better than them.”!” Al knew what he was talking about: he was an Oklahoma All-State basketball player for three years and encountered hostility from white students who did not make the team. His high school art teacher encouraged art as a career, but his father wanted him to study business. After serving in the U.S. Navy, Al studied commercial art and his talents were recognized. He became a nationally known Indian artist, winning the Grand Award for his painting entitled Ceremonial with the Supreme in the 1974 American Indian National Art Show,

Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma.!® Al died in

1980, knowing that he had excelled in his field and setting a precedent of excellence for his wife Henrietta and others of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. Cheyenne and Arapaho people traditionally trained their children to strive for the ideal and to become self-sufficient adults, but that re-

sponsibility was taken from them by treaty in 1867. From that time on, except for the Collier administration, education policy was determined for them by the government, church, and state—and it was not always in their best interests. In 1958, when Alfred Whiteman, Sr., was

a member of the Chey-

enne-Arapaho Business Committee, the governing body had to consider The People’s status and direction in the light of termination. Joe Pedro, an Arapaho council member, characterized the tribal situation as a “time of frustration, a time of uncertainty, a time of anger,” caused in part by a “lag in Indian education.” He also asked his colleagues to draw upon their strength as Cheyennes and Arapahoes to

Share with me an abiding faith in the inherent greatness of our beloved tribe and all that it stands for, and in the

sturdy fiber and resolute character of her sons and daughters, who are now making every effort in the uphill battle

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to yonder mountain, upon which rests the plateau of opportunity, adjustment, and advancement. !? It was not until four years later, however, that the tribal governing body began to intensify efforts in education. In 1962 the 13th Council passed a resolution awarding $100 grants to all of its students who graduated from high school, postgraduate school, college, or nursing and art schools located in Oklahoma and New Mexico, as well as Haskell Insti-

tute in Lawrence, Kansas. They also appropriated $2,300 for education aid to Cheyenne and Arapaho school children residing within the former reservation boundaries.7° On

September 7, 1962, the 13th Council

of the Cheyenne-

Arapaho Business Committee established an education program to provide financial assistance to enrolled tribal members. The program’s purpose and scope were as follows: “The purpose of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Education Program shall be to aid and encourage all eligible students who are enrolled members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes to further their education in institutions of higher learning and/or trade schools.’*! Further, they established seven categories of assistance: 1. Graduate student Special scholarships 3. Students for college training who are eligible for bureau assistance 4. Students for college training who need more assistance than is available through bureau programs 5. Students in trades and vocational schools 6. Students taking special or part-time courses or training 7. Educational loans.?2

The entire program was subsequently adopted by resolution on September 21, 1962. In addition, the council created a six-member schol-

arship committee made up of members from the business committee, with the Concho Agency adult education specialist and a representative of the Anadarko area director of schools serving on the committee in an advisory capacity.” Following the adoption of the Constitution and By-Laws of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma in September 1937, little was undertaken by the business committee in relation to education. The creation of the tribal education program was significant, however, in that it demonstrated a commitment to education, and it was created well before

the era of Indian self-determination in the late 1960s.

“THE PEOPLE” SPEAK AND ACT ON EDUCATION

Time, confinement

foi

on the small spaces called allotments, and

coexistence with masses of white people had shown Cheyennes and Arapahoes that they would have to make large adjustments in their way of life now that the buffalo were gone. They were forced to build an economy consistent with life in the twentieth century. It was not until the midtwentieth

century, however, that the tribal government

reasserted a

degree of control over the education of their children by creating an educational scholarship program. The venerated Keeper of Cheyenne Sacred Arrows and Crooked Nose Woman were born in the last century and had seen great change come to The People. One of their two major tribal ceremonials, the Sun Dance, had even been modified at the insistence of the government, following James “Shorty” Mooney’s visit toThe People in the early 1900s. Miriam Mann and Edward Red Hat were both sent to boarding schools to be educated in white ways, with the understanding that they were to become the tribe’s interpreters. Not concerned with the assimilationist goal of education, they appeared to be happy in school, which represented a change from the agency days characterized by hunger, cold, illness, and inadequate clothing. Jennie Pendleton and Minnie Red Hat both emphasized the tragic cultural consequences of suppression of their language; severe punishment resulted if they were caught speaking Cheyenne. Imogene Hadley described boarding school as being difficult; she remembered the cruelty of one Indian service employee and the goodness of another. Ruby Mann was fatalistic about her education, but elected not to send her children to

government school, partly because of student exploitation but primarily because of the inferior academic quality of its half-day school system. Henry Mann, Sr., and Alfred Whiteman, Jr., were the most criti-

cal of the dominant school system. Henry charged school personnel with brainwashing Indian students. Alfred pointed out that Indian students experience cultural conflict when atténding white schools and that attitudes of superiority do exist in Indian-white relationships. One of the individuals surveyed commented about having to become accustomed to teacher attitudes, implying that school personnel harbored less than positive feelings toward Indian children. The individuals interviewed and surveyed felt positive about the education they had received, but it was in the context of serving as a vehicle for providing a stable economic basis for their lives in twentiethcentury America. White Buffalo Woman’s great-granddaughter is their kinsman and ally; they are friends, relatives, and husband. Regardless of attempts to assimilate them, they have retained their identity as Chey-

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ennes and Arapahoes and will maintain their identity as The People so long as the keepers continue to protect the sacred arrows and flat pipe that make them unique. Notes (ev

Edward Red Hat, untitled manuscript, Longdale, OK: May 5, 1977.

Crooked Nose Woman 1981.

Miriam Mann Standing Water, interview by author, April 26,

Flora (Jennie) Black Pendleton, interview by author, July 14, 1981.

Edward Red Hat, interview, July 17, 1981. Edward Red Hat was the Keeper of the Blue Sky Tepee of the Cheyenne tribe before he became the Keeper of Sacred Arrows. During the Arrow Renewal in the summer

of 1981, he informed Henrietta Whiteman

that her

paternal grandmother for whom she is named, The Woman Who Comes to Offer Prayer, was a close blood relative of his. She was also of the Blue Sky people, thus making Henrietta one of them as well. The grandfather-granddaughter relationship therefore comes from the kinship through Henrietta’s grandmother and being one of the Blue Sky people. Shell Woman Minnie Bull Red Hat, interview by author, July 17, 1981.

On the day Henrietta went to visit her grandfather, Edward Red Hat, the highest spiritual leader of the Cheyenne tribe, she carried her tape recorder, tapes, notebook, and pencils with her. Upon explaining her purpose, she asked to tape their conversation and he granted permission. The tape recorder would not work, so she began taking notes, which inhibited the interview. Finally Henrietta dispensed with the devices altogether, relying upon Cheyenne oral tradition, and the interview went smoothly thereafter. Her grandparents told her to just listen and to write down what she could recall after she got home. Her grandmother Minnie commented that all tape recorders always broke down when they were trying to tape her grandfather. When Henrietta checked the tape recorder on the drive home, it worked perfectly. The author learned that day that all things have to be done in cultural context, which does not necessarily lend itself to scholarly methodology. Many Song Woman 1982.

Imogene Gould Hadley, telephone interview by author, January 13,

Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. .

Henry Mann, Sr., interview by author, September 21, 1979.

Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Flying Woman Ruby Ruth Mann Roubidoux, interview by author, August 16, 1981.

Alfred Whiteman, Jr., Cheyenne and Arapaho oral tradition collected beginning in the 1960s. Ibid. Ibid.

Proceedings of the 11th Council, 4th Session, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, vol. 1, no. 4, March

5, 1958, Bureau of Indian Affairs Records, Concho

Concho, OK (hereafter cited as BIA, Concho).

Agency,

“THE PEOPLE” SPEAK AND ACT ON EDUCATION 20%

Proceedings of the 13th Council, 6th Session, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, vol. 3, no. 6, March

Al,

lee

14, 1962, BIA, Concho.

Proceedings of the 13th Council, 19th Session, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, vol. 3, no. 19, September 7, 1962, BIA, Concho.

Dips

Ibid.

23%

Special Meeting of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Council Held at Anadarko, OK, September 21, 1962, in the Kiowa Area Field Office Conference

Room, BIA, Concho.

os

Gas AtRalils Rat laiaisiala CONTEMPORARY

EDUCATION

ON “THE PEOPLE’S” TERMS

(ew

Traditional Cheyenne society stressed understanding as an integral aspect of its value system. It had to be encouraged and developed by individuals because good interpersonal relationships were essential to the cohesiveness of the tribe. Understanding could not occur, however, unless a child’s mind was first opened to hearing and learning, an act symbolized by piercing the child’s ears. The wise elders explained it as follows:

The piercing of the ears is attended with ceremony, for it symbolizes the opening of the understanding, the time from which the child is to hear and learn... .The younger the child has its ears pierced the less it suffers and the better it is for it. This was the symbolic teaching: the sooner children hear and obey the more and the easier they will learn. The pain when the ears were pierced, together with the present the parents had to offer for the occasion, would show that obedience and learning cost something. ! Thus, parents recognized that learning was often painful, but they nonetheless paid for the child’s right to learn, which was the way of acquiring the information and skills necessary for life. They also perceived learning as the way to develop the ability to reason, to make decisions, to form opinions, and to make objective and wise judgments in the tradition exemplified by the tribal elders and leaders. Based upon their experiences as unique groups of people, Cheyennes and Arapahoes expected formal education to be similar to their tribal modes of learning, with differences primarily in environment, teachers, curriculum, and language. Indian and white expectations of educated Indians were at variance, however. The People saw education as generating good, self-reliant individuals able to live in the dual spheres of their world. Whites intended education to produce copper-skinned individuals who spoke like white people, thought like white people, and subscribed to the white Protestant work ethic and value system.

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It was not until well into the twentieth century that the Meriam Report documented “little of which the country may be proud” in the government’s failure to adequately prepare Indians to live in white-dominated America. Indians were excluded from the decision-making process regarding the education of their children, and children were separated from family and community by distance, sometimes by as much as half a continent. The situation became better when John Collier was appointed commissioner of Indian affairs, and he pushed for passage of reform legislation such as the Indian Reorganization Act, the Johnson-O’Malley Act, and the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act.

Mainstreaming resurfaced in the 1950s when the government’s assimilationist policies blatantly targeted the family and the tribe with relocation programs and its termination stance. In light of this, tribes had to strengthen their tribal governments just for survival. In their pilgrimage to the plains, The People developed a principle of survival, whereby they redefined their way of life in the context of a changed environment but retained the essence of the spiritual life that made them unique as a people. They clung to this principle of survival when they faced possible extinction, and it proved viable because they had the freedom, flexibility, and independence to make the necessary adjustments in their way of life. In late 1965, Cheyennes and Arapahoes had reached a point where they were concerned with the survival of their children, who were destined to remain locked in the cycle of poverty in which the tribes had existed since coming to the reservation unless action was taken. Thus, they elected new leaders to their tribal governing body, the majority of whom were young, two of whom were college graduates, two of whom were women, and two of whom were husband and wife. White Buffalo

Woman’s great-granddaughter, Henrietta Whiteman, was one of the two college graduates and one of the two women. She and her husband, Alfred Whiteman, Jr.,were both elected to serve two-year terms on the tribal council. James E. Officer, then associate commissioner of Indian affairs, labeled the new leaders a “reform group.” These new members of the 15th Council of the CheyenneArapaho Business Committee for the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma were sworn into office on January 15, 1966. Paul Vance, superintendent of the Concho Agency, administered the oath of office. In accordance with the tribal constitution and bylaws, the business committee elected officers from its own membership. Accordingly, the officers and offices of the 15th Council were as follows:

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Chairman: Vice-Chairman:

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Lawrence H. Hart Clinton Cheyenne District Representative | Howard Goodbear Watonga Cheyenne District

Representative Secretary:

Henrietta Whiteman Hammon Cheyenne District Representative

Treasurer:

Eugene Woolworth Geary-Greenfield Arapaho District Representative Ralph Beard El Reno-Calumet Cheyenne District Representative.?

Sergeant-at-Arms:

Hart had graduated from Bethel College in Newton, Kansas, and was an ordained Mennonite minister. He had been a jet pilot in the U.S. Marines and was one of the four principal chiefs of the Cheyenne people. The newly elected chairman established eight subcommittees and a scholarship committee. All were subordinate to the business committee with the exception of the scholarship committee. It operated with a certain degree of autonomy with its own officers, a chairperson, vice chairperson, secretary, and treasurer. It also had its own $10,000 annual budget, which was a line item in the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Operational Program each fiscal year. Hart appointed Henrietta Whiteman as chairperson of this fivemember scholarship committee; other members were Ralph Beard, Howard Goodbear, James Fire, and Eugene Woolworth.? The chairman and the treasurer of the business committee served as ex officio members,

and the education specialist from the BIA Anadarko Area Office and the adult education specialist from the BIA Concho Indian Agency were associate members. In comparison to the usual three- and five-member subcommittees, this was a large committee of nine individuals. The seven drawn from the business committee represented half of the business committee’s total membership. The scholarship committee had complete responsibility over the program, from formulating policy to making awards. Its decisions were final and conclusive and did not require business committee confirmation. The program was a financial aid vehicle, the goal of which was to provide financial assistance and encouragement to all eligible students, who are one fourth or more degree

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EDUCATION, 1871-1982

enrolled members of the Cheyenne and/or ArapahoTribes of Oklahoma, regardless of age or residence, to further their education in institutions of higher learning and/or trade and vocational schools so long as the pursued course of study leads to a certificate or degree.recognized by the appropriate trade or profession.* Tribal grants were modest and were awarded on a semester or quarterly basis only. Students were required to apply to the bureau and other financial assistance sources first; the tribe supplemented their finances by making $25-$80 awards to BIA Higher Education Grant recipients and $25—$50 awards to post-senior high school students attending BIA schools. The tribe then covered as much as possible of the educational expenses of other students who had no other source of financial aid, had been dropped by the bureau, or were ineligible for BIA funding. Three specific categories of students wete ineligible for bureau assistance through the Anadarko Area Office: (1) graduate students, (2) out-of-state residents, and (3) students attending sectarian schools. Though the tribes targeted their financial aid program to students excluded from bureau funding, they provided incidental grants to certain BIA pupils and BIA-funded students. The tribes also cooperated with the bureau by temporarily funding some students who were dropped by the BIA because of low academic standing. They were usually given a term in which to bring their grade point averages back up to bureau standards for funding; when they did, the BIA picked them up again. In this manner the tribes prevented some students from becoming dropout statistics and provided a resource not otherwise available to some enrolled tribal members. In 1962 and even in 1966, the Cheyenne-ArapahoTribes of Oklahoma were among the few Indian tribes in the nation that had instituted their own scholarship program. They had focused upon education as a means of alleviating the multitudinous negative social and economic issues that confronted them as a people by developing an educated work force. Insofar as records were available for the period between 1962 and mid-1967, the tribes awarded a total of $32,288.65 in grants. The aver-

age amount of the 330 grants made by the tribes was $101.92. Table 8-1 presents a yearly breakdown of tribal scholarships awarded by the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma under the educational program.”

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EDUCATION ON “THE PEOPLE'S” TERMS

15 ©

TABLE 8-1 SCHOLARSHIP CHEYENNE~ARAPAHO

PROGRAM

TRIBES OF OKLAHOMA,

CONCHO,

OKLAHOMA

1962-1967*

Year

No. of Grants Awarded

Total Granted

Average Grant

1962

16

$1,956.05

$122.26

1963

54

$5,709.50

$105.73

1964

54

$5,101.20

$94.46

1965

83

$6,181.60

$74.47

1966

WS

$8,723.10

$116.31

1967*

48

$4,717.20

$98.27

Totals

330

$32,288.65

$101.92

*Figures represent only the first six months of 1967.

The highest number of grants was made by the 14th Council in 1965, during which they awarded eighty-three scholarships totaling $6,181.60. Their record was followed by the 15th Council in 1966, which awarded seventy-five grants for a total amount of $8,723.10, the

greatest amount of money expended in any one year by the three councils in office from 1962 to 1967. The least amount of money was expended in 1962, when the business committee first implemented the educational program and was just learning how to administer the project. Most of the committee members were unfamiliar even with the terminology associated with college. In the process of screening applications, one of them asked, “What is he ‘chemistrying’ in?” This innocent query met with laughter and an explanation that the proper word was “majoring in,” followed by the statement, “Hey! We’re working with college students now, so we had better become serious and better informed.”® It was both common and understandable that as late as 1962, tribal groups were uninformed about college. The $122.26 average grant made by the 13th Council was the largest. This was followed by an average grant award of $116.31 made by the 15th Council. The lowest awards were made by the 14th Council, with a $74.47 average grant. The grants were small, but still indicated tribal support. Because the scholarship committee operated on its own budget, mileage and per diems for committee meetings were also paid from that budget. Technically, the $10,000 annual budget had to cover not only scholarships, but certain administrative costs as well.

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The Education and Scholarship Program of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma admittedly was small, but it was a beginning that was greatly expanded through the leadership of the 15th Council of the business committee for the tribes. This resulted from the adjudication of a suit the tribes had brought against the United States of America under

the provisions of the Indian Claims Commission Act, which became law on August 13, 1946 (60 Stat. 1049).

The tribes had filed their claims jointly with the two groups in the north, the Northern Cheyennes of Montana and the Northern Arapahoes of Wyoming.’ The Fort Laramie claims portion, adjudicated on December 6, 1961, resulted in a total award of

$11,893,350 for the South-

ern Cheyennes and Arapahoes. After offsets and a $4,213,619.20 payment for the 1869 Executive Order Reservation, the compromise settlement under Docket 329-B amounted to $4 million.® This represented payment for lands that lay outside the state of Oklahoma but due the Cheyenne-Arapaho tribes. Another determination was subsequently made for the lands in Oklahoma. Added to the Fort Laramie claims settlement, it amounted to

a total $15 million judgment award for the Southern Cheyennes and Arapahoes. The tribal claims attorney, William Howard Payne of Washington, D.C., received $1.5 million in attorney fees, which left the tribes with $13.5 million. The 15th Council, which entered into office at this

time, was confronted with the task of effecting the distribution of the judgment award—a difficult job, to say the least. The Bureau of Indian Affairs took the position that the tribes should program their judgment fund money, which might include a small per capita payment. The BIA expected, however, that the bulk of the monies would be used for long-range development, primarily in programs directed to industrial development programs for the elderly, and for educational purposes. Conversely, the majority of tribal members, voting 287 for and 25 opposed at a special general meeting of the tribes held on May 14, 1966, adopted the following resolution:

Resolved, That the Tribal Business Council of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes is hereby instructed to request the Bureau of Indian Affairs to approve the payment of the fifteen million dollar ($15,000,000.00) claims judgment award to all enrolled members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes on a basis of 100% per capita.” A three-member delegation, comprised of Lawrence Hart, Alfred Whiteman, Jr., and Henrietta Whiteman, carried the mandate of The

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161

People to Washington, D.C., but it was emphatically rejected by the BIA. The matter was again referred to The People, and at the annual general meeting of the tribes held on October 29, 1966, they once more

ex-

pressed their desire for a 100 percent per capita distribution. Their resolution, however, “specifically called for holding minors’ share [sic] in trusts” Congressional approval was required for the trust distribution, so the 15th Council met with two banking institutions in Oklahoma City. The council selected the Liberty National Bank & Trust Company as the trustee for the trusts that would constitute portions of the Judgment Fund Distribution Bill. On July 27, 1967, through Council Resolution 377R15, the Business Committee adopted the trust agreements known as the “Cheyenne-Arapaho Fifteenth Council Education Trust,” the “Cheyenne-Arapaho Fifteenth Council Minors’ Trusts,’ and the “CheyenneArapaho Fifteenth Council Trusts for Persons Under Legal Disability’?! Parents could touch a minor’s trust for several purposes, such as home acquisition, building, or improvement. In addition, some of a minor’s individual trust fund could be used for educational purposes. Only the estimated annual $20,000—$25,000 income earned from

the $500,000 Education and Scholarship Trust was to be used “for the purpose of providing education and scholarships for members of the Tribes.” The duration of the trust was to be as follows: The Trust shall terminate after twenty years if the average educational level, as measured by the number of years of school completed, of Tribal members then living in Okla-

homa between the ages of 22 and 32 is equal to or greater than the average educational level of the entire population of Oklahoma. If this educational level has not been reached at the end of twenty years, the Trust will continue for an additional ten years at which“time the Trust shall terminate and the assets shall be distributed.!?

Representative James V. Smith of the Oklahoma Sixth District introduced the distribution bill into the House.'? The bill, designated as Senate Bill 1933, was introduced into the U.S. Senate by the Honorable Fred R. Harris, junior senator from the state of Oklahoma.'* Lawrence H. Hart, chairman of the business committee, and Henrietta Whiteman,

chairman of the scholarship committee, testified on behalf of the tribes before the House

Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, as did their

tribal attorney, Jap W. Blankenship. Blankenship and Hart also testified

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before the Indian Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, to which Whiteman submitted written testimony. In late October 1967, the chairman of the tribal council sent the

president a telegram informing him that S. 1933 would soon come before him, and reminding him that a century -before, in October

1867,

“the Tribes signed one of the most significant treaties ever signed.” He further assured the president ‘“‘that this Bill could also prove to be highly significant in the history of the two Tribes,’ urging favorable consideration.!> On October 31, 1967, the president of the United States signed

Senate Bill 1933 into law as Public Law No. 90-117 (81 Stat. 337). The

law read in part as follows: The Secretary of the Interior is authorized and directed to distribute and expend the funds on deposit in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of the CheyenneArapaho Tribes of Oklahoma that were appropriated by the Act of October 31, 1965 (79 Stat. 113), in satisfaction

of the settlement and compromise of claims of said tribes against the United States in the Indian Claims Commission in dockets numbered 329A and 329B, together with the interest accrued thereon.!® The final trust agreements, amended to comply with BIA directives, were approved through Council Resolution No. 445-S15 on December

20, 1967. Lawrence

H. Hart and Henrietta V. Whiteman,

as

chairman and secretary of the business committee, signed the documents on behalf of the tribes.!” The secretary of the interior approved them on December 26, 1967.!® Alfred Whiteman,

Sr., the son of Whiteshirt and Anna

Raven

and the grandson of Chief Little Raven of the Arapahoes, made some observations about the 15th Council and the judgment award. His remarks were summarized as follows:

Mr. Whiteman said that he first heard about the claim when he was seven years old and that he believed he was now going to see the judgment fund. He said that he has openly stated that this council is the best council the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes has ever had. In his talks with different people, including Cheyennes, he has told them that at last they have found leaders in the Chairman, ViceChairman, and Secretary, and for them to hold them there

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163

when they go to the polls as they are needed and are going to continue to be needed.! The members of the Clinton and Hammon Cheyenne Districts did not heed Mr. Whiteman’s plea, and neither Lawrence Hart nor Henrietta Whiteman was reelected. Only three members of the 15th Council were reelected to the business committee to serve on the 16th Council: Ralph Beard, Howard

Goodbear, and Alfred Whiteman, Jr.

All adult members of the tribes not under a legal disability subsequently received their $2,325 per capita distribution in August 1968.29 The 16th Council had the responsibility of implementing the trusts created pursuant to statute, the establishment of which was “irrevocable”?!

Looking at education alone—specifically the educational scholarship program and the 15th Council educational trust—one can see that the business committee for the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma had begun to implement the philosophy of Indian self-determination before it became national policy. On March 6, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered a message to Congress titled “The Forgotten American,” in which he proposed an Indian policy “expressed in programs of self-help, self-development, [and] self-determination.” Isolating his position on Indian education from that statement, he called for the innovation of educational

programs based upon Indian needs, preschool programs for every Indian child, employment of Indians as teachers and aides, the creation of a model Indian community school system, the establishment of school boards for federal Indian schools, and higher-educational support for Indian youth. He accordingly recommended a 10 percent increase in appropriations over the previous fiscal year for American Indian programs.7* The president thus articulated the shift in Indian policy toward self-determination. The need for Indian involvement and Indian control in education was underscored by the Kennedy Subcommittee Report of November

3, 1969. Paul J. Fannin, senator from Arizona, believed that

such a subcommittee would assist in the passage of appropriate Indian legislation. Therefore, on July 10, 1967, he wrote to Senator Wayne Morse, chairman of the Senate Education Subcommittee for the Com-

mittee on Labor and Public Welfare, documenting the need for a special subcommittee on Indian education. Consequently, the Senate approved Senate Resolution 165, which authorized a subcommittee “to examine,

investigate, and make a complete study of any and all matters pertaining to the education and related problems of Indian children.”

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Authorized on August 31, 1967, the new subcommittee (of which

Senator Robert E Kennedy became the chairman) was given six months in which to present its findings and recommendations. Because of unavoidable delays and the assassination of Senator Kennedy, however, the

life of the subcommittee was extended repeatedly. Senate Resolution 227 amended Senate Resolution 80 to extend “until November 1, 1969,

the time for the preparation of the Subcommittee’s report and recommendations.” Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who became chairman after his brother’s death, subsequently submitted the committee’s historic report, titled Indian Education: A National Tragedy—A National Challenge.*4 The subcommittee conducted exhaustive research and used seven different methods to secure its baseline data. They reviewed the literature and history of Indian education and conducted hearings and field investigations. Their findings merely echoed the tragedy of Indian life as disclosed by the Meriam Report four decades before. The Kennedy subcommittee determined that the government’s “failure to provide an effective education for the American Indian has condemned him to a life of poverty and despair.’ After reviewing the literature, the report concluded that “[t]he dominant policy of the Federal Government toward the American Indian has been one of forced assimilation which has vacillated between the two extremes of coercion and persuasion.At the root of the assimilation policy has been a desire to divest the Indian of his land and resources.” It became apparent to the subcommittee that education was the means of assimilating Indians, a process the committee members referred to as “assimilation by education.” In the words of the subcommittee, education was the way in which the government “emancipated the Indian child from his home, his parents, his extended family, and his cultural

heritage.””° The Kennedy Report was highly critical of the American education system and its failure to prepare American Indians to lead satisfying lives. In an effort to ameliorate

the situation, the subcommittee

made

some recommendations calling for “legislative changes; administrative changes; policy changes; structural changes—all of which were geared to making Indian education programs into models of excellence, not of bureaucratic calcification””?’ The significant aspect of the report was its strong recommendation for increased Indian involvement in and control of Indian education programs. One of the most meaningful pieces of legislation that resulted from the Kennedy Report was the Indian Education Act (Title IV of Public Law No. 92-318, the Educational Amendments

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165

of 1972), which became law on June 23, 1972. This act provided federal assistance for Indian education in three categories: Part A provided funds to local educational agencies; Part B provided grants for “special programs and projects to improve educational opportunities for Indian children”; and Part C provided funding for Indian adult education programs. Part D of the act established an Office of Indian Education, to be directed by a deputy commissioner of education. He was to be nominated by the newly created National Advisory Council on Indian Education also established in Part D. Part E contained miscellaneous provisions relating to teacher training, Indian-controlled schools, and the definition of “Indian” as used to determine eligibility for services under the Indian Education Act.78 Another significant piece of legislation that was an outgrowth of the Kennedy Report was the Indian Self Determination and Educational Assistance Act (Public Law No. 93-638), approved on January 4, 1975. In this act the government declared the following to be a part of its policy: The Congress hereby recognizes the obligation of the United States to respond to the strong expression of the Indian people for self-determination by assuring maximum Indian participation in the direction of educational as well as other Federal services to Indian communities so as to render such services more responsive to the needs and desires of those communities.”” Title I of the act authorized the secretary of the interior and the secretary of health, education, and welfare to contract, with any Indian

tribes so requesting, for any program normally provided by the federal government. It also contained the proviso that such programs could revert to the government at any time upon request of the tribe. Title II of the law further amended the Johnson-O’ Malley Act by specifically mandating the establishment of local Indian parent committees. Such committees were authorized by statute to “fully participate in the development of, and ... have the authority to approve or disapprove programs” funded through Johnson-O’ Malley to meet the unique educational needs of Indian children.*° In accordance with the policies mandated through legislation in terms of Indian self-determination, and in view of the president’s message to Congress, one of the first ways Indians became involved in the education of their children was through advisory school boards for federal schools. On August 7, 1968, John Washee, Jr., chairman of the 16th

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Council, appointed Ralph Beard, a business committee member, to serve on the advisory board for the Concho School.?! Nearly a year later, on July 2, 1969, Aaron Dry, superintendent of the Concho Indian School, attended a meeting of the CheyenneArapaho Business Committee to inform them, that he had been encouraged by the Anadarko Area director to establish a local Indian advisory committee. Two men and two women, not necessarily council members, were to constitute the committee and were to meet once a month. Their role was to review the school budget, formulate solutions to problems, and make recommendations on school matters. They were to be compensated $25 a day from Title I funds for the monthly meeting.°? The business committee considered the matter, and on August 6, 1969, Chairman Washee appointed the following four individuals to serve on the Concho School advisory committee: Ralph Beard, member, 16th Council Alfred Whiteman, Jr.,member, 16th Council

Margaret Anquoe, member, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Henrietta Whiteman, member, Cheyenne Tribe?

Henrietta Whiteman was elected the chairman of the committee and she served in that capacity until March 1970, when she moved out of state to teach at the University of California, Berkeley. The members of the advisory board served at the pleasure of the business committee, a policy determined through a resolution adopted by the 16th Council of the business committee.** After this action by the council, Concho School Superintendent Aaron Dry addressed the business committee, informing them that no funds were available to compensate the advisory board members. He also strongly encouraged them to “set a term of office for its board members for continuity purposes.”*° The minutes, however, do not indicate what action, if any, was taken in

this regard. Tribal members continued to serve actively on the school board, but not until five years later was any thought given to their effectiveness. The 19th Council adopted a resolution on April 10, 1974, approving the use of unexpended funds out of the Adult Education Program “for the training and education of the Concho School Board.”*® Training became important not only in terms of learning, but also for teaching. The 19th Council adopted a resolution at its May 1974 regular meeting to accept a proposal for a Cheyenne Bilingual Study, Training and Teaching Program, to be administered through the English Department of Southwestern Oklahoma State University, Weatherford.

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The goal of the program was to “close the communication gap between Indian children and teachers in public school,” as well as to create better understanding. Cheyenne instructors were to be employed to teach background history and language. Staff were to also redesign an IQ test to coincide with Indian thought processes.*” By endorsing the bilingual teacher training program, the tribal council supported the concept of bilingualism and biculturalism within the existing educational structure. It exhibited some ambivalence as to this same concept, however, in the context of an alternative school lo-

cated in the Hammon Cheyenne District. Tribal members within the community were divided over the school, which made it difficult for the council to take a firm position, in addition to the fact that they were influenced by a Hammon District representative who did not support the school. The all-Indian school board had approached the business committee about the possibility of obtaining some tribal land upon which to establish school facilities. The 19th Council was thus confronted with having to resolve the issue of its location.*® On February 12, 1972, in an unprecedented action, Indian stu-

dents walked out of the Hammon public schools. Their boycott was based upon three readily identifiable reasons: (1) racial conflict, (2) a 90 percent

Indian student dropout rate, and (3) the exclusion of Indian parents from participation in federally funded programs for Indian children. Rather than have their children return to the racially tense school, some parents established an alternative school, which they named the Institute of the Southern Plains. Though funding came from several sources, the primary ones were the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of Indian Education. Monies for operational expenses were augmented from private sources such as church groups and foundations.*? A short-term leasing arrangement was negotiated with the business committee for a site on tribal trust property east of the town of Hammon. Several mobile homes wefe purchased and moved out to the site. One served as the office, another as a combination kitchen and lunch-

room (and also doubled as a classroom after meals), and three others were classrooms. One of the three classrooms could be converted into a small auditorium for large gatherings such as assemblies and commencement exercises. Unfortunately, this mobile home leaked when it rained, and

although southwestern Oklahoma is noted for its tornado season, there was no storm cellar. The school, which was a nonaccredited, Indian-controlled school,

offered grades from kindergarten through high school. In addition to the regular coursework, the children had classes in Cheyenne language and

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EDUCATION, 1871-1982

culture. The nutritious food was prepared by a professional cook who had received her training in an off-reservation boarding school. There was no playground equipment, except for a basketball goal with a dirt basketball court. The children were happy, though; after all, it was their shi school.*° Funding began to drop off after 1977. It was operated as a private school, and it was funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the 1980-1981 school year under the category of Previously Private Schools. The mobile homes are still clustered on the windswept hill, and a few children are enrolled, but they number considerably fewer than the 100 that were there in 1976-1977 when enrollment peaked.*! Unless the downward spiral suddenly reverses itself, and funding and tribal council support are forthcoming, the Institute of the Southern Plains is destined for extinction. With it a people’s vision of educational self-control will die. Other tribal educational programs under selfcontrol have succeeded, however, such as the Johnson-O’Malley program contract initiated by the 20th Council on January 26, 1977.47 This same council, through its planning and program subcommittee, made development in education its first priority. Consequently, on August 22, 1977, the 20th Council created the Cheyenne-Arapaho Department of Education to carry through its aim of “more comprehensive educational services and programs for greater numbers of Tribal members from early childhood to late adulthood.’ Once the structure was in place, William Berlin, an Anglo who

had received his Ph.D. in

education from Indiana State University, began the process of implementing the educational goals of the tribes. Under the provisions of the Indian Self-Determination

and Educational Assistance Act of 1975, he

prepared program proposals to contract for Higher Education Assistance and Vocational Education programs from the bureau. In 1979-1980, the following six programs were operated under the tribal Department of Education: Adult Education Program Headstart Program Higher Education Assistance Program Incentive Action Program

Johnson-O’ Malley Program Vocational Education Training and Program Improvement Project.

The Department of Education had administrative responsibility for both existing educational programs and new ones as they were funded. In

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169

addition, however, the Department of Education was charged with conducting a feasibility study on contracting for the Concho School; the study was undertaken and completed in December 1977.4 In the summer of 1978, the Cheyenne-Arapaho Business Committee negotiated a contract with the BIA “to operate an educational program for children grades 1 through 8 in the Anadarko service area and to maintain other facilities at the Concho Agency.” The contract, awarded on August 28, 1978, was for a total amount

of $191,131.50.4> Wallace Allen with the

Division of Education Programs at the BIA Anadarko Area Office was assigned as the contracting officer’s representative.*© Some tribal members contended that this action for contracting the Concho School was a hasty decision on the part of the business committee, and claimed that the council had not consulted adequately with The People.*7 They took legal action and on September 12, 1978, Fed-

eral District Court Judge June Green issued an injunction against the

secretary of the interior and others ordering them to suspend action on the contract.*® The suit was eventually dismissed and a tribal referendum conducted, which resulted in a majority vote to rescind the action of the 21st Council.*?

Thus, The People ended the council’s brief, one-month

venture into contracting for the operation of the Concho School. This opportunity may never recur, because the Concho School was identified for closure after the 1981-1982 academic year.°? Beginning with the 1978-1979 school year, the enrollment began to decline, which had negative effects on the budget.°?'! The bureau contended that this decline was caused by the issue of contracting and that the school never recovered from the controversy.°” In 1980, for the first time in the history of the school, an enrolled

Cheyenne

tribal member

became

the superintendent.

Arthur

Cometsevah, an experienced and dedicated Indian educator, was com-

mitted to building a quality school program compatible with the needs of Indian students and the tribes. In his estimation, Concho was “‘a very fine school with some real fine teachers.” Superintendent Cometsevah attempted “to populate the school with Cheyenne and Arapaho people.” In 1980-1981, about half of his dormitory staff were tribal members, as were three of his teachers: Phyllis Hart Greeley, Ahniwake Nibbs, and Frank Bushyhead.°° All stated that they enjoyed working with students of their same cultural backgrounds, particularly Mr. Bushyhead, the cultural studies teacher. His classroom was bright, cheerful, and beautifully decorated with Indian art objects made by both him and the students.°4

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Funding for fiscal year 1981 was $1,047,190.°> Funding for the 1982 fiscal year was $1,466,192; even though this represented an increase

in dollar amount, inflation actually decreased its buying power.°° Approximately 200 students were affected by the closing of Concho School. The majority of them came “from troubled homes and [did] not have a history of high academic achievement.”°’ Unfortunately, other students and schools faced the same fate as Concho. Many children were affected; of them 1,485 resided on the former Cheyenne-Arapaho reservation in 1980. In fiscal year 1979, a total of 221,271 students were

funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs through Johnson-O’ Malley, contract schools, and BIA-operated schools. Kenneth Smith, assistant secretary of the interior for Indian Affairs, met with the twenty-three Western Tribes of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City during the week of January 20, 1982. When confronted with the issue of the closing of federal boarding schools, he stated that he did not believe education was a part of the trust responsibility. He was informed otherwise by the tribal leaders, who said they have traditionally viewed education as an important part of the trust responsibility confirmed by treaties.° The U.S. Constitution (in Article VI) declares that “all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States,

shall be the supreme Law of the Land”; therefore, the 120 treaties that contain provisions for the education of Indian children are solemn obligations of the U.S. government. The federal government committed itself, through treaties, to Indian education, in return for huge land cessions effected through those same treaties. Thus, Indian nations have the right to expect the federal government to honor its promises to provide education. Through the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, some tribal governments have contracted to administer some programs that were previously administered by the BIA. Such contracting efforts have included the operation of schools and administration of Johnson-O’Malley funds. Tribal governments are committed to the education of their citizens; however, funding other needs such as medical

care and economic development strains tribal resources. With these competing demands, tribal governments cannot replace reductions in funding for educational programs, and fear that if they contract to administer educational programs funding will be decreased further. Though termination has been repudiated as government policy, tribes still fear termination in the form of reduced or eliminated funding. This fear, often re-

CONTEMPORARY

EDUCATION ON “THE PEOPLE'S” TERMS

171

ferred to as “termination psychosis,’ continues to hamper the efforts toward attaining true tribal self-determination and self-sufficiency. The federal-Indian relationship has always been one of constant policy shifts, and another is imminent. The only stable aspect in Cheyenne and Arapaho life is their ceremonies. Like White Buffalo Woman, Henrietta continues to attend Cheyenne tribal ceremonies so that she too can renew her life—the same reason Arapahoes go to their annual ceremonies in Wyoming. Despite change, their ways live and have been reinforced by self-determination. Notes Meo

1. 2.

Rodolphe Petter, English-Cheyenne Dictionary, (Kettle Falls, WA: 1913-1915), 181. Proceedings of the 15th Council, 1st Session, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, vol. 4, no. 1, January

15, 1966, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Concho

Agency, Concho, OK

(hereafter cited as BIA, Concho). Minutes give the incorrect date of January 15, 1965, as the 1st Session of the 15th Council. Ibid. Statement of Henrietta V. Whiteman, Chairman

of the Scholarship Subcommittee

of the

Business Committee for the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma for Submission to the Indian Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee in August 1967 on S. 1933. Personal papers of Henrietta Whiteman from her term on the Cheyenne-Arapaho Business Committee, 1966-1967.

52

Ibid:

6.

Cheyenne and Arapaho oral tradition collected in the 1960s.

7.

Petition before the Indian Claims Commission: “Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Indians of ONahoma, suing on its own behalf and as representative of the CONFEDERATEDTRIBES OF CHEYENNE AND ARAPAHO INDIANS OF THE UPPER ARKANSAS, also known as the SOUTHERN CHEYENNE AND ARAPAHO TRIBES OF INDIANS, and on behalf of the CHEYENNE AND ARAPAHO TRIBES OF INDIANS: NORTHERN CHEYENNE TRIBE OF INDIANS OF THE TONGUE RIVER RESERVATION, MONTANA, suing on its own behalf and as representative of the NORTHERN CHEYENNE TRIBE OF INDIANS, and on behalf of the NORTHERN CHEYENNE AND NORTHERN ARAPAHO TRIBES OF INDIANS, and on behalf of the CHEYENNE AND ARAPAHO TRIBES OF INDIANS; NORTHERN ARAPAHO TRIBE OF INDIANS OF THE WIND RIVER RESERVATION, WYOMING, suing on its own behalf and as representative of the NORTHERN ARAPAHO TRIBE OF INDIANS, and on behalf of the NORTHERN CHEYENNE AND NORTHERN ARAPAHO TRIBES OF INDIANS, and on behalf of the CHEYENNE AND ARAPAHO TRIBES OF INDIANS; Petitioners, v. THE UNITED

STATES

OF AMERICA,

Defendant.” Per-

sonal papers of Alfred Whiteman, Sr. (in the possession of Henrietta Whiteman), from his terms on the Cheyenne-Arapaho Business Committee. 8.

9.

Proceedings of the 14th Council, 32d Session, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, General Meeting, vol. 3, no. 32, April 10, 1965, BIA, Concho.

Proceedings of the 15th Council, 8th Session, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, General Council, vol. 4, no. 8, May 14, 1966, BIA, Concho.

We 10.

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

Proceedings of the 15th Council, 23d Session, Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, vol. 14, no. 23, November

11.

EDUCATION, 1871-1982

19, 1966, BIA, Concho.

Proceedings of the 15th Council, 52d Session, Cheyenne-Arapaho

Tribes of Oklahoma,

vol. 4, no. 52, July 27, 1967, BIA, Concho.

12.

Education and Scholarship Trust Agreement, Fact Sheet, 16th Council, Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, n.d. Personal papers of Alfred Whiteman, Jr. (in the possession of Henrietta Whiteman), from his terms on the Cheyenne--~Arapaho Business Committee, 1966-1970 (hereafter cited as Personal papers of Al Whiteman).

13.

Proceedings of the 15th Council; 47th Session, Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, vol. 4, no. 47, June 12, 1967, BIA, Concho.

14.

Proceedings of the 15th Council, 51st Session, Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, vol. 4, no. 51, July 5, 1967, BIA, Concho.

15.

Proceedings of the 15th Council, 61st Session, Cheyenne-Arapaho vol. 4, no. 61, November 1, 1967, BIA, Concho.

16.

Indians—Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes—Disposition of Funds, Pub. L. No. 90-117; 81 Stat. 337, 90th Cong., 1st Sess. (1967). Personal papers ofAlWhiteman.

17.

Council Proposal No. 390, Council Resolution No. 445-S15, Resolution Approving the Education and Scholarship Trust Agreement and The Minors’ and Persons Under Legal Disability Trust Agreement as Revised Subsequent to November 3, 1967, Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, December

Tribes of Oklahoma,

20, 1967, BIA, Concho.

18.

Status of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Minors’ Trusts and the Cheyenne-Arapaho Trusts for Persons Under Legal Disability, Fact Sheet, October 12, 1968 (hereafter cited as Cheyenne-Arapaho Trusts Fact Sheet). Personal papers of Al Whiteman.

19.

Proceedings of the 15th Council, 61st Session, Cheyenne-Arapaho vol. 4, no. 61, November 1, 1967, BIA, Concho. Trusts Fact Sheet, October

Tribes of Oklahoma,

20.

Cheyenne-Arapaho

21.

Massey to Washee through Area Director, October 24, 1968, Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of

12, 1968.

22.

Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States, “The Forgotten American,’ speech delivered to the Congress of the United States, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75,

Oklahoma. Personal papers of Al Whiteman.

Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, Concho, OK, Federal Archives and Records Center, Region 7, Fort Worth, TX, Concho Agency, Publicity & News Release 040, FRC179359. 23.

United States Senate, Indian Education, Hearings before the Special Subcommittee on Indian Education of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, Part 1, 90th Cong., 1st &

2d Sess. (1969), at 1—2, 8.

24.

United States Senate, Indian Education: A National Tiagedy—A National Challenge, 1969 Report of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, Special Subcommittee Education, Res. 80, 91st Cong., 1st Sess. (1969), at 1-2.

on Indian

25.

Ibid., at 9.

26.

Ibid.

27.

Vid., at xin, 9.

28.

United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, The Indian Education Act of

1972 (prepared by the National Advisory Council on Indian Education, Washington, DC, N.d,) 25, vor 29.

Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, Pub. L. No. 93-638, 93d Cong.,

1975; Department of Education, Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, Concho, OK. 30 ae lbidt

31.

Proceedings of the 16th Council, Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, August 7, 1968, BIA, Concho.

CONTEMPORARY

EDUCATION ON “THE PEOPLE'S” TERMS

ws

O28

Proceedings of the 16th Council, Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, July 2, 1969, BIA, Concho.

Sieh

Proceedings of the 16th Council, Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, August 6, 1969, BIA, Concho.

34.

Proceedings of the 16th Council, Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, November 5, 1969, BIA, Concho.

65;

Proceedings of the 16th Council, Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, December 3,

36.

Proceedings of the 8th Session of the 19th Business Committee of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, April 10, 1974. Personal papers of Archie Doyle Hoffman, from his term of employment with the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma (hereafter cited as Personal papers of A. Hoffman).

S75

Proceedings of the 11th Session of the 19th Business Committee of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, May 4, 1974. Personal papers of A. Hoffman.

38.

Proceedings of the 4th Session of the 19th Business Committee of the Cheyenne-Arapaho

1969, BIA, Concho.

Tribes of Oklahoma, March 2, 1974. Personal papers of A. Hoffman.

39: Joe Osage, Business Manager, Institute of the Southern Plains, Hammon, OK, telephone interview by author, November 13, 1980. 40.

Author’s on-site visit to the Institute of the Southern Plains as a member of an evaluation team that conducted an evaluation of the school for the Coalition of Indian Controlled School Boards, Denver, CO, May 17-20, 1977.

41.

Osage, interview, November

42.

Proceedings of the 4th Session of the 20th Business Committee of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, January 24, 1977. Personal papers of A. Hoffman.

43.

13, 1980.

Cheyenne-Arapaho Department of Education, Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, 21st Council

(Concho, OK, 1979-1980).

44.

Ibid.

45.

Contract Award No. BOOC14204142, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Anadarko Area Office, BIA, Anadarko, Oklahoma, August 28, 1978, Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma,

Tribal Records, Concho, OK (hereafter cited as CAT, Concho).

46.

Delaney to Allen, Indian Education, Anadarko Area Office, BIA, Anadarko, OK, August

29, 1978, CAT, Concho.

47. 48.

Wallace Allen, Education Specialist, Division of Education Programs, Anadarko Area Office, BIA, Anadarko, OK, telephone interview by author, January 27, 1982. Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribal Council v. Cecil D. Andrus, et al., Civil Action No. 78-1686 (D.D.C.

Sept. 12, 1978) (June Green, District Judge, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia), CAT, Concho.

49.

Allen, interview, January 27, 1982.

50.

Arthur Cometsevah,

Superintendent, Concho

School, BIA, Concho, OK, telephone in-

terview by author, January 13 and 27, 1982; Charles “Chuck” Delaney, Program Development and Contract Services, Anadarko Area Office, BIA, Anadarko, OK, telephone interview by author, October 21, 1981; Allen, interview, January 27, 1982.

Silt

Daniel Sahmaunt, “The Educational, Social, Economic

Needs of Indian Children Attend-

ing Concho Boarding School,” Division of Indian Education Programs, Anadarko Area Office, BIA, Anadarko, OK, October

16, 1981, 6. Concho

bys. Allen, interview, January 27, 1982. Do:

Cometsevah, interview, April 23, 1981.

School Records.

74 54.

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO On-site visit to the Concho

EDUCATION, 1871-1982 School, Concho, OK, April 23-24, 1981.

55:

Cometsevah, interview, April 23, 1981.

56.

Allen, interview, January 27, 1982.

ile

Sahmaunt, “The Educational, Social, Economic

58.

Quinton Roman Nose, Acting Director of Education,,Department of Education, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, P.O. Box 56, Concho, Oklahoma 73022, to H. Whiteman, November 10, 1980.

So:

United States Department of the Interior, Statistics Concerning Indian Education: Fiscal Year 1979. Compiled for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Indian Education Programs by Evelyn Leading Fighter (Washington, DC, 1979). These figures represent the latest available through the BIA.

60.

Allen, interview, January 27, 1982.

Needs,” 5.

CHAPTER CONCLUSION:

NINE

THE ROAD OF LiFE—PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE (Ce

The Cheyenne and the Arapaho world views set each tribe apart as a distinct people. Their unique experiences have evolved into ways of life and tribal histories, a knowledge of which is necessary to understanding their positions in relation to education. Thus, their sacred history is highlighted to place their ways of life in the proper perspective and to emphasize their uniqueness and cultural integrity. The Arapaho and Cheyenne each have unique tribal explanations of how the universe was created by an all-powerful Creator, who has existed for all time. Their oral traditions say that the entire world was covered by water at the dawn of time, and that animal relatives of The People brought up mud from the depths of the ocean, from which the Creator made earth. This beautiful, sacred earth became the mother of

the natural red earth people of North America. According to Cheyenne sacred traditions, the Creator,“The Great One,” left his creation to the protection of the four sacred persons who live at the semicardinal directions of the universe. At an unspecified time in their history, the So’taaeo’o joined the Cheyenne proper on their road of life, and their union was strengthened by the teachings of their two great prophets.The Creator sent Sweet Medicine to the Cheyenne proper with his four sacred arrows and the accompanying ceremony, the Arrow Renewal. He also sent Erect Horns to the So’taaeo’o with the sacred buffalo hat and the Sun Dance or Medicine Lodge, the symbol of the ancient world. The prophets lived with the Cheyennes for a long time and, as each was about to leave, gave The People certain instructions and told them about their future. Erect Horns admonished the So’ taaeo’o never to abuse the hat or the buffalo would disappear. He also told them of a future that loomed dark and foreboding and posed a grave threat to their existence as a distinct people. Like Erect Horns, Sweet Medicine also delivered a disturbing prophecy after having lived with The People for 446 years, four long lives

176

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

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of a person. He told them they would develop ill health, contract many strange fatal diseases, turn prematurely gray, and decline into decadency. He informed them of white-skinned strangers they would meet at the Big River from where the sun comes up, who would be aggressive, materialistic, greedy, and deceitful, stopping at nothing for gold. He told them these strangers would take their children and change The People’s way of life, not just with their material items but with their value system as well. Continuity as the Cheyenne people, however, was assured so long as they kept their sacred symbols, observed their ceremonies, revered their prophets, and remembered their teachings. The sacred symbols thus form the foundation for the Cheyennes’ highly developed spiritual life. The prophets not only changed The People’s way of life, but also cautioned them about unfortunate association with the white-skinned people they would eventually meet on their road of life. They foresaw the assimilative thrust of white American education. That sadness was for a future time, however, and The People concentrated upon building a good life for their children. Tribal oral traditions place the Cheyenne and Arapaho ancestral homelands in Canada, far to the northeast of their current homes in Oklahoma, Wyoming, and Montana. It is not known exactly when the successive waves of migrations to the northern plains occurred. It is known, however, that the

Arapahoes, carrying their sacred flat pipe before them, preceded the Cheyennes in their pilgrimage to the majestic Black Hills. There, in the protective shadows

of the mountains, the two tribes united in a historic

alliance that is still maintained by the two southern divisions of the tribes that live in Oklahoma. Although the two affiliated tribes continued to occupy the sacred Black Hills region, they were hunting as far south as Colorado by 1816. Nearly a decade later, the Cheyennes signed the Friendship Treaty of 1825, their first treaty with the United States government. Several years later, between 1830 and 1832, the trader John Gantt negotiated an unofficial treaty with the Arapahoes. The tribes thus committed themselves to peace with the white people. The Cheyennes maintained hostile relationships with the Pawnees, their hereditary enemies. Though sources differ as to the year, the

elders say that in 1833 the entire Cheyenne tribe followed their sacred arrows into battle against the Pawnees—a battle in which the enemy captured the arrows. The People wailed as they retreated, leaving their transcendently sacred and powerful arrows with the Pawnees. They later

THE ROAD OF LiFE—PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

WF,

got back two of the arrows, but they were never as powerful as they had been originally. The sundering of the tribal symbol had a like effect upon the tribe. With the completion of Bent’s Fort on the Upper Arkansas River in 1834, certain bands of both tribes elected to trade there. This trade activity led to their eventual separation into northern and southern tribal groups. As more whites became aware of the extensive lands that lay to the west, more tribal members succumbed to whooping cough, measles, and cholera brought by the new settlers. Treaty-making intensified, however. On September 17, 1851, the entire Council of Forty-Four peace chiefs, representing both northern and southern groups, agreed to the ‘Treaty at Fort Laramie, which they signed as one tribe. For the only time in the history of the Cheyennes, all the chiefs were present at treaty negotiations, and the treaty was later reaffirmed by a ceremony in the Sacred Arrow Tepee.

White Buffalo Woman was born into the Cheyenne tribe in 1852, the year following the Fort Laramie Treaty. She was only nine years old when the government negotiated the Treaty of Fort Wise on February 28, 1861. Treaty dissatisfaction and Indian raids resulted in the massacre of two Cheyenne bands under Black Kettle and White Antelope, and Left Hand’ band of Arapahoes, at Sand Creek in 1864.The cycle of conflict and treaty violations caused a tribal division; those Cheyennes wishing to fight went north and those desiring peace followed Black Kettle south. White Buffalo Woman’s family followed their peaceable chief. Because Black Kettle wanted to protect his followers, he was among those who signed the Treaty of the Little Arkansas on October 14, 1865. Two years later, on October 28, 1867, he put his mark on the historic

Medicine Lodge Treaty. One of its most significant stipulations was compulsory education for all Cheyenne and Arapaho children between the ages of six and sixteen. After this treaty, The People started to rebuild a happy life for their children. On the morning of November 27, 1868, however, George

Armstrong Custer and his men attacked Black Kettle’s camp along the Washita River, and Black Kettle was among those killed in the raid. The Washita survivors, who also had survived Sand Creek, were weary, desti-

tute, and demoralized, and just wanted to live peaceably. Some of them, including White Buffalo Woman’s family, subsequently reported to their reservation, which had been assigned to the Society of Friends under President Grant’s peace policy. Brinton Darlington was appointed Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian agent.

ws

CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

EDUCATION, 1871-1982

Both tribes developed a respect for Darlington and they complained to him about the reservation. Consequently, President Grant created a new executive order reservation for the Cheyennes and Arapahoes on August 10, 1869, which was comprised of 4,297,771 acres. On

May 3, 1870, Darlington relocated his headquarters to the North Canadian River Valley, northwest of present-day E] Reno, Oklahoma, and the agency subsequently became known as Darlington after its agent. The People had come to the reservation, and their way of life was forevermore to be shaped by the external forces of the white men’s whims. Their traditional tribal-specific learning styles were to be supplanted by English education. In the past, Arapaho children expressed their relationship to the world in their own language, which they learned through practical application and object lessons. Their teachers were grandparents and other family members. An Arapaho child “was lectured to, taught to imitate in play the activities of elders, learned by observation, [and] was given explanations and demonstrations”; appropriate medicine people taught the children about the spiritual aspects of their culture.! Cheyenne child life was also a microcosm of the adult world in which adults taught by example and competent elders imparted certain knowledge areas and skills. Expert storytellers repeated tribal oral traditions telling how the Cheyenne world came to be. Culture was maintained through these teaching stories, some of which had been transmitted to many generations of Cheyennes since time immemorial. Through their oral traditions, Cheyenne children learned about their prophets, who had warned The People about the strangers who would use their system of education to obliterate their tribal uniqueness. Because of this, Cheyennes initially resisted education. Furthermore, the Keeper of Cheyenne Sacred Arrows said, “We had our ways and we liked them better. It still was our country and we did not want anyone to tell us what to do”? Once a permanent reservation was established, education became a priority, and by January 1871 a day school was in operation. Thus, 126 years ago formal education was introduced on the Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation, when the tribes gave twenty-five of their children to the strangers to educate in their ways. It was a small beginning, but it was hailed as a victory for “civilization.” Darlington, a member of the Society of Friends, was charged by the government with implementing an assimilation policy aimed at“‘melting” Indians into white America. Assimilation consisted of civilization, education, and Christianity. Darlington’s successor, John D. Miles, another Quaker, also sought to educate, to civilize, and to lead Cheyenne

and Arapaho children to the Savior. John Homer Seger, the beloved

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school superintendent “Johnny Smoker,” tried to civilize his students and to make them into white people through industrial training and religious instruction. This too was the goal of Richard Henry Pratt, who educated his students far from the reservation, saturating them with work experience and nonsectarian religious instruction. When Pratt became the jailor for the exiled Plains Indian prisoners in 1875, he expanded his role to include education as well. After

three years of incarceration at Fort Marion, all but eleven of the Cheyenne and Arapaho prisoners returned to the reservation. The eleven exceptions went on to school in the east. Pratt, on education duty from the War Department, observed the Indians at Hampton Institute, a black school, and determined that the coeducation of Indians and blacks was

unsatisfactory. He therefore proposed the establishment of a school solely for Indians. Pratt subsequently opened Carlisle Indian Industrial Training School on November 1, 1879, with 147 students from the Dakota, Pawnee, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes. Also included were eleven of his

former Florida prisoners who had transferred from Hampton. The first students from the Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation were the children primarily of chiefs and progressive leaders of both tribes. Pratt continued to operate Carlisle for a quarter of a century; during that time, 4,903 students representing seventy-seven Indian tribes were enrolled at the school. Historic Carlisle, the first off-reservation boarding school, closed on September 1, 1918.

Through its outing system, Carlisle students had been trained for life in a white society. They were returned instead to the reservation, where there were few if any employment opportunities or chance for them to apply their skills. Those who did find employment were interpreters for the agency physician, missionaries, and teachers. Furthermore, the returnees had been taught by teachers who knew nothing about the reservation and had failed to prepare them to cope with the problems of reservation life.? Off-reservation students had been thrust into the shadowy world of marginality, where they were neither Indian nor white. Some of them spoke their tribal languages imperfectly and were occasionally ostracized for trying to live like white people. W.W. Wellman, a missionary to the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, in an address to the Lake Mohonk Conference in 1899, stated that there were 234 returned students on the reservation, who had attended Carlisle,

Hampton, and Haskell, most of whom were unable to find jobs primarily because of prejudice. He also observed that their efforts to “try to lead their people in any new direction” resulted in their being labeled trouble-

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makers and smart alecks. He further noted that the only way they could “keep on the good side of the powers that be, and get any favors at all, is simply to keep silent and do just as poor Indians are expected to do; no more.” He cited these as reasons that “there are few leaders among them. Leadership is at a discount, and instead of being encouraged is stifled. They dare not lead.”* The missionary view of returned students differed from the government view of them as change agents, who were to exert a potent influence by dressing like whites, speaking the whites’ language, and acting like whites. They were the educated and civilized examples of progress, who had substituted “civilization” for “barbarism.” Expectations and obstacles for reservation-educated students were the same as for those educated off the reservation. From the beginning, the Arapahoes as a tribe were more supportive of education because it would prepare them for life on the “corn road.” Little Raven, their chief, anticipated the disappearance of the buffalo, a reality the Cheyennes did not accept until later. A horn was discovered missing from the sacred hat in 1873, despite Erect Horns’s warning about abuse of the hat. The buffalo herds were being decimated on the southern plains, and their slaughter finally forced the Cheyennes in 1876 to consent “for the first time [in the history of the Cheyennes] to place their children in school.” Even though the Cheyennes had acquiesced to education, they insisted upon their own facilities, which were completed on August 26, 1879, at Caddo Springs, north of Darlington at what is now Concho, Oklahoma.

Little Chief,

a Northern

Cheyenne

chief, had permission

from the commissioner to keep the children of his band out of school. He argued that Indian children did not benefit from the white man’s education and that Washington never intended to make them into white men. The goal of civilization through education and religion was readily apparent to him. Students were expected to forget their languages and traditional ways, to abandon their religion, and to throw away their blankets for everything white. They were also expected to become a model generation of copper-skinned people, who thought, spoke, and acted like their teachers, the white people. The Quakers operated the first schools on the Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation, which were federally subsidized. Mennonite mission schools differed in that they were financed largely by the church. The Reverend Samuel S. Haury opened the first Mennonite mission school on the reservation at Darlington in October 1881.The curriculum consisted of an elementary English education, industrial training, and “Biblical and Christian knowledge” inculcating “Christian principles.’® The

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181

Mennonites established another mission school at Cantonment in 1883 and an off-reservation industrial contract school at Halstead, Kansas, in

1896.They also sent some students to the Mennonite College in Halstead The Mennonite mission schools were all to prepare them as teachers. closed by June 30, 1901, though the St. Luke’s Mission Day School operated from 1904 to 1916. The common goal of these mission schools was Christian civilization through English education and industrial training. By 1883 the Arapaho Manual Labor and Boarding School and the Cheyenne Manual Labor and Boarding School were strictly federal schools. When the mission schools closed in the early twentieth century, federal schools had primary responsibility for reservation education. The Seger Indian Industrial School had been established in 1893, followed by the Red Moon School in 1897, and finally by the Cantonment School in 1898. These three schools were organized no differently than earlier ones, with their tripartite curricular areas of academics, industrial train-

ing, and religious instruction. The Arapaho school and the Cheyenne school were consolidated into the Cheyenne and Arapaho School in 1908 at the Caddo Springs site. Like its predecessors, the combined school used the three-point assimilation approach: civilization, religion, and education, both scholastic and industrial, with an emphasis on farming and homemaking. In 1919 the school was renamed Concho School, and it became the only boarding school on the reservation in 1932. All the others had closed by then, and only Seger remained open as a day school until the 1940s. White Buffalo Woman lived in this time of educational change. She had survived the Sand Creek and Washita massacres only to see the tribes’ children directed away from their origins as Cheyennes and Arapahoes. They were educated in white men’s schools that emphasized white ways over The People’s ways of life. Eighty years old in 1932, she lived to see the birth of her great-granddaughter, Standing Twenty, in 1934. White Buffalo Woman contributed her unique view of history and culture through

her descendants, particularly Yoeh- Yoe, who represents her continuity with The People as they walk their road of life. She told her grandson Henry: The Creator has answered my prayers and blessed me in seeing you grow to manhood and have children. I have seen my [great-]granddaughter. I have held her in my arms. I have offered her in prayer to the four sacred directions as one of The People. I have known her. My life is now complete. Ican grow old happy in the knowledge that the Creator heard my prayers and that I can now return to the

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blissful peace above and leave you in a good way when my time comes. 7

Her time came in 1936 when she left her great-granddaughter to live in a dual Cheyenne-white world, to experience formal education, and to

become an interpreter for The People. Standing Twenty was born in a significant year. Both the JohnsonO’Malley Act and the Indian Reorganization Act were approved in 1934. The Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936 extended the option of organizing for tribal self-government to Oklahoma Indians. The CheyenneArapaho Tribes of Oklahoma ratified a constitution and bylaws on September 18, 1937, and organized under a white form of government. Their children had to be educated to cope with change. Thus,

Standing Twenty entered public school in 1939, leaving her Cheyenne name at home. Henrietta quickly learned that she had left more than her name—she had left her entire culture. She sensed this cultural conflict and often went home to cry bitterly in her grandfather's protective arms, but he could do nothing except assure her of her self-worth and encourage her to return to school the next day. This experience was new to all of them; after all, Henrietta was only the third generation of her family to attend the white man’s schools. The People developed an ambivalent attitude toward education. The elders pray that their children will become educated so they can help The People. They view education as a practical necessity for survival in the twentieth century and accept it as a fact of life. Consequently, most Cheyennes and Arapahoes encourage their children to go to school. Their governing body has endorsed education and supports it through the tribal scholarship program, which is their contribution to individual and tribal self-sufficiency. The People view education as negative, however, because of its denigration of culture and the marginal individuals it has produced. Unfortunately, some Cheyennes and Arapahoes do not function well in either sphere of their dual world. The People’s ambivalence has been reinforced by the failure of society and its education system to adequately prepare The People to live well by any standards. Blaine County, Oklahoma, has a heavy concentration of tribal members, and a 1966 study disclosed that 71.2 percent of 269 Cheyennes and Arapahoes interviewed were unemployed. For those unemployed, the median annual income was $847.° The business committee further characterized the situation as follows: The Cheyenne-ArapahoTribes of Oklahoma demonstrate the lowest life expectancy rate of all the tribes in Oklahoma;

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183

the highest mortality and morbidity rates of all Tribes in Oklahoma, and what has been described by health professionals as the highest alcoholism rate of any ethnic group in the world.?

The quality of contemporary Cheyenne and Arapaho life is unsatisfactory, with its appalling mental-health situation, low life expectancies, and high mortality and morbidity rates. Further, The People are locked into a cycle of poverty compounded by high unemployment rates. The poverty and suffering correlate with poor education; dropout rates are exceptionally high beginning in the eighth grade. Tribal students enrolled in public schools in Seiling, Geary, Canton, and Watonga, in the northwest corner of the former reservation,

have a “‘bad self-image, little genuine self-respect, and usually no motivation to continue” with their education. These problems have been attributed to stereotyping, prejudice, and racism, as well as negative teacher attitudes. One counselor in Kingfisher stated “that Cheyennes and Arapahoes are untrustworthy and stupid and that nobody can do anything for them.”!° These statistics and findings document the failure of schools to adequately prepare Cheyennes and Arapahoes to survive in twentiethcentury white America.

Cheyennes and Arapahoes experience a low quality of life. The reservation has been harsh to them, as demonstrated by deplorable social and economic conditions. White-operated schools, insensitive school personnel, uniculturally oriented curricula, and biased textbooks have re-

sulted in damaging self-concepts and disorientation that negatively affect Cheyennes and Arapahoes. The white school system does not tolerate cultural differences or reinforce cultural integrity, but instead perpetuates its goal of homogenization. The Keeper of Cheyenne Sacred Arrows characterizes education as an assimilation process that tries “to bleach our kids white.” What is required is “a new type of school that does not try to brainwash our kids.” He visualizes a school that “allows our children to grow up Cheyenne and happy, but that also teaches them to move well in the Veho world.”!! The Keeper of Sacred Arrows is critical of the current goals of schools, and he calls for the implementation of bicultural curricula that build positive self-concepts and reinforce the strong identities of Cheyenne and Arapaho children so they can be happy. He is simultaneously respectful of the role of education in providing the necessary skills and knowledge to make all his grandchildren functional in white society. Other Cheyennes and Arapahoes have not expressed negative opinions about

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EDUCATION, 1871-1982

education primarily because of its potential to make them all selfsufficient. Respect was not reciprocal, however; whites ethnocentrically astheir education was superior to the systems The People had that sumed evolved over time. Early Cheyenne and Arapaho schools were unique in terms of funding. They were supported or operated by the government as a part of its federal trust responsibility and in accordance with treaty stipulations. The first schools were operated by the Society of Friends and were federally subsidized, a merger of church and state. Religion was included as a regular part of the curriculum, as was industrial training. Students attended classes for a half a day and performed manual labor for the other half. The schools offered only a limited number of grades; when students had completed all the grades, they repeated the cycle for as long as they were in school. It required two years to complete each of the six grades offered at Seger and two years to finish the first grade at Carlisle. White schools operated on a different basis. The initial territorial or early state public schools did not receive federal funding. They adhered rigidly to a separation of church and state. They also offered more grades, and when a student had completed all of them, that individual graduated rather than having to repeat the process. Further, the strength of the public school system is local control in the form of school boards. Generally, Cheyennes and Arapahoes have been excluded from participating in control of education, and this exclusion has resulted in schools being perceived as alien institutions. Cheyenne and Arapaho education has comprised a maze of systems: federally subsidized church group schools, mission schools, federal schools, and public schools. Each administrator devised his own structure and curriculum, resulting in a multiplicity of ineffective systems that were confused, disoriented, and disorienting. The only consistent aspect of the early schools was their three-pronged approach of civilization, Christianization, and education. Little has changed, except that assimilation efforts have been intensified. Historically, American culture has failed to respect Cheyennes and Arapahoes as a part of humanity; rather, The People have been perceived stereotypically as uncivilized museum relics. Consequently, Cheyenne and Arapaho education has existed solely to civilize, to assimilate, and to melt tribal members into the monolithic, impersonal white society. They could not be permitted to be culturally unique but had to disappear. Far from vanishing, however, the total 1980 American Indian population was 1,900,985, and Cheyennes andArapahoes numbered 7,677

in 1981. Despite government efforts, they have not been legislated out of existence.

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185

Only since the Kennedy Report influenced favorable Indian legislation have Cheyennes and Arapahoes been actively involved in education. The tribal Department of Education, under the competent direction of Lawrence Hart, contracts on behalf of the tribes for a number of

education programs previously provided by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. For the first time in the history of the Concho School, a Cheyenne, Arthur Cometsevah, became the superintendent in 1980. Because

of decreasing federal funding levels, declining enrollment, and bureaucratic prejudice, however, the BIA closed the Concho School in June 1982. The policy stance of the administration is that education is not a part of the federal trust responsibility, and the government would like to get out of it. In the estimation of tribal leaders, however, education is a

treaty obligation. As the “supreme law of the land,’ treaties are to be honored “as long as the grass grows, as long as the water is running and the moon is showing, and as long as the sun is shining””!? From the perspective of treaty obligations, Indian education is a perpetual federal responsibility. To date, self-determination has reinforced the Cheyenne and the Arapaho ways of life and has restored their cultural integrity. Despite policy vacillations and attempts to coercively assimilate The People through education since their coming to the reservation, they have remained a distinctly identifiable people with a living history. Long ago, when storytellers, the keepers of history and culture, were to repeat the oral traditions of their people, they observed a certain ceremony: An old storyteller would smooth the ground in front of him with his left hand and make two marks in it with his right thumb, two with his left, and a double mark with

both thumbs together. Then he would rub his hands, and pass his right hand up his right leg to his waist, and touch his left hand and pass it on up his right arm to his breast. He did the same thing with his left and right hands going up the other side. Then he touched the marks on the ground with both hands and rubbed them together and passed them over his head and all over his body. That meant the Creator had made human beings’ bodies and their limbs as he had made the earth, and that the Creator

was witnessto what was to be told. They did not tell any of the... stories without that.!9

This Cheyenne and Arapaho educational history begins and ends with that ritual. The People are a part of creation, and this history 1s

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CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO

EDUCATION, 1871-1982

important and unique because it is told from their perspective, as well as from the personal perspective of White Buffalo Woman. Because of their The People survived the onslaught of the white-skinned timeless traditions, aggressor, and they resolutely walk behind the keepers of their sacred tribal symbols on the road of light and life into the future. Notes (ew

1.

Sister M. Inez Hilger, Arapaho Child Life and Its Cultural Background, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 148 (Washington, DC: Government Printshaves (Osbee, WO)

20)

2.

Edward Red Hat, untitled manuscript (Longdale, OK: May 5, 1977).

3.

Lipps to Sells, June 7, 1918, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75, Central Classified Files, 31978-12-810 General Services, National Archives and Records ton, DC, 59854-18-800, Central Classified Files, General Services.

Service, Washing-

4.

United States Department of the Interior, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs (hereafter cited as Report of the Commissioner), 1899, at 316-17.

5.

Miles to Smith, February 11, 1876, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75, Microcopy 234, roll 121.

6.

Report of the Commissioner, 1881, at 75.

7.

Henry Mann, Sr. (Horse Road), interview by author, January 30, 1982.

8.

United States Senate, “Report to Special Subcommittee on Indian Education, from Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity,’ January 21, 1969, Indian Education, 1969 Hearings, at 1550 (hereafter cited as OIO Report).

9.

Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, 22d Business Committee, Committee Resolution No. 63080R05, June 30, 1980, BIA Concho Agency Records, Concho, OK.

10.

OIO Report, January 21, 1969, at 1500-53.

11.

Red Hat, untitled manuscript.

12.

Edward Red Hat, “Arrow Keeper Tells Thoughts for 1982,’ Watonga Republican, January 21 1982, at A8. Edward Red Hat, the Keeper of Sacred Arrows, collapsed on the evening of

February 23, 1982, at the entrance to the Sacred Arrow Tepee while securing it against the wind. He died the following morning, February 24, 1982, at 6:10 a.m. in the hospital at Okeene, OK. Joe Antelope of Watonga, OK, was chosen as his successor. The new Keeper

of Sacred Arrows has been a Cheyenne chief for many years and is a member of the Native American Church of North America, the peyote religion of the plains. He is a friend of Henrietta’s father and they were together in a peyote meeting held for the purpose of asking that Henrietta get a good education. Much later, Mr. Antelope commented to her father, “Henry, our prayers were answered.” Joe Antelope, as Keeper of the Cheyenne Sacred Arrows, now represents Sweet Medicine, and in his role as the keeper is the grandfather to all Cheyennes. 13.

“The Holy Stories of the Cheyennes,” n.d. Unpublished manuscript given to the author by Harvey Twins in the early 1970s; its origin is unknown.

BIBLIOGRAPHY (Meo

PRIMARY SOURCES UNPUBLISHED Bureau of Indian Affairs, Concho

Agency, Concho, Oklahoma.

Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, Cheyenne-Arapaho Business Committee Records: 11th Council,

1958-1959

12th Council,

1960-1961

13th Council,

1962-1963

14th Council, 1964-1965 15th Council, 1966-1967 16th Council, 1968-1969 17th Council, 1970-1971

Cheyenne-Arapaho Administrative

Tribes of Oklahoma, Concho, Oklahoma: Files—Concho

School Contract Records

Department of Education Records

Federal Archives

and Records

Center, Fort Worth, Texas. Records

of the Bureau

of Indian

Affairs. Record Group 75. Concho Agency (formerly the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency): Administrative Files—Concho

Administrative Files—Schools Business Committee

Correspondence

1904 Register of Children, Ages 5-17 Records of Pupils Attending Off Reservation Schools Red Moon

Boarding School, Concho

School, Concho

Demonstration

School

School and Agency Education Records Tribal Council Minutes

Hoffman, Archie Doyle. Personal papers from term of employment with the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, 1974-1980.

188

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The National Archives of the United States—Microfilm.

Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs 1824-1880. Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Record Group 75. Microcopy No. 234. Reports of Inspection of the Field Jurisdictions of the Office of Indian Affairs, 1873-1900. Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75, and Records of the Office of the Secretary of the Interior, Record Group 48. Microcopy No. 1070. Microfilm available only through purchase from the National Archives Trust Fund (NEPS), Washington, DC; author was unable to obtain the microfilm.

Superintendents’ Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports from Field Jurisdictions of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1907-1938. Records

of the Bureau

of Indian Affairs, Record

Group 75. Microcopy No. 1011.

The National Archives of the United States. Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record

Group 75:

Board of Indian Commissioners, Special Reports

Central Classified Files—Cheyenne & Arapaho Agency: Education Establishment or Abolishment of Agencies and Schools General Policy

Tribal Relations Central Classified Files—General Services: Education

Irregularly Shaped Papers Official Register of Employees:

Abstracts of Letters Relating to Epidemics Briefs of Investigations Circulars Issued by the Education Division

Indian Division and Bureau of Indian Affairs Records Concerning Former Students

Reports Concerning Graduates of Indian Schools Summaries of Work Completed and Records Relating to Mission Schools Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Archives/Manuscript Division (Indian Archives Division)

Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency Records: American or Roe’s Indian Institute Bacone College Carlisle Indian School Chilocco Indian School Genoa Indian School

BIBLIOGRAPHY

189

Hampton Institute

Haskell Institute Indian Pioneer History Collection

Whiteman, Alfred,Jr.Personal papers in the possession of Henrietta Whiteman from his terms on the Cheyenne-Arapaho Business Committee, 1966-1970.

Whiteman, Alfred, Sr. Personal papers in the possession of Henrietta Whiteman from his terms on the Cheyenne-Arapaho Business Committee, 1958-1961. Whiteman, Henrietta. Personal papers from her term on the Cheyenne-Arapaho Business Committee, 1966-1967.

PUBLISHED Some Background on the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. Prepared for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Concho, OK: Concho Agency—Cheyenne/Arapaho Complex, 1980. United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The Indian Education Act of 1972.

Prepared by the National Advisory Council on Indian Education. Washington, DC: n.d. United States Department of the Interior. Annual Reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1868-1932. (Between 1897 and 1932 this report appeared in the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior.) . Course of Study for the Indian Schools of the United States: Industrial and Literary. Prepared by Estelle Reel, Superintendent of Indian Schools, Office of Indian Affairs. Washington, DC:

Government Printing Office, 1901. . A History of Indian Policy. Prepared for the Bureau of Indian Affairs by S. Lyman Tyler. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1973. . Indian Education. Prepared for the Bureau of Education by General T. J. Morgan, Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Bulletin No. 1, 1889. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1899.

. Manual for the Indian School Service. Prepared by the Office of Indian Affairs, Education Division. Riverside, CA: Sherman

Press, 1942.

. Statistics Concerning Indian Education: Fiscal Year 1979. Compiled for the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Indian Education Programs, by

Evelyn Leading Fighter. Washington, DC: BIA, 1979. United States Senate. Indian Education: A National Tragedy—A National Challenge. 91st Cong., 1st Sess. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1969. United States Senate. Indian Education, 1969. Hearings before the Special Subcommittee on Indian Education. 90th Cong., 1st and 2d Sess. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1969.

INTERVIEWS

BY AUTHOR

Allen, Wallace. Education Specialist, Education Division, Anadarko Area Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Anadarko, Oklahoma. Telephone interviews October 1, 1981 and January 27, 1982.

Anderson, Warner,

M.D. Telephone interview September 10, 1981.

Bushyhead, Frank. Teacher, Concho

School, Concho, Oklahoma. Personal interview April 23,

1981. Cometsevah, Arthur. Superintendent, Concho

April 23, 1981.

School, Concho, Oklahoma. Personal interview

190

BIBLIOGRAPHY . Telephone interviews January 13, 1982 and January 28, 1982.

Cometsevah, Laird,Jr.Cheyenne chief. Personal interview April 23, 1981. Delaney, Charles (“Chuck”). Program Development and Contract Services, Anadarko Area Office, Anadarko, Oklahoma. Telephone interview October 21, 1981.

Greeley, Phyllis Hart. Teacher. Concho 24, 1981.

School, Concho, Oklahoma. Personal interview April ope

Hadley, Imogene Gould (Many Song Woman). Telephone interview January 13, 1982. Mann, Henry, Sr. (Horse Road). Personal interviews September 21, 1979 and January 30,

1982. . Cheyenne oral tradition, collected July 17, 1981. Nibbs, Ahniwake. Teacher, Concho

School, Concho, Oklahoma. Personal interview April 24,

1981. Osage, Joe. Business Manager, Institute of the Southern

phone interview November

Plains, Hammon,

Oklahoma. Tele-

13, 1980.

Pendleton, Flora (Jennie ) Black. Personal interview July 14, 1981. Red Hat, Edward. Cheyenne Keeper of Sacred Arrows. Personal interview July 17, 1981. Red Hat, Minnie Bull (Shell Woman). Personal interview July 17, 1981. Roubidoux, Ruby Ruth Mann (Flying Woman). Personal interview August 16, 1981. Standing Water, Crooked Nose Woman

Miriam Mann. Personal interviews September 1, 1979

and April 26, 1981.

Twins, Harvey (Black Deer). Former Executive Advisor to the Cheyenne Keeper of Sacred Arrows. Personal interview November

25, 1979.

Whiteman, Alfred, Jr. Great-grandson of Chief Little Raven. Arapaho oral tradition collected beginning in the 1960s. Whiteman, Alfred, Sr. Grandson of Chief Little Raven. Arapaho oral tradition, collected in the

1960s.

‘THESES

AND

DISSERTATIONS

Ammon, Soloman R. “History and Present Development of Indian Schools in the United States.” M.Ed. thesis, University of Southern California, 1935.

Beuke, Vernon Lee. “The Relationship of Cultural Identification to Personal Adjustment of American Indian Children in Segregated and Integrated Schools.” Ph.D. diss., Cornell University,

1978.

Ryan, Carmelita S. “The Carlisle Indian Industrial School.” Ph.D. diss., Georgetown Univer-

sity, 1962.

Wild, George Posey. “History of Education of the Plains Indians of Southwestern Oklahoma Since the Civil War.” Ed.D. diss., University of Oklahoma,

1941.

Wilson, Terry Paul. “Panaceas for Progress: Efforts to Educate the Southern Cheyennes and Arapahoes, 1870-1908.” M.A. thesis, University of Oklahoma,

1965. [Author was unable

to obtain a copy of the thesis.]

MISCELLANEOUS Concho School, Concho, Oklahoma. On-site visit by Henrietta Whiteman. April 23-24, 1981.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

19]

“The Holy Stories of the Cheyennes.” Unpublished manuscript given to the author by Harvey Twins in the early 1970s; origin unknown, n.d. Institute of the Southern Plains, Hammon, Oklahoma. On-site visit by Henrietta Whiteman as a member of an evaluation team for the Coalition of Indian Controlled School Boards, Denver, Colorado. May 17—20, 1977.

Red Hat, Edward. “Arrow Keeper Tells Thoughts for 1982.” Watonga (Okla.) Republican, January 21-1982. p. AS, ———..

Untitled one-page manuscript. Longdale, OK: May 5, 1977.

Whiteman Survey. Records of survey conducted by Henrietta Whiteman. April 17, 1981; July 23, 1981; and November

13-14, 1981

(in the possession of Henrietta Whiteman).

SECONDARY

SOURCES

Books Adams, Evelyn C. American Indian Education: Government Schools and Economic Progress. 1946. Reprint, New York: Arno Press & The New York Times, 1971. Andrist, Ralph K. The Long Death: The Last Days of the Plains Indians. 1964. Reprint, New York: Collier-Macmillan,

Collier Books,

1969.

Armstrong, Samuel C. Indian Education in the East. Hampton,VA: Normal School Steam Press, 1880.

Bass, Althea. The Arapaho Way: A Memoir of an Indian Boyhood. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1966. Battey, Thomas C. Introduction to The Life and Adventures of a Quaker Among the Indians, by Alice Marriott. 1875. Reprint, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976. Beck, Peggy. The Cheyenne. Tsaile, AZ: Navajo Community Press, 1977. Berthrong, Donald J. The Cheyenne and Arapaho Ordeal: Reservation and Agency Life in the Indian Territory, 1875-1907. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976. —..

The Southern Cheyennes. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.

Brown, Dee. Tepee Tales of the American Indian. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1979.

Coel, Margaret. Chief Left Hand: Southern Arapaho. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1981. Cohoe, William. Commentary to A Cheyenne Sketchbook, by E. Adamson Daniels Petersen. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964.

Hoebel and Karen

Deboe, Angie. A History of the Indians of the United States. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970.

Dorsey, George A. The Cheyenne: Ceremonial Organization. Field Columbian Museum Publication no. 99; Anthropological

Series 9, no. 1. Chicago: Field Columbian

Museum,

1905.

. The Cheyenne: The Sun Dance. Field Columbian Museum Publication no. 103; Anthropological Series 9, no. 2. Chicago: Field Columbian Museum, 1905. Dorsey, George A., and

Alfred L. Kroeber. Traditions of the Arapaho. Publication 81, Anthropo-

logical Series, vol. 5. Chicago: Field Columbian Museum, 1903. Eastman, Elaine Goodale. Pratt: The Red Man’s Moses. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1935)

Ellis, Richard N., ed. The Western American Indian: Case Studies in Tribal History. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972. Fletcher, Alice C. Indian Education and Civilization. Report in Answer to Senate Resolution,

192

BIBLIOGRAPHY 48th Cong., 2d Sess., 1885; Sen. Ex. Doc. 95. 1888. Reprint, Millwood, NY: Kraus Reprint, 1973.

Fuchs, Estelle, and Robert J. Havighurst. To Live on This Earth: American Indian Education. New York: Doubleday, 1972. Golden, Gertrude. Red Moon Called Me: Memoirs ofa Schoolteacher in the Government Indian Service. Edited by Cecil Dryden. San Antonio, TX: Naylor, 1954. Grinnell, George Bird. Foreword to By Cheyenne Campfires, by Omer C. Stewart. 1926. Reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books, 1971. . The Cheyenne Indians: Their History and Ways of Life. 2 vols. 1923. Reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books, 1972.

—..

The Fighting Cheyennes. 1915. Reprint, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971.

Hilger, Sister M. Inez. Arapaho Child Life and Its Cultural Background. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 148. Washington, DC: Government Printing Ofrakes, JG. Hoebel, E. Adamson. Winston, 1960.

The Cheyennes: Indians of the Great Plains. New York: Holt, Rinehart

&

Hoig, Stan. Foreword to The Peace Chiefs of the Cheyennes, by Boyce D. Timmons. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980. : —..

The Sand Creek Massacre. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961.

Hyde, George E. Life of George Bent: Written from His Letters. Edited by Savoie Lottinville. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968. Jablow, Joseph. The Cheyenne in Plains Indian Trade Relations, 1951.

1795-1840.

New York: J.J. Augustin,

Jones, Louis Thomas. Amerindian Education. San Antonio, TX: Naylor, 1972.

Kappler, Charles J., comp. and ed. Foreword to Indian Treaties: 1778-1833, by Brantley Blue. New York: Interland Publishing, 1972. Krehbiel, Henry Peter. The History of the General Conference of the Mennonites of North America. 2 vols. St. Louis, MO: A. Weibusch

& Son Printing, 1898.

Kroeber, Alfred L. The Arapaho. American Museum of Natural History Bulletin 18, vol. 13, pts.

1—4. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1902-1907. Llewellyn, Karl Nickerson, and E. Adamson Hoebel. The Cheyenne Way: Conflict and Case Law in Primitive Jurisprudence. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1941. Marriott, Alice, and Carol K. Rachlin. Dance Around the Sun: The Life ofMary Little Bear Inkanish, Cheyenne. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1977. Meriam, Lewis, et al. Introduction to The Problems of Indian Administration, by Frank C. Miller.

1928. Reprint, New York: Johnson Reprint, 1971.

Mooney, James. The Cheyenne Indians. American Anthropological Association. Memoirs, vol. 1, pt. 6. Lancaster, PA: Era Printing, 1905-1907. . Introduction to The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890, by Anthony F C. Wallace. 1896. Reprint, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965.

Ortiz, Alfonso. Project Head Start in an Indian Community. Report No. OE0-539. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965. Pannabecker, Samuel Floyd. Open Doors: The History of the General Conference Mennonite Church. Newton, KS: Faith and Life Press, 1975.

Petersen, Karen Daniels. Introduction to Howling Wolf: A Graphic Interpretation of His People, by John C. Ewers. Palo Alto, CA: American West, 1968.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

193

. Plains Indian Art from Fort Marion. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971. Petter, Rodolphe. English-Cheyenne Dictionary. Kettle Falls, WA: 1913-1915.

Powell, Peter J. Sweet Medicine: The Continuing Role of the Sacred Arrows, the Sun Dance and the Sacred Buffalo Hat in Northern Cheyenne History. 2 vols. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1969.

Pratt, Richard Henry. Battlefield and Classroom: Four Decades with the American Indian, 1867-1904.

Edited by Robert M. Utley. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964. Seger, John H. Early Days Among the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians. Edited by Stanley Vestal. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1956. Shakespeare, Tom. The Sky People. New York: Vantage Press, 1971.

Sooktis, Rubie. The Cheyenne Journey. Edited by Fr. G. EFHemauer. Ashland, MT: Religion Research

Center, 1976.

Stands in Timber, John, and Margot Liberty. Cheyenne Memories. With the assistance of Robert M. Utley. 1967. Reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books, 1972.

Stuart, Paul. The Indian Office: Growth and Development of an American Institution, 1865-1900. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms

International Research Press, 1973.

Szasz, Margaret. Education and the American Indian: The Road to Self-Determination, 1928-1973.

Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1974. Tatum, Lawrie. Foreword to Our Red Brothers and the Peace Policy of President Ulysses S. Grant, by Richard N. Ellis. 1899. Reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1970.

Ten Years Work for Indians at Hampton Institute, Virginia: 1878-1888. Virginia: Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, n.d. Trenholm, Virginia Cole. The Arapahoes: Our People. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970. Wall, C. Leon, and Beulah Widney Wall. Tomahawks over Chilocco. Oklahoma City, OK: Kin Lichee Press, 1979.

Weist, Katherine M., ed. Belle Highwalking: The Narrative of a Northern Cheyenne Woman. Billings, MT: Montana Council for Indian Education, 1979. Weist, Thomas D. A History of the Cheyenne People. Billings, MT: Montana Council for Indian Education,

1977.

Wright, Muriel H. A Guide to the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1951.

ARTICLES Berthrong, Donald J. “Federal Indian Policy and the Southern Cheyennes and Arapahoes, 1887— 1907.” Ethnohistory 3 (1956): 138-48. Brown, Donald. “The Ghost Dance Religion Among the Oklahoma Cheyennes.” Chronicles of Oklahoma 30, no. 4 (1952-53): 408-16.

Carey, John G. “The Puzzle of Sand Creek.” Colorado Magazine 41, no. 4 (1964): 279-98. Costo, Rupert. “‘Seven Arrows’ Desecrates Cheyenne.” Indian Historian 5, no. 2 (1972): 41-42.

Dusenberry, Vern. “Horn in the Ice.” Montana Magazine of Western History 6, no. 4 (1956): 26— 3B Ediger,T. A., and Vinnie Hoffman. “Some Reminiscences of the Battle of the Washita.” Chronicles of Oklahoma 33, no. 3 (1955): 137-41.

Gage, Duane. “Black Kettle: ANoble Savage?” Chronicles of Oklahoma 37 (1959): 411-32.

194

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Grinnell, George Bird. “Account of the Northern Cheyennes Concerning the Messiah Superstition.” Journal ofAmerican Folklore 4 (1891): 61-91.

Hilger, M. Inez. “Notes on Cheyenne Child Life.” American Anthropologist, n.s., 48 (1946): 60— 69. Hodge, Patt. “The History of Hammon and the Red Moon School.” Chronicles of Oklahoma 44 (1966): 130-39. r

Kaufman, Edmund G. “Mennonite Missions Among the Oklahoma Indians.” Chronicles of Oklahoma 40 (1962): 41-54. Meserve, Charles Francis. “The First Allotment of Lands in Severalty Among the Oklahoma Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians.” Chronicles of Oklahoma 11 (1933): 1040-43.

Michelson, Truman. “The Narrative of a Southern Cheyenne Woman.” Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 87, no. 5 (1932): 1-13. Peery, Dan W. “The Indians’ Friend, John H. Seger: His Stories of the Myths, Legends and Religions of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.” Chronicles of Oklahoma 10 (1932): 348-68, 570-91; 11, no. 3 (1933): 709-32, 845-68, 967-94, 975-76. Powell, Father Peter John. “Issiwun: Sacred Buffalo Hat of the Northern Cheyenne.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 10 (1960): 24-40. Rairdon, Jack T. “John Homer Seger: The Practical Educator.” Chronicles of Oklahoma 34, no. 2 (1956): 203-16. Schlesier, Karl H. “Action Anthropology and the Southern Cheyenne.” Current Anthropology 15 (1974): 277-83. Smith, J. S.“Cheyennes.” In Information Respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, vol. 3, edited by H. R. Schoolcraft, 446-59. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Grambo, 1853. Wright, Peter M. “John Collier and the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936.” Chronicles of Oklahoma 50 (1972): 347-71. Wynkoop, Edward W. “The Battle of the Washita: An Indian Agent’s View.” Chronicles of Oklahoma 36 (1958/1959): 474-75.

INDEX (ea

Adult Education

Program,

166

After, Mr. and Mrs., 143

forced, 164 genocidal effects of, 121

Agriculture, 4 education and, 61, 62

Baird, Spencer Fullerton, 41

Albuquerque Training School, 58

Baldwin Twins, 125

Alcoholism, rate of, 183

Beard, Elkanah, 83-84

Allen, Wallace, 169

Allotments, 82, 92, 120, 121, 124, 150-51 education and, 118 reversal of, 122 American Citizen, 54 American Indian National Art Show, Whiteman at, 149

American Missionary Society, 45 Annuity system, 30 Anquoe, Margaret: Concho and, 166 Antelope, 51 Antelope, Joe, 186n12 Arapahoes education and, xi, 25, 26, 46

government by, 98 location of, 7 migration of, 5—6 subtribes of, 10

Arapaho Manual Labor and Boarding School, 87-90, 104, 111, 181 merger with, 94 problems at, 89 Armstrong, Samuel C., 45

missionary work by, 69, 70 Beard, Irene, 84 missionary work by, 69, 70 Beard, Ralph, 157, 163 Concho and, 166 Bent, Charles, 7 Bent, George, 8, 63 Sand Creek and, 9

Bent, George, Jr., 63 Bent, William, 7, 9 Benton, Alfreda, 140 Bent’s. Fort, 7, 177 Berlin, William, 168 BIA. See Bureau of Indian Affairs Biculturalism, 135, 167

Bilingual teacher training program, 166-67 Black, Florence Red Eye, 138 Black, Star, 138 Black Horse, 40 BlackeKettle, 12521) Sie 13877 death of, 22 Sand Creek and, 9

industrial education and, 46, 47

Blankenship, Jap W., 161 Blish, W. H., 97

report by, 46-47

Board of Indian Commissioners, 29

Arrow Renewal, 2, 3, 80, 152n4, 175

Ashley, Charles FE: attendance problems and, 89

Assimilation, 24, 29, 43-44, 104, 120, 123, 135, 144, 146, 176, 185

contract school system and, 79-80 Board of Mennonite Missions, 70

Bost, E. J.: on Cantonment, 102-3 Broken Dish, 80

Brookings Institution, study by, 121

confronting, 77, 97, 151 education and, 19, 92, 151, 164,

Buffalo Calf Woman, 41, 44

183, 184

Bull, Shell Woman

Buttalo bunting) 5525, 29,35.

Minnie, 139

196

INDEX

Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), xi, 167, 168, 170, 185 Cheyenne-Arapaho Business Committee and, 169 Chilocco and, 62

grants from, 158 judgment fund money and, 160, 161

Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation, 48, 87, 178 allotments at, 82, 118 education at, 74-75, 111

students from, 179

Cheyenne and-Arapaho School, 10314, 130;,181

off-reservation schools and, 100

assimilation at, 104

relocation by, 133n30 training programs/workshops by, 147

founding of, 94

See also Office of Indian Affairs Burnham, Mary H., 46, 50 Burns, Edward G.: at Genoa, 62 Burns, Robert Hamilton, 59 Bushyhead, Frank, 169 Byrne, Janet, 52

Office of Indian Affairs and, 33 recommendations for, 124

See also Concho School Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Education Program, 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Operational Program, 157 Cheyenne-Arapaho Business Commit-

Caddo Springs, 93, 104, 180, 181

tee, 149

school at, 33, 87 Calhoun, John C., 19 Campbell, Charles E.: on Carlisle, 50—

13th Council of, 150

| Camp Supply, 22, 23, 48

161, 163

Cantonment allotment at, 82 mission at, 74

public schools and, 103 Cantonment

Boarding School, 73, 75,

79, 100-103, 014 attendance at, 101 establishment of, 181 closing of, 82, 83, 103

Cantonment Superintendency, 90, 101 Carlisle Indian Industrial Training School, 47, 48, 49, 63, 88, 91, 179 Cheyenne/Arapaho students at, 50— 61, 56-57 (table) closing of, 58 curriculum at, 52-53, 57

enrollment at, 58 (table) mission of, 51, 54-55, 56 Cattell, Julia A., 24, 25

Ceremonial with the Supreme (Whiteman), 149 Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, 29, 90, 101 districts of, 97 students at, 106-7

14th Council of, 159 15th Council of, 156-57, 159, 160,

16th 19th 20th 21st BIA

Council Council Council Council and, 169

of, 163, 166 of, 166, 167 of, 167 of, 179

education program by, 150 judgment fund money and, 161, 162-63 scholarships awarded by, 159, 159 (table), 160 Cheyenne-Arapaho Department of Education, Concho

185

School and, 169

programs by, 167 “Cheyenne-Arapaho Fifteenth Council Education Trust,’ 161

“Cheyenne-Arapaho Fifteenth Council Minors’ Trusts,” 161

“Cheyenne-Arapaho Fifteenth Council Trusts for Persons Under Legal Disability,” 161 Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma,

156

constitution/bylaws

of, 123, 150,

182 life expectancy for, 182-83

INDEX

scholarship program of, 158, 160 Cheyenne Bilingual Study, Training and Teaching Program, 166-67 Cheyenne Manual Labor and Boarding School, 90-94, 111, 181 attendance at, 92, 93 instruction

at, 91

merger with, 94 Cheyennes

197

on Indian New Deal, 122

Indian rights and, 123 reform legislation and, 122, 156

Colony High School/Colony Public School,

142

Colony Union Graded School District No. 1, 100 Columbian Quadri-Centennial parade, 55

education and, xi, 14-16, 25-26, 46

Cometsevah, Arthur, xi, 179, 185

exile for, 40-41

Commissioner of Indian affairs

government by, 98

Indian education and, 45

location of, 7

language policy by, 77-78

Pawnees

and, 176-77

value system of, 155

Chilocco Indian Agricultural School (Haworth

Institute), 58, 63, 137,

Committee of Friends on Indian Affairs,

27 Compulsory attendance law, 80, 105, 106

139, 146-47 Cheyennes/Arapahoes at, 61-62

Concho

controversy at, 62

Concho

Chippewas, 5, 120 Chivington, John Milton, 9, 10, 22,

117 Christian Endeavor Society, 104 Christianity, 24, 64, 98 education and, 35, 44, 70-71, 72,

TENTS; 79; 110, 136,180, 184 exposure

to, 69, 143, 144

Christian Union, The, Stowe in, 41—42 Chubbuck, Levi

agricultural conditions and, 90 Cheyenne school/Arapaho school and, 94

Civilization, 61, 64, 77, 178 adjustments to, 121 education and, 12, 33, 34, 35, 44,

OU, ne 2 Bit on 92, 955 103, 104, 136, 180, 184 land ownership and, 92 Civilization Fund, 21 Clinton Public Schools, 130, 138

Cohoe, 42

College of William and Mary, Indian education and, 21°

Collier, John, 124, 131 appointment of, 108-9 discipline and, 109 on governmental policy, 120-21

Agency, 113n48, 147, 150,

169 School, xi, 102, 142, 143-44,

146, 147, 181 advisory committee for, 166 Cheyenne superintendent for, 185 closing of, 170 contracting for, 179 grades at, 109, 110 Indian employees at, 105 Navajo program at, 111 overcrowding at, 107 platoon system at, 106

summer school at, 110

See also Cheyenne and Arapaho School Constitution and By-Laws of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of @klahomaw123,91505182 Contract school system, 79-80, 82-83,

TLS =10 Coppock, Benjamin S., 61 Corporal punishment, 46, 109, 137, 141 Council of Forty-Four, 2, 177 Council Resolution 377-R15,

Council Resolution 445-S15,

Creator Cheyennes and, 1 sacred arrows from, 2

Crook, George, 33

161 162

198

INDEX

Culture, 44, 184

denigration of, 77, 120-21 maintaining, 178 Curriculum, 31, 52-53, 131

systems of, 60, 184 white man and, 126, 135 See also Industrial education Educational Amendments (1972), 164—

65

changes in, 34, 110 religion in, 184

Education and Scholarship Program,

standardization of, 93

Custer, George Armstrong, 22, 117

150-51, 160 Education and Scholarship Trust, income from, 161

Darlington, Brinton, 23, 27, 69, 177

assimilation and, 178

Northern Cheyennes and, 25 relocation by, 39, 178 White Buffalo Woman

and, 24

Darlington Agency, 97 allotment at, 82 mission at, 73, 74

Dartmouth College, Indian education angel Davis, Richard, 55 Davis, Sam B., 62 Dawes Act. See General Allotment Act Dent, Emma

G., 96

Discipline, 46, 109, 137, 141 Division of Civilization and Education, 39 Division of Medicine and Education, 39 Dog Soldiers, treaty with, 8 Dorchester, Daniel: on civilization, 92

El Reno City League, 110 El Reno High School, 110 Emmons,

Glenn L., 131

English learning, 55-56, 96, 124, 178, 180 teaching, 75, 76; 77-7188,

English-Cheyenne Dictionary, 82 Enrichment programs, funds for, 127 Erect: Hornsn 23 omlW/5

prophecy by, 5, 75 sacred buffalo hat and, 80 Etahdleuh, 50 Evans, Governor, 9 Executive Order Reservation (1869), 160 Extinction, confronting, 77, 156

Fannin, Paul J.: Indian education and, 163

Dry, Aaron, 166

Fickinger, Paul L.: on Concho 109

Dunham,

Fire, James, 157

Miss, 140

Dwire, Isaac W., 89 Dyer Di BS

on attendance problems, 88-89

Five Civilized Tribes, 120 “Forgotten American, The” (Johnson),

attitudes toward, 147—48, 182 formal, 19, 21-22, 24-25, 45, 52,

108, 155, 182

Fort Lapwai Reservation, 119

inferior, 121

Fort Laramie, 160 Fort Leavenworth, 41

national policy on, 95-96 parental interest in, 130-31

School,

Flat Pipe Ceremony, 1 163 Fort Belknap Reservation, 10 Fort Cantonment abandonment of, 72 Mennonites at, 84 Fort Crévecoeur, 4 Fort Griffin, 48

Eagle’s Head (Minimic), 43 Education administering/dominating, 39—40 appropriations for, 11

95;

LOSS Ss

Fort Marion, 48, 57, 63, 64n5

priorities in, 20, 55-56, 178

acculturation at, 42-43, 45

sectarian, 74-75

imprisonment

at, 40, 41, 179

INDEX Fort Reno, 43

Fort Sill, 40, 48 Fort Sill Indian School, 110 Fort Totten, 58, 119

Fort Wayne College, 59, 63 Four sacred persons, symbolism/ associations of, 3 (table) Franciscans, teaching by, 20, 21

Franquelin, Jean Baptiste Louis: on Cheyenne-white contact, 4-5 Gantt, John, 7, 176

General Allotment Act (Dawes Act) (1887), 82, 92, 118 Genoa Indian School, 62, 63 Gentle Horse, 51 Germaine, John, 40 Ghost Dance, 81, 89, 98 Goodbear, Howard, 157, 163 Good Bear, Paul, 100

Gould, Perry, 142 Gould, Sam, 140 Grand Junction Training School, 58 Grand Lodge of Masons of Oklahoma, 104 Grant, Ulysses.S.7-23;,477 peace policy of, 27

Quakers and, 22 reservations and, 39, 178

Grants. See Scholarship program Great One, The, 2, 12, 44, 108, 175 importance of, 1, 15, 69

prophets from, 3 Greeley, Phyllis Hart, 169 Grey Beard, death of, 41

Hadley, Imogene Gould (Singing Woman, Many Song Woman, Woman with Many Songs), 151 Hadley, W. J., 91 Hailmann, W. N., 118 Hammon Cheyenne District, 127 alternative school in, 167

Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, 63, 103 Cheyennes/Arapahoes

179

health concerns at, 48 industrial education at, 46 Harris, Fred R.: Senate Bill 1933 and, 161

Hart, Emma

Standing Water, 17n15

Hart, Lawrence

H., xi, 162, 163, 185 15th Council and, 157

judgment fund money and, 160-61 Senate Bill 1933 and, 161

Haskell Institute (Haskell Indian Junior College), 58, 63, 147, 150, 179 admission to, 60-61 curriculum at, 59-60 departments at, 60 Haury, Karl, 71 Haury, Samuel S., 69, 180

classes by, 74 on Darlington school, 72-73 missionary work by, 70-71 Hawkins, Kish, 55, 144

Haworth Institute. See Chilocco Indian Agricultural School Hayt, Commissioner,

33, 34, 43, 45,

49, 50 Health issues, 7-8, 48, 92, 97, 102,

1BONU7O SS Higher Educational Grant (BIA), 158 Higher Education Assistance and Vocational Education programs, 168 Hill, William Arthur, 61 Hirschler, D. B., 88 Hoag, Enoch, 26, 27, 31 House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, 161 Howling Wolf, 42, 43 Hunting economy, 4, 5, 25, 29, 35 Ickes, Harold L., 109, 131 Indian Affairs Subcommittee,

Indian Claims Commission,

education of, 140—42

199

162 162

Indian Claims Commission Act (1946), 160 Indian Education: A National Tragedy—A National Challenge, 164 Indian Education Act (1972), 164-65 Indian Industrial Contract School,

at, 45, 47-48,

Halstead, 79, 84

closing of, 82

200

INDEX

Indianness, suppression of, 103, 146

Keeper of Sacred Arrows, xi, 3, 125,

Indian New Deal, 122

138, 151, 152n4, 178, 186n12

Indian Peace Commission, on Indian

education and, 135, 183 reservation life and, 23-24

situation,

19-20

Indian Reorganization Act (1934), 131, 156, 182 Johnson-O’Malley Act and, 123 objectives of, 122 Indian Rights Association, 33

“Indians at St. Augustine,

The” (Stowe),

41-42 Indian Self-Determination and Educational Assistance Act (1975), 165, 168, 170-71

selection of, 2 White man.story and, 63-64 Kennedy, Edward M., 164 Kennedy, Robert F, 164 Kennedy Report, 163, 164-65, 185 Kit Fox soldiers, 80 Krehbiel, Christian, 78 LaGuardia, Fiorello H., 125 Lake Mohonk Conference, Wellman at,

179 Lake Murray Kook-E-Olympics, 110 Larocque, Mrs. Joseph, 46

Indian Service, 122 assimilation and, 29

cultural suppression by, 77 Indian Women’s Club, lunches by, 130 Industrial education, 53, 59, 74, 76,

Lean Bear, 41

Lee, Jesse M. on Christianity/Indians, 77

101, 105, 180

Mennonites

elements of, 46—47

Seger and, 97

for girls, 98

Left Hand, 177

Institute for Government

Research, 121

Institute of American Indian Arts, 58 Institute of the Southern Plains, 168

Interior Department, Carlisle Barracks and, 58

James I, King: Indian education and, 20 Jenkins, H. M.: on outing system, 54—

and, 6

Liberty National Bank & Trust Company, judgment fund money and, 161 Life expectancy, 182-83

Lippincott, Professor, 53

Jenson, Mary, 99

Jesuits, teaching by, 21 “Johnny Schmoker,’” 27—28, 179 Johnson, Lyndon B., 163 Johnson-O’Malley Act (1934), 156, 168, 170; 182 of, 165

Indian Reorganization Act and, 123 Jones, Ralph, 127-28

report by, 129-31 Judeo-Christian

Leonard, Maggie, 79 Leupp, Francis E.: survey by, 119 Lewis and Clark expedition, Cheyennes

Lincoln Institute, 63

55

amendment

and, 76

ethics, 35, 77, 96, 155

Judgment Fund Distribution Bill (1967), 161 Judgment fund money, distribution of, 160-61, 162-63

Little Bear, Mary, 90, 97 at-Seger, 98,99 Little Bear Woman, 90 Little Chief, 35, 180 education and, 33-34

Little, Raven, 12, 21, 397515 85nt6; 148, 162 education and, 35, 180 influence of, 72

Medicine Lodge Treaty and, 25 Quakers and, 25 Seger and, 98 treaty with, 9 Little Rock, 12, 22 Little Wolf, 34

INDEX

Louisiana Purchase (1803), 6 Lynn, Candi, 140

McCrary, George W., 49 Making Medicine. See Pendleton, David Manifest Destiny, 7, 10, 19, 20 Mann, Crooked Nose Woman Miriam, xi, 245 1 education for, 137-38 at Red Moon, 94, 97, 136-37 Mann, Florance: at Red Moon, 94 Mann, Henry, Sr., 151 Mann, Holy Bird Henry, 17n5, 24, LOS 7 mle Sele1 on assimilation, 144 on Concho, 143—44 education of, 107, 142-44, 145 loan for, 124, 145 White Buffalo Woman and, 145 white men and, 145—46

Mann, Leonora (Imogene) Wolftongue, DA 1236 1245 145 Mann, Spotted Horse Fred, 17n5, 24, NO7AMI2S at Chilocco, 61-62, 137 at Red Moon, 94, 97 Mann, Standing Twenty Henrietta, 24, 108 RITES, 123, 124. 125 136, 139, 144, 181, 182 birthvoiwii7, education for, 127—30 at Hammon, 129

Jones and, 128 return of, 131-32 White Buffalo Woman

and, 17n15,

128 Marvin, James: at Haskell, 59-60 Mather, Miss S. A., 41, 49 Carlisle and, 50

escort by, 51

201

Mennonite Mission School, Darlington, TD, O 1 oe OF closing of, 82, 83

Mennonites agriculture and, 78 education by, 75, 78, 181

missionary work by, 70-72, 75-76, 78, 79, 82, 84 Meriam, Lewis: report by, 121 Meriam Report. See Problem of the Indian Administration, The Miles, Benjah H., 42, 43, 46

Mules, John D., 28, 51,1695 $5n1 17-92; 178 Carlisle and, 52 education and, 35, 88 escort by, 52 Mennonites and, 70 off-reservation education and, 53—

54, 59 Seger and, 27, 29 Miles, Nelson A., 29, 30, 31 education and, 32-33, 34 Mills, Clark, 41 Missionaries

cultural suppression by, 77 education and, 26, 79, 81

Monthly Report, 32 Mooney, James “Shorty,” 139, 151 Moor’s Charity School for Indians, 21 Morbidity rate, 183 Morning Star (Dull Knife), 34 Morse, Wayne, 163 Mortality rate, 183 Myer, Dillon S., 131, 133n30

on Indian children/public schools, 110

Medicine Lodge, 2, 76, 175

Medicine people, 1, 90

National Advisory Council on Indian

Medicine Water, 40

Education, 165 Nibbs, Ahniwake, 169 Nicholson, William, 31

Medley, Miss, 141 Mennonite Board of Missions,

Darlington and, 83 Mennonite

College, 76, 85n11, 181

Mennonite Mission, Seger Colony, 79 Mennonite Mission School, Cantonment, 79

Northern Arapahoes, 160 Northern

Cheyennes, 25, 33, 160

reservation for, 10

treaty with, 8

QO2

INDEX

Office of Indian Affairs, 19, 89

Cheyenne and Arapaho School and, 33 Division of Medicine and Education and, 39 See also Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Indian Education, 165, 167

provisions by, 21 Officer, James E., 156 Off reservation schools, 54, 61, 71, 72,

78, 100, 147, 168, 179 appeal of, 60 opening of, 58-59 quotas for, 59 Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act (ThomasRogers Act) (1936), 122—23, 156, 182 @ralitraditionsxd 6.12 al Ow 17 Gr oo homeland and, 176

importance of, 15 stories from, 14 Otoes, 102-3 Outing system, 53, 54-55, 56, 71-72 Owl Woman, 9

Pratt, Richard Henry, 40, 51, 54, 64n5 Carlisle and, 49-53, 57, 179 Hampton and, 45, 48-49 Indian education and, 55—56, 58 off-reservation schools and, 48

outing system and, 53, 56, 71 routine/ideology of, 41, 42 theory of, 43 Problem of the Indian Administration, The (Meriam Report), 121 impact of, 122, 156, 164 recommendations Protestants

in, 123

mission work by, 83, 84 teaching by, 21 Public Law 90-117, 162 Public Law 92-318, 164-65

Public Law 760, 106 Public schools, 103, 118 Indian children at, 110, 119-20,

124, 126, 127, 147, 183, 184 segregation in, 119 tuition contracts at, 127

Punishment. See Corporal punishment Quakers. See Society of Friends

Parker, Ely S., 27 Pawnees, 7, 176—77

Quartermaster,

Payne, William Howard, 160 Pedro, Joe: on Indian education, 149—

Randall, George M., 71 Raven, Anna, 51, 54, 72) 148, 162 Red Cloud, 49 Red Hat, Edward, xi, 151, 152nn4, 6 death of, 186n12 education of, 138-39

50 Pendleton, David (Making Medicine, Oakahaton, Oakerhater), 50, 64n5, 83, 84, 138 education for, 45 Pendleton, Flora (Jennie) Black, 139, 151 education for, 138 Pendleton, Frank, 138 People, The, 1, 2, 3-4 Peterson, W. M., 104 Petter, Rodolphe, 84 mission work of, 81-82

Peyote, 144 Pie Flat Public School, 127, 146 Poncas, 102-3

Pope, Jno., 72 Poverty, 30, 183 Pratt, Mrs., 41, 43

127

on Mooney, 139 Red Hat, Minnie, 139, 151 Red Moon School, 94—97, 111, 124, 136-37, 181 attendance at, 94, 95, 97

closing of, 98 curriculum at, Red River Indian 40, 48 Reel, Estelle, 93, Religion, 48, 77, education and,

95 War (1875), 29, 39, 95 104 21, 70

Report of the Condition of the School at the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency (1876), 30-31 Reservations, 9, 10, 39, 179

INDEX directors for, 22 education on, 46 poverty on, 30 Raiverside Indian School, 110, 147 Roads, Margaret Horse, 62-63 Roe, Reverend and Mrs. Walter C., 99 Roosevelt, Franklin D., 123, 131

203

establishment of, 181

Seger Superintendency, 90, 101 Self-determination, 150, 163, 165, 171, 185 Self-sufficiency, 142, 171, 184

striving for, 149

Sacred directions, 12, 13-14

Senate Bill 1933, 161, 162 Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, Indian education and, 163 Senate Education Subcommittee, Indian education and, 163 Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, testimony before, 162 Senate Resolution 80, 164 Senate Resolution 165, 163 Senate Resolution 227, 164 Seymour, Flora Warren, 102, 105

Sacred flat pipe, 1, 152, 176

Shawnee Agency, 110

St. Luke’s Mission Day School, 83, 181

Shell, Charles E., 90, 104

Roubidoux, Flying Woman Mann,

17n15,

Ruby Ruth

151

education of, 146—47 Rouse, Nellie R. (Emily Washee), 148

Row of Lodges, Christianity and, 89 Sacred arrows, 7, 80, 152

Sacred Arrow Tepee, 177 Sacred buffalo hat, protecting, 80

StaVrainsGerany 7

Cheyenne and Arapaho School and,

Sand Creek massacre, 22, 34-35 impact of, 8-9 Scholarship program, 157-59

103 contest prizes from, 94

grants awarded by, 159 (table) School boards, 167, 184 Schools. See Off-reservation schools; Public schools Scott, Hugh L.: on Cantonment, 102 Seger, John Homer, 34, 140, 178

Arapahoes and, 90 Arapaho Manual Labor and Boarding School and, 87, 88 colony by, 97 education and, 30, 31-32

impact of, 27—28 Indian Service and, 29 Sunday school and, 98, 99

teaching by, 28-29, 35 Seger Colony, 97 allotment at, 82 Seger Colony School, 79, 98, 106, 142

Smith, Edward P,, 25

Smith, James V.: distribution bill and, 161 Smith, Kenneth, 170

Smithsonian Institution, study by, 41 Society of Friends (Quakers), 23, 25, 69, 177 education and, 24, 31, 180, 184 goals of, 33 missionary work by, 70, 83-84 reservations and, 22 So’taaeo’o, 2-3, 5

Special programs/projects, grants for, 165

Spiritual keepers, 1 Spotted Tail, 49, 50, 85n16

Spotted Wolf, treaty with, 9 Standing, Alfred J., 24, 25, 50

grades at, 184 overcrowding at, 107

prejudice at, 119 Seger District, 97

Shortman, Anna: at Genoa, 62

Sitting Bear. See Whiteman, Alfred, Jr.

©

Seger Indian Industrial School, 97-100, 111, 140 closing of, 100, 113n48

State Junior High School tournament, Concho at, 107 States, Indian education and, 95, 120,

15

State Senior High School Interscholastic Meet, Concho at, 107

204

INDEX

Stewart Institute, 58

Stone Calf, 92 Storm, treaty with, 9 Stouch, George W. H., 101 Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 41—42 Sun Dance; 2;3, 6, 30, 139; 175 modification of, 151

Unemployment, 182, 183 U.S. Constitution, on treaties, 170 Valentine, Robert G.: on Indian

children/public schools, 120 Vance, Paul, 156 Ve’ho’e (Vehoe, Wihio), defined, 14

participating in, 44 Sunday school, 98, 99 Supreme Being, creation by, 1

Voth, Hy Roos

Sweet Medicine, 7, 125, 132, 135,

80 Washee, Washee, Washita, Washita

186n12 on education, 2 prophecies of, 3, 5, 16, 19, 28, 63, 75, 175-76 sacred arrows of, 175 Sweezy, Carl, 26

on Seger, 99 on Shell, 103 on Woodson, 90 Taber, Superintendent, 91, 92 ‘Tatum, Lawrie, 69 Taylor, NG 12 Tenth Cavalry, 40, 48

Termination psychosis, 170-71 Thomas-Rogers Act. See Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act Townsend, Elma, 24 Townsend, Jesse R., 24 Trading, 6, 7

Training schools, opening of, 58-59 Traylor, H. S.: objections by, 105 Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851), 8, 12,

tid 177 Treaty of Fort Wise (1861), 8, 177 Treaty of Friendship (1825), 7, 176 Treaty of Medicine Lodge (1867), 16, yi aeaa weesomil By NGlay education and, 106, 126

signing of, 10-11 Treaty of the Little Arkansas (1865), 177 education and, 11-12

signing of, 9-10 Tribal Business Council, judgment fund money and, 160 Tuberculosis, 48, 102, 130

Walker River Reservation, messiah at,

Emily. See Rouse, Nellie R. John, Jr., 165-66 allotment at, 82 massacre, 22, 35, 94

Wellman, W. W.: address by, 179-80 Wells, George C., 124, 125

Wells School. Attendance

Study, 124,

125 Western Tribes of Oklahoma, meeting with, 170 Whipple, Henry Benjamin, 46 Whirlwind Day School, 83, 84 White, Byron E., 101 White Antelope, 177 White Bear, Lucy, 24 White Buffalo Girl, 12-13

birth of, 177 education of, 13, 14-15 White Buffalo Woman, 12, 15, 22, 28, 61, 62-63, 94

childbirth assistance by, 117 education and, 35, 44, 50, 108, 181,

186 family of, 16, 17n15 on Ghost Dance, 81 messiah and, 80 missionaries and, 84 prisoners and, 40, 41, 44 Red Moon and, 97 reservation life and, 24, 34-35, 87 Standing Twenty and, 117 White Man, 125

Whiteman, Alfred, Jr. (Sitting Bear), 151, 166 16th Council and, 163 education of, 148-49 election of, 156

INDEX

judgment fund money and, 160-61 painting by, 149 Whiteman, Alfred, Sr., 148

Whitwell, John: on Red Moon School, 95 Wicks, J. B., 45, 83

15th Council/judgment award and,

Williams, A. D.: Haskell and, 60

162-63

Wilson, Horace E.: Cantonment 100

education and, 149 Whiteman, Henrietta V., 149, 152nn4,

6,162, 163 15th Council and, 157 election of, 156 judgment fund money and, 160-61 Senate Bill 1933 and, 161 tribal ceremonies and, 171 White man story, 63-64 Whites contact with, 4-8, 10, 63

2OS

and,

Wilson, Jack. See Wovoka Wind River Reservation, 10 Wing, Dr., 53

Woman Who Comes to Offer Prayer, The, 16, 117, 138-39, 152n4 degree for, 132 Woodson, A. E. Arapahoes and, 90 Board of School Commissioners and,

89

education and, 16, 126, 135

on public schools, 118

migration of, 8 perceptual distortion for, 63-64

school construction and, 89-90

White

Shield, Harry, 59

Woolworth, Eugene, 157 Work, Hubert, 121

Whites Indian Manual Labor School,

Wovoka (Jack Wilson), 80 WPA, 130

63 Whites Iowa Manual Labor Institute, 63

Yelloweyes, Katie, 63

White Shirt, 125, 148, 162

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