Product Description
'A skillfully written, welcome addition to the scholarship on American Indian experience in federal boarding schools. Professor Child brings an important and revealing corpus of materials into public view and treats those materials with understanding and sensitivity' - Tsianina Lomawaima, author of "They Called It Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School". "Boarding School Seasons" offers a revealing look at the strong emotional history of Indian boarding school experiences in the first half of the twentieth century. At the heart of this book are the hundreds of letters written by parents, children, and school officials at Haskell Institute in Kansas and the Flandreau School in South Dakota. These revealing letters show how profoundly entire families were affected by their experiences. Children, who often attended schools at great distances from their communities, suffered from homesickness, and their parents from loneliness. Parents worried continually about the emotional and physical health and the academic progress of their children.Families clashed repeatedly with school officials over rampant illnesses and deplorable living conditions and devised strategies to circumvent severely limiting visitation rules. Family intimacy was threatened by the schools' suppression of traditional languages and Native cultural practices. Although boarding schools were a threat to family life, profound changes occurred in the boarding school experience as families turned to these institutions for relief during the Depression, when poverty and the loss of traditional seasonal economies proved a greater threat. "Boarding School Seasons" provides a multifaceted look at the aspirations and struggles of real people. Brenda J. Child, a Red Lake Ojibwe, is an assistant professor of American studies at the University of Minnesota. This is her first book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Informative. Has something you've never heard of before
I picked up this book for my college class on the study of Native Americans from Civil War to present.Even though this is an educational biography on boarding school life, it is actually quite intriguing.Brenda Child completely covers the topic with very interesting material. I won't say that Boarding School Seasons is one of my favorites, but if you are interested in the topic of Indian boarding schools, then you will actually be suprised at how easy it is for this book to keep your attention.If you are viewing this book for a college course, then your class shouldn't be too hard.This is one of the few college required texts that I actually managed to enjoy

A Boarding School Primer
This short, easy to read book presents a basic overview of boarding school issues which occurred throughout the U.S. during the boarding school era.Brenda Child's book concentrates on the Red Lake Ojibwes who attendedboarding school at Flandreau specifically.The book also uses personalstories of students and their families in vignettes preserved throughletters sent to and from Flandreau. I found this book well-written,readable, and recommended as an overview of the boarding school era. ... Read more

Product Description
The last "Indian War" was fought against Native American children in the dormitories and classrooms of government boarding schools. Only by removing Indian children from their homes for extended periods of time, policymakers reasoned, could white "civilization" take root while childhood memories of "savagism" gradually faded to the point of extinction. In the words of one official: "Kill the Indian and save the man."

Education for Extinction offers the first comprehensive account of this dispiriting effort. Much more than a study of federal Indian policy, this book vividly details the day-to-day experiences of Indian youth living in a "total institution" designed to reconstruct them both psychologically and culturally. The assault on identity came in many forms: the shearing off of braids, the assignment of new names, uniformed drill routines, humiliating punishments, relentless attacks on native religious beliefs, patriotic indoctrinations, suppression of tribal languages, Victorian gender rituals, football contests, and industrial training.

Especially poignant is Adams's description of the ways in which students resisted or accommodated themselves to forced assimilation. Many converted to varying degrees, but others plotted escapes, committed arson, and devised ingenious strategies of passive resistance. Adams also argues that many of those who seemingly cooperated with the system were more than passive players in this drama, that the response of accommodation was not synonymous with cultural surrender. This is especially apparent in his analysis of students who returned to the reservation. He reveals the various ways in which graduates struggled to make sense of their lives and selectively drew upon their school experience in negotiating personal and tribal survival in a world increasingly dominated by white men.

The discussion comes full circle when Adams reviews the government's gradual retreat from the assimilationist vision. Partly because of persistent student resistence, but also partly because of a complex and sometimes contradictory set of progressive, humanitarian, and racist motivations, policymakers did eventually come to view boarding schools less enthusiastically.

Based upon extensive use of government archives, Indian and teacher autobiographies, and school newspapers, Adams's moving account is essential reading for scholars and general readers alike interested in Western history, Native American studies, American race relations, education history, and multiculturalism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

American Indian Boarding Schools
This is a well written book and provides both a depth and breadth of understanding into the development of indian boarding schools established in the 1800s.

Pretty good book
This was a pretty good book about American Indians and the whole boarding school experience. David Adams really brought the experience to life. The only downside to this book is that I think he tried to cover too much. He covered a great span of time and the book was pretty long and got a little slow at times.

Frightening lessons taught and learnt at these 'schools'
This all too true account of the reeducation process which American government officials euphemistically had Indian children go through is very chilling. It is maddening to believe there were people in Washington who actually considered such treatment of kids to be 'good policy'.

While reading through this book, I was gennuinely driven to tears. The tactics which were used on the kids were what was 'savage'. Ethnocentrism and racism kept the United States government and its representatives from seeing the Indians as a civilized and advanced society.

The primary and secondary sources which David Wallace Adams cites emphasize that the 'pupils' were not naive and passive victims of these abuses. Predating the American Indian Movement of the 1960's and 1970's, they resisted the 'education' which these schools were trying to shove down their own throats.

Education for extinction
I read this for a class and enjoyed it very much.It is one of the best I have read for Native Studies.There are many facts and other pieces of information that I had not found in other books.

Groundbreaking book on the education of Native Americans
This book was recommended to me by my academic advisor, as it is considered an important and influential treatise on the subject of Native American education. David Wallace Adams, in his groundbreaking book, "Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875-1928," shows how the case for education was made. First, Euro-Americans believed that the older generation of Indians was incapable of becoming civilized and were too attached to their old ways to change. The youthfulness of Indian children meant they could still be saved.

Secondly, education quickened the process of cultural evolution from savagism to civilization. Isolating the children, many felt, would help to reduce the influence of their tribes and their traditional cultures. Lastly, education helped prepare the Indians for self-sufficiency.

I really enjoy this book as it is extremely well written. Adams, unlike some historians, did not use too many jargons and his writing is easy to understand. Adams also provided background information for readers who are not proficient in this subject matter. In addition, "Education for Extinction" was heavily researched and well-documented. ... Read more

Product Description
Haskell Institute of Lawrence, Kansas, first opened its doors in 1884 to twenty-two Ponca and Ottawa children, sent there to be taught Anglo-Protestant cultural values. For a century and a quarter since that time, this famous boarding school institution has challenged and touched the lives of tens of thousands of Indian students and their families representing a diverse array of tribal heritages. Voices from Haskell chronicles the formative years of this unique institution through the vivid memories and words of the students who attended.

Drawing on children's own accounts in letters, diaries, and other first-hand sources, Myriam Vučković reveals what Haskell's students really thought about the boarding school experience. By examining the cultural encounters and contests that occurred there, she portrays indigenous youth struggling to retain a sense of dignity and Indian identity--and refusing to become passive victims of assimilation.

Vučković focuses on issues that directly affected the students, such as curriculum, health, gender differences, and extracurricular activities. She doesn't flinch from the harsh realities of daily life: poor diet, overcrowding, inadequate medical care, and students forced to work to maintain school facilities and often subjected to harsh punishments. In response to this hostile environment, students developed a subculture of accommodation and resistance--sometimes using sign language as a way around the "English only" rule--that also helped break down barriers between tribes. Many found a positive experience in the education they received and discovered new sources of pride, such as the Native American Church, Haskell's renowned football team, and its equally accomplished school band.

Haskell is the only former government boarding school to evolve into a four-year university and still boasts a unique intertribal character, providing a culturally diverse learning environment for more than 1,000 students from 150 tribes every year. The first in-depth study of the school from its founding through the first quarter of the twentieth century, Voices from Haskell is a frank look at its history, a tribute to its accomplishments, and a major contribution to studies of the Indian boarding school experience. ... Read more