Institutions such as the Carlisle Indian School founded in 1879 by Richard Henry Pratt were created to strip Indians of their identity and enforce new customs and traditions onto the students, which further led to the abuse of students through discipline and negligence. Zitkala-Sa, a Dakto Sioux ‘Indian’ student who attended the school as a child, published her own first-hand accounts of her time at the school in her series of “American Indian Stories” that give you the truth behind the walls of the Carlisle Indian School. When it comes to trying to understand how this institution came to be considering the many flaws we can see today, not to mention the nursery rhyme-like mission statement, it is important to first analyze what Pratt’s intentions were and why he was so passionate about changing the lives of Native Americans during this time. What was the problem with these Native American traditions that didn’t match up with those of the ‘palefaces’ or white people?
Richard H. Pratt spoke at a convention in 1892 on the treatment of the “savages” and why they needed “civilizing”. This statement almost sums up the logic that went into developing this school as Pratt says, “It is a great mistake to think that the Indian is born an inevitable savage. He is born a blank, like all the rest of us. Left in the surroundings of savagery, he grows to possess a savage language, superstition, and life. We, left in the surroundings of civilization, grow to possess a civilized language, life, and purpose. Transfer the infant white to the savage surroundings, he will grow to possess a savage language, superstition, and habit. Transfer the savage-born infant to the surroundings of civilization, and he will grow to possess a civilized language and habit.” Pratt believes it is the job of himself and his white counterparts to “fix” the Native Americans who are innately savage at the core. We know this isn’t true, but this way of thinking almost seems like he genuinely thought these actions were the right thing to do. It even seems as though he considers it a favor for these Native Americans to gain this knowledge from this Institution that did not just teach, but strip away the entire identities of students. Pratt justifies this logic with the belief that every custom and belief, traditions and intellect of every Native American is compromised by their “ uncivilized” nature. Zitkala-Sa’s own experiences detail her the school specifically stripped her identity and subverts Pratt’s narrative. She wanted to go to this school as a child, but immediately regretted it once she got there. When she arrived, things were completely different than she had anticipated and had a rough time acclimating to the traumatic time at the Carlisle School.
An argument against Pratt’s idea of needing to civilize the “savages” can be found in Zitkala-Sa’s childhood memory of running along the river. She illustrates this beautiful narrative of growing up with this sense of freedom in nature. Just by describing the free-spirited nature of her hair in the wind and the feeling of her soft moccasins on her feet, an image is painted of simplicity and freedom. Pratt describes Indians as savages and this first story contradicts the idea that they are uncivilized people. You immediately learn of the loss of her own sibling as well as her uncle when the mother relives her experience of moving. This story makes the reader feel as though they were being herded away like cattle and neglected as illness was not treated and the Native Americans were forced to move.
Identity is specific to each individual person and makes one who they are. We all share this common sense of security in knowing we can retain our own individuality, at least here in America today. This was not the case for those who were subject to the treatment by those at the Carlisle school. The first step in getting these Native American children to become more civilized was by stripping them of their identity. When Zitkala-Sa learns she has to get her hair cut, she attempts to sneak away. She notes how she tried to sneak away without being caught. “I crept up the stairs as quietly as I could in my squeaking shoes, – my moccasins had been exchanged for shoes.” The changing of her customary mocassins into these squeaky, seemingly uncomfortable new molds she has to fit into emphasize the unnatural adjusting period she has to go through at this school. Usually, once you break into new shoes and they begin to shape with your foot as you use them, they become less uncomfortable and less noisy. She would then have to continue her education at the school and eventually conform to the unnatural methods of assimilation if the word ‘assimilation’ can even describe this stripping of identity. The rest of the attire the students had to wear also shocked Zitkala-sa. She describes how the girls were in “stiff shoes” and “closely clinging dresses” when she arrived.
Clothing didn’t seem as important to Zitkala-Sa, but her hair was an entirely different story. When she found out through a friend that her hair would be cut, she began to cry and shake her head at the fact that this would mean she was captured by the enemy. Her mother taught her “that only unskilled warriors were captured has their hair singled by the enemy. Among our people, short hair was worn by mourners, and shingled hair by cowards” (Zitkala-Sa). She describes how she the blades of the scissors felt and “heard them gnaw off” one of her thick braids. She continues, “Then I lost my spirit. Since the day I was taken from my mother I had suffered extreme indignities.”
Institutionalized abuse is a common theme throughout this narrative, something one thankfully doesn’t really see today. More specifically, Zitkala-Sa tells of a time when she lost a classmate.
“Once I lost a dear classmate. I remember well how she used to mope along at my side, until one morning she could not raise her head from her pillow. At her deathbed I stood weeping, as the paleface woman sat near her moistening the dry lips. Among the folds of the bedclothes I saw the open pages of the white man’s Bible. The dying Indian girl talked disconnectedly of Jesus the Christ and the paleface who was cooling her swollen hands and feet.” (Zitkala-Sa). She continues to describe how this affected her as she talks of the bitterness she felt. The resentment she harvested for those who neglected their illnesses. The children, who don’t have their parents present at this school, had to rely on the faculty for every single one of their needs. Each child was expected to fall in line and continue to perform despite their physical condition. “Though I was sullen in all my little troubles, as soon as I felt better I was ready again to smile upon the cruel woman. Within a week I was again actively testing the chains which tightly bound my individuality like a mummy for burial.”
The justification for the establishment of such an institution is faulty because it means that there is a problem with the Native American culture in the first place. Time and time again there are examples of the “pale faces” performing terrible injustices throughout Zitkala-Sa’s narrative. Without her narrative, one is unable to understand the life that was actually lived by a student at the Carlisle School. Her own experiences were able to subvert Pratt’s ideas highlighted in his speech that calls for a need to “civilize” the “savages”.
Works Cited:
American Indian Stories by Zitkala-Sa [aka Gertrude Simmons Bonnin] (1876-1938). Washington: Hayworth Publishing House, 1921.
“Kill the Indian, and Save the Man”: Capt. Richard H. Pratt on the Education of Native Americans, 1892.
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