Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pftt2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-15T18:55:43.628Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Epic Learning in an Indian Pueblo: A Framework for Studying Multigenerational Learning in the History of Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Adrea Lawrence*
Affiliation:
Phyllis J. Washington College of Education and Human Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, MT; e-mail: adrea.lawrence@mso.umt.edu

Extract

Writing from her position as the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) Superintendent at the Potrero School on the Morongo (Malki) reservation in southern California in 1909, Clara D. True concluded an article on her experiences as an Anglo teacher working with American Indian populations in the United States:

The more one knows of the Indian as he really is, not as he appears to the tourist, the teacher, or the preacher, the more one wonders. The remnant of knowledge that the Red Brother has is an inheritance from a people of higher thought than we have usually based our speculation upon. It is to be regretted that in dealing with the Indian we have not regarded him worthwhile until it is too late to enrich our literature and traditions with the contribution he could so easily have made. We have regarded him as a thing to be robbed and converted rather than as a being with intellect, sensibilities, and will, all highly developed, the development being one on different lines from our own as only necessity dictated. The continent was his college. The slothful student was expelled from it by President Nature. Physically, mentally, and morally, the North American Indian before the degradation at our hands was a man whom his descendants need not despise.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 History of Education Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 The Office of Indian Affairs is the same as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which has been housed within the Department of Interior since 1849. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, employees referred to the organization as the “Office of Indian Affairs” or the “Indian Office” despite its formally recognized name, the “Bureau of Indian Affairs.” True, Clara D., “The Experiences of a Woman Indian Agent,” Outlook (1893–1924), June 5, 1909, 331.Google Scholar

2 Pueblo Indian communities in present-day New Mexico and Arizona have been noted for their sedentary agriculturalism and their unique village architecture of multi-storied adobe houses. The largest group of Pueblo Indian languages is Tanoan, which includes the distinct languages of Tewa, spoken at Clara, Santa, Ildefonso, San, Owingeh, Ohkay (Juan, San), Tesuque, Nambé, and Pojoaque, Tiwa, spoken at Taos, Picuris, Isleta, and Sandia, , and Towa, , spoken at Jemez. The other sizable Puebloan language group is Keresan, spoken at Santo Domingo, Cochiti, San Felipe, Zia, and Zuni, Santa Ana. (Shiwi'ma) is a language isolate, and Hopi is part of the Uto-Aztecan language group.Google Scholar

3 Reel, Estelle, Course of Study for the Indian Schools of the United States, Industrial and Literary (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1901).Google Scholar

4 Basso, Keith H., “Wisdom Sits in Places: Notes on a Western Apache Landscape,” in Senses of Place, School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series (Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press, 1996), 5390; Basso, Keith H., “Stalking with Stories,” in Schooling the Symbolic Animal: Social and Cultural Dimensions of Education, ed. Levinson, Bradley A.U. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000), 41–52; Deloria, Vine, Jr., God Is Red: A Native View of Religion, 2nd ed. (Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 1992); Deloria, Vine, Jr. and Wildcat, Daniel R., Power and Place: Indian Education in America (Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 2001); Fixico, Donald Lee, The American Indian Mind in a Linear World: American Indian Studies and Traditional Knowledge (New York: Routledge, 2003); Meyer, Manuali Aluli, “Indigenous and Authentic,” in Handbook of Critical and Indigenous Methodologies, ed. Denzin, Norman K., Lincoln, Yvonna S., and Smith, Linda Tuhiwai (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc., 2008), 217–32.Google Scholar

5 Cajete, Gregory, Look to the Mountain: An Ecology of Indigenous Education, 1st ed. (Durango, CO: Kivaki’ Press, 1994), 34; see also Basso, , “Wisdom Sits in Places: Notes on a Western Apache Landscape”; Basso, “Stalking with Stories”; Kroupa, Standing Bear, “Through Arikara Eyes: History of Education as Spiritual Renewal and Cultural Evolution” (presented at the American Educational Research Association, Denver, CO, May 3, 2010); Silko, Leslie Marmon, “Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination,” in The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology, eds. Glotfelty, Cheryll and Fromm, Harold (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1996), 264–75.Google Scholar

6 Chopin, Kate, The Awakening (Chicago and New York: Herbert S. Stone and Company, 1899); DuBois, W. E. B., The Souls of Black Folk (New York: The Modern Library, 1903).Google Scholar

7 Cahill, Cathleen, Federal Fathers and Mothers: A Social History of the United States Indian Service, 1869–1933 (First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies) (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2011), 5051; Lawrence, Adrea, Lessons from an Indian Day School: Negotiating Colonization in Northern New Mexico, 1902–1907 (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2011), 156–59; Stuart, Paul, The Indian Office: Growth and Development of an American Institution, 1865–1900 (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1979), 40–41.Google Scholar

8 Lawrence, , Lessons from an Indian Day School: Negotiating Colonization in Northern New Mexico, 1902–1907, 209–14.Google Scholar

9 Bailyn, Bernard, Education in the Forming of American Society; Needs and Opportunities for Study (New York: Vintage Books, 1960), 14.Google Scholar

10 Warren, Donald, “American Indian Histories as Education Histories” (presented at the American Educational Research Association, Denver, CO, May 3, 2010); Donald Warren, “History of Education in a Future Tense,” in Handbook of Research in the Social Foundations of Education, ed. Steven Tozer, Bernardo P. Gallegos, and Annette M. Henry (New York: Routledge, 2011), 4160.Google Scholar

11 Cremin, Lawrence Arthur, The Wonderful World of Ellwood Patterson Cubberley; an Essay on the Historiography of American Education (New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1965), 51. Ibid., Traditions of American Education, 1st ed. (New York: Basic Books, 1977), 134–36.Google Scholar

12 Cremin, , Traditions of American Education, 134.Google Scholar

13 Storr, Richard J., “The Education of History: Some Impressions,” Harvard Educational Review 31, no. 2 (Spring 1961): 124. Ibid., “The Role of Education in American History: A Memorandum for the Committee Advising the Fund for the Advancement of Education in Regard to This Subject,” Harvard Educational Review 46, no. 3 (August 1976): 334.Google Scholar

14 Frey, Christopher J., “Ainu Schools and Education Policy in Nineteenth-Century Hokkaido, Japan“ (PhD Dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington, 2007); Garrison, Joshua B., “Ontongeny Recapitulates Savagery: The Evolution of G. Stanley Hall's Adolescent” Dissertation (Bloomington, IN, 2006); Lauzon, Glen P., “Civic Learning Through Agricultural Improvement: Bringing the ‘Loom and the Anvil into Proximity with the Plow’ in Nineteenth-Century Indiana” (PhD Dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington, 2007); Lawrence, , Lessons from an Indian Day School: Negotiating Colonization in Northern New Mexico, 1902–1907; Tamura, Eileen H., “Value Messages Collide with Reality: Joseph Kurihara and the Power of Informal Education,” History of Education Quarterly 50, no. 1 (2010): 133.Google Scholar

15 Cohen, Sol, Challenging Orthodoxies, 1st ed. (New York: Peter Lang, 1999), 686–94; Warren, , “American Indian Histories as Education Histories”; Warren, “History of Education in a Future Tense,” 42–43.Google Scholar

16 Warren, D., “Slavery as an American Educational Institution: Historiographical Inquiries,” Journal of Thought 40, no. 4 (2005): 4154; Warren, Donald, “We the Peoples: When American Education Began,” American Educational History Journal 34, no. 2 (2007): 235–47; Warren, Donald, “What Can Happen When Histories of Education Meet American Indian Histories” (presented at the Social Science History Association, Miami, FL, 2008); Warren, Donald, “Twisted Time,” in Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice: Methods at the Margins, eds. Winkle-Wagner, Rachelle, Hunter, Cheryl, and Ortloff, Debora Hinderliter (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 97–110; Warren, , “American Indian Histories as Education Histories”; Warren, “History of Education in a Future Tense.”Google Scholar

17 Fixico, , The American Indian Mind in a Linear World, 23.Google Scholar

18 Basso, , “Wisdom Sits in Places: Notes on a Western Apache Landscape”; Basso, “Stalking with Stories”; Deloria, , Jr., God Is Red: A Native View of Religion; Deloria, , Jr. and Wildcat, , Power and Place: Indian Education in America; Howe, Craig, “Keep Your Thoughts Above the Trees: Ideas on Developing and Presenting Tribal Histories,” in Clearing a Path: Theorizing the Past in Native American Studies, ed. Shoemaker, Nancy (New York: Routledge, 2002), 686–94; Lawrence, , Lessons from an Indian Day School: Negotiating Colonization in Northern New Mexico, 1902–1907; Meyer, , “Indigenous and Authentic.”Google Scholar

19 Basso, , “Wisdom Sits in Places: Notes on a Western Apache Landscape”; Basso, , “Stalking with Stories”; Deloria, , Jr., God Is Red: A Native View of Religion; Kroupa, , “Through Arikara Eyes: History of Education as Spiritual Renewal and Cultural Evolution”; Meyer, “Indigenous and Authentic”; David Delgado Shorter, We Will Dance Our Truth: Yaqui History in Yoeme Performances (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009).Google Scholar

20 Anglos are distinct from descendants of Spanish immigrants, who are referred to as “Hispano,” “Spanish,” or “Mexican” in this essay. The distinction between Anglo and Hispano is important in New Mexico because both groups could legally call themselves “white” under U.S. law in the early twentieth century. In practice, though, Hispanos were rarely treated as Anglos in U.S. courts at the district level and above. For elaboration, see Gomez, Laura E., “Off-White in an Age of White Supremacy: Mexican Elites and the Rights of Whites and Blacks in Nineteenth-Century New Mexico,” Chicano-Latin Law Review 25 (Spring 2005): 959. “Hispano” in New Mexico signifies a cultural affiliation as well as ancestral roots. This does not preclude, however, the fact that many Hispano people have Indigenous North American ancestry or the fact that individual Pueblo Indians changed affiliation. For further discussion, see Author, 29–30, 117–18. Lawrence, , Lessons from an Indian Day School: Negotiating Colonization in Northern New Mexico, 1902–1907, 11–12.Google Scholar

21 Warren, , “What Can Happen When Histories of Education Meet American Indian Histories.”Google Scholar

22 Brooks, James F., Captives and Cousins: Slavery, Kinship, and Community in the Southwest Borderlands (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002), 5255; Dozier, Edward P., The Pueblo Indians of North America (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1970), 55–60; Galgano, Robert C., Feast of Souls: Indians and Spaniards in the Seventeenth-Century Missions of Florida and New Mexico (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005), 136–41; Roberts, David, The Pueblo Revolt: The Secret Rebellion That Drove the Spaniards Out of the Southwest (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004), 9–27; Sando, Joe S., Pueblo Nations: Eight Centuries of Pueblo Indian History (Santa Fe: Clear Light Publishers, 1992), 63–68; Weber, David J., The Spanish Frontier in North America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 122–46.Google Scholar

23 Sando, , Pueblo Nations: Eight Centuries of Pueblo Indian History, 69. Galgano, , Feast of Souls: Indians and Spaniards in the Seventeenth-Century Missions of Florida and New Mexico, 136–41; Roberts, , The Pueblo Revolt: The Secret Rebellion That Drove the Spaniards Out of the Southwest, 9–27'.Google Scholar

24 Carlson, Alvar W., “Spanish-American Acquisition of Cropland within the Northern Pueblo Indian Grants, New Mexico,” Ethnohistory 22, no. 2 (Spring 1975): 96.Google Scholar

25 Galloway, Patricia, Practicing Ethnohistory: Mining Archives, Hearing Testimony, Constructing Narrative (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006), 68.Google Scholar

26 Jeançon, Jean Allard, “Jean Allard Jeançon Papers,” n.d., folder 11, WH 196 Box 1, range 9A, Section 14, Shelf 4, Denver Public Library.Google Scholar

27 Parsons, Elsie Clews, Tewa Tales (Tucson & London: University of Arizona Press, 1994); Ortiz, A., The Tewa World: Space, Time, Being, and Becoming in a Pueblo Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969); Sando, , Pueblo Nations: Eight Centuries of Pueblo Indian History. Google Scholar

28 Jeançon, , “Jean Allard Jeançon Papers,” folder 11; Dozier, , The Pueblo Indians of North America, 36; Hill, W. W., An Ethnography of Santa Clara Pueblo New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1982), 182; Ortiz, , The Tewa World: Space, Time, Being, and Becoming in a Pueblo Society, 13–16.Google Scholar

29 Galloway, , Practicing Ethnohistory: Mining Archives, Hearing Testimony, Constructing Narrative, 71.Google Scholar

30 Handwritten Patent of Santa Clara Pueblo,” Text (New Mexico, 1861), Indian Affairs Collection (MSS 16 BC), Box 2, Folder 6, Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New Mexico, http://econtent.unm.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/indaffairs&CISOPTR=465&REC=20&CISOSHOW; “Patent of Santa Clara Pueblo” (New Mexico, 1861), Part of Indian Affairs Collection (MSS 16 BC, Box 2, Folder 6), Center for Southwest Research. Guide to collection available at http://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=nmulmss16bc.xml; Box 2, Folder 6, Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New Mexico, http://econtent.unm.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/indaffairs&CISOPTR=472&CISOSHOW=466; Reynolds, Matt G., “Decree, Pueblo of Santa Clara Grant,” Text (New Mexico, n.d.), Catron, Thomas B. Papers, MSS 29 BC, Series 301, Case #17, Folder 1, Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New Mexico, http://econtent.unm.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/catron&CISOPTR=49&CISOBOX=1&REC=11.Google Scholar

31 Poling, Susan A. and Kasdan, Alan R., Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: Definition and List of Community Land Grants in New Mexico, Exposure Draft (Washington, DC: United States General Accountability Office, 2001), 10; Sawtelle, Susan D., Kasdan, Alan R., and Malcolm, Jeffrey D., Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: Findings and Possibly Options Regarding Longstanding Community Land Grant Claims in New Mexico (Washington, DC: United States General Accountability Office, 2004), 14.Google Scholar

32 Howard, G. Hill, “Opinion Report No.133,” Text (New Mexico, July 22, 1854), United States Soil Conservation Service Region Eight Records, mss29bc, Series 301, Case #17, Folder 1, Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New Mexico, http://econtent.unm.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/catron&CISOPTR=54&REC=4; Smith, D. H., “Petition, Pueblo of Santa Clara v. United States,” Text, June 18, 1892, Catron, Thomas B. Papers, MSS 29 BC 301 case #17, Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New Mexico, http://econtent.unm.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/catron&CISOPTR=36&REC=6&CISOSHOW.Google Scholar

33 Don Fernando de la Concha, “Translation of Decree and Proceedings, Don Fernando de La Concha,” Text, trans. Clarence Key (New Mexico, 1788), Catron, Thomas B. Papers, MSS 29 BC, Series 301, Case #17, Folder 1, Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New Mexico, http://econtent.unm.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/catron&CISOPTR=283&REC=3; “Decree by Thomas Velez Capuchin Granting the Canada de Santa Clara to Pueblos,” Text (New Mexico, 1763), Indian Affairs Collection, MSS 16 BC, Box 2, Folder 6, Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New Mexico, http://econtent.unm.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/indaffairs&CISOPTR=670&CISOSHOW=; “Decree, Last Page, by Velez Capuchin,” Text (New Mexico, n.d.), Indian Affairs Collection, MSS 16 BC, Box 2, Folder 6, Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New Mexico, http://econtent.unm.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/indaffairs&CISOPTR=673&CISOSHOW=; Fray Mariano Rodriguez de la Torre, trans., “Translations of Santa Clara Pueblo Papers, Decrees, Etc” (Santa Fe, N.M., n.d.), RG 75, Entry 83, General Correspondence File, 1904–1937, Box 44, Folder 300, National Archives and Records Administration, Rocky Mountain Region.Google Scholar

34 True, Clara D. to Crandall, C.J., “Letter to the Superintendent about Pupils in the School, 09/05/1902,” September 5, 1902, RG 75, Entry 38, Letters Received from Day School Teacher True, Clara D., 08/29/1902–11/30/1906, National Archives and Records Administration, Rocky Mountain Region; True, Clara D. to Crandall, C.J., “Letter to Superintendent Concerning Relations with the Governor and the Neighboring Mexicans, 11/04/1902,” November 4, 1902, RG 75, Entry 38, Letters Received from Day School Teacher True, Clara D., 08/29/1902–11/30/1906, National Archives and Records Administration, Rocky Mountain Region; True, Clara D., “Letter to Superintendent Concerning Policy on Student Enrollment and Trespass of Mexican Cattle, 12/01/1902,” December 1, 1902, RG 75, Entry 38, Letters Received from Day School Teacher Clara D. True, 08/29/1902–11/30/1906, National Archives and Records Administration, Rocky Mountain Region; True, Clara D., “Letter to Superintendent Concerning Trespassing of Mexican Horses on Pueblo Lands, 06/27/1905,” June 27, 1905, RG 75, Entry 38, Letters Received from Day School Teacher True, Clara D., 08/29/1902–11/30/1906, National Archives and Records Administration, Rocky Mountain Region; True, Clara D. to Crandall, C. J., “Letter to Superintendent Requesting Advice on Timber Cutting on Reservation Lands, 02/16/1906,” February 16, 1906, RG 75, Entry 38, Letters Received from Day School Teacher True, Clara D., 08/29/1902–11/30/1906, National Archives and Records Administration, Rocky Mountain Region; True, Clara D. to Crandall, C.J., “Letter to Superintendent Requesting a Letter from Judge Abbott Regarding Mexican Stock Trespassing on Indian Lands, 02/19/1906,” February 19, 1906, RG 75, Entry 38, Letters Received from Day School Teacher True, Clara D., 08/29/1902–11/30/1906, National Archives and Records Administration, Rocky Mountain Region; Crandall, C. J. to True, Clara D., “Letter to Clara D. True Regarding the Grazing of Santa Clara Stock on the Jemez Forest Reserve, 06/30/1906,” June 30, 1906, RG 75, Press Copies of Letters sent Concerning Pueblo Day Schools, M1473, roll 27, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC; True, Clara D. and Naranjo, Santiago to Crandall, C.J., “Letter to Superintendent Concerning Removal of Mexican Cattle from Indian Lands, 11/04/1904,” November 4, 1904, RG 75, Entry 38, Letters Received from Day School Teacher Clara D. True, 08/29/1902–11/30/1906, National Archives and Records Administration, Rocky Mountain Region.Google Scholar

35 Crandall, C. J. to True, Clara D., “Letter to Clara D. True Regarding a Stray Cow, Diphtheria, and Enrollment, 09/05/1902,” September 5, 1902, RG 75, Entry 34, Volume 3, Press Copies of Letters Sent to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, p. 98, National Archives and Records Administration, Rocky Mountain Region.Google Scholar

36 Gomez, , “Off-White in an Age of White Supremacy: Mexican Elites and the Rights of Whites and Blacks in Nineteenth-Century New Mexico,” 53.Google Scholar

37 Crandall, C. J., “Letter to Clara D. True Regarding the Creation of the Santa Clara Reservation, 04/21/1905,” Press Copies of Letters Sent Concerning Pueblo Day Schools, April 21, 1905.Google Scholar

38 Crandall, C. J. to Leupp, Francis E., “Letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs Reporting on Trespassers in the Santa Clara Reservation, 10/25/1905,” October 25, 1905, RG 75, Entry 34, Volume 6, Press Copies of Letters Sent to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, p. 246, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC; Crandall, C. J. to Leupp, Francis E., “Report on Hispano Squatters in Santa Clara Reservation,” November 3, 1905, RG 75, Entry 34, Volume 6, Press Copies of Letters Sent to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, p. 262–270, National Archives and Records Administration, Rocky Mountain Region; Crandall, C. J. to Tafoya, Leandro, “Letter to Leandro Tafoya Regarding Squatters on the Santa Clara Reservation ana the Pending National Park, 06/18/1906,” June 18, 1906, RG 75, Entry 32, Volume 24, Press Copies of Letters Sent “Miscellaneous Letters, Mar. 9, 1906-Aug. 9, 1906,” p. 304, National Archives and Records Administration, Rocky Mountain Region; Crandall, C.J. and McKibben, Samuel S., “Letter to Samuel S. McKibbin Regarding the Removal of Squatters on the Santa Clara Reservation,” July 11, 1906, RG 75, Entry 32, Volume 24, Press Copies of Letters Sent “Miscellaneous Letters, Mar. 9, 1906-Aug. 9, 1906,” p. 402, National Archives and Records Administration, Rocky Mountain Region.Google Scholar

39 Baca, Pedro to Rev. Ketcham, Father William, “Letter Regarding the Administration of Crandall, C.J.,” October 13, 1908, Series 1–1: Correspondence, Reel 43, Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Shelby M. Singleton, “Inspection Report, Clinton J. Crandall,” June 20, 1911, Exhibits A & B, RG 48, Entry 842, Inspection Division, Indian Jurisdiction Inspection Reports, 1907–1924, Box 7, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD.Google Scholar

40 Singleton, , “Inspection Report, Clinton J. Crandall.”Google Scholar

41 Valentine, R. G. to Crandall, C. J., “Letter from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to Crandall, C. J. Regarding Transfer from the Santa Fe Indian School to the Pierre Indian School,” Letter, December 23, 1911, National Archives and Records Administration, National Personnel Records Center.Google Scholar

42 Burke, Chas H. to Crandall, C.J., “Letter Appointing Crandall, C.J. as Superintendent of the Northern Pueblos District, 05/19/1923,” March 19, 1923, National Archives and Records Administration, National Personnel Records Center.Google Scholar