cc  >> Welcome ladies and gentlemen.  Welcome to the Wisconsin  Historical Museum.  My name is Beth Lempke.  I'm the musuem educator  and I'm very excited today  because not always do  we get an opportunity to do this  as part of the  History Sandwiched In series.  Today we have got Yuki Traversi  from the Indian Community  School and several of her  students here today that  are going to be giving us a  program and sharing  with us their knowledge about  the Indian community,  Indian boarding schools and a  brief history here on  Wisconsin.  So please, ladies and gentlemen,  let us welcome the  Indian Community School of  Milwaukee.  [APPLAUSE]  >> Hello.  My name is Yuki Traversi and I  am a sixth through eighth grade  social studies teacher at Indian  Community School in  Milwaukee.  My students and I are here today  to give you a brief  historical overview of Native  education from early  boarding schools in the late  1800s to schools like  our own, the Indian Community  School.  [INAUDIBLE]  This topic is vast and  complicated. 

 There are over 500 nations in  this country and there  were many different boarding  schools that were  spread across this nation.  None of my students or myself  even will claim to be  an expert on this topic, but we  are all connected to  it one way or another, some of  us more deeply than  others.  I am a Lakota Indian and my  mother, my grandfather  and aunts are all students of  boarding schools and  it's not a topic that they  easily shared with me, if  at all.  I don't remember my grandfather  ever talking to me  about it and he passed away when  I was 18 so that's  knowledge that was lost and I  think he intentionally  didn't want to talk to me about  it.  And as I'm presenting I'll refer  to experiences that  are from my own family, and I  would like to introduce  each of my students and they're  going to stand where  they are just for this initial  part, give you their  name and just if they have a  connection with  boarding schools which the  majority of them do as  well.  So nice and loud guys, okay?  And if you could stand and we'll  start with Cameron.  >> I'm Cameron and I'm 13 and in  eighth grade at  the Indian Community School.  I'm connected to boarding  schools because my grandma  and both my great grandparents  went to boarding  school.  >> I'm Cheyenne.  I'm 14 years old and in eighth  grade. 

 [INAUDIBLE]  My family experience with  boarding schools is that  my grandpa -- went to boarding  school when he was  young.  I think -- .  Also my grandpa Johnny went to  boarding school when  he was young.  I really don't know much about  what happened in  boarding schools.  My dad said they had family  issues.  [INAUDIBLE]  So they had to go to boarding  schools.  My dad says they don't want to  talk about it so I do  not ask.  >> My name is Marlena and I'm in  eighth grade.  My tribes are -- .  >> My name is Robin and I'm 13  and in eighth grade. 

 My grandma Ruby used to go to  boarding school but  she passed away and she didn't  really care about  her culture after that.  And she was abusive towards my  mom.  >> I'm -- and I'm 13 and I'm in  the seventh grade.  My tribes are Cherokee and -- .  My family connection is that my  great grandma went  to boarding school in New York  but nobody knows where  in New York or how but -- so I  couldn't talk to her because she  passed away when I  was nine and my grandpa -- was  the only one I knew  but his phone was disconnected  so I couldn't ask him  anything.  So this is all I found out on my  great grandma's  past.  >> Hello, I'm Sierra Wood.  I'm 13 years old and I'm in  eighth grade.  >> Hello, I'm Keith Bowman.  My tribe is -- . 

 I'm in eighth grade and my  connection to boarding  school is that my great grandma  went but she won't  talk about it.  >> Hi, I'm Cheyenne.  [INAUDIBLE]  >> Hello, my name is Jessica  Traversi.  I'm 13 and I'm in eighth grade.  My tribe is Lakota.  I have a grandma who had gone to  boarding school when  she was young.  Although I don't know much of  what happened at the  boarding school, there are some  things my mom has  told me like when she was there  she would get slapped  in the hand with a ruler if she  talked her language  or anything else tribal related.  My grandma may say good things  about it but after  thinking and talking about it  she remembers all the  not-so-good things.  I don't really want to ask her  much because I don't  want her to try to remember  that.  I just want her to keep the  happy memories. 

 >> And each of these students  weren't really picked  because they had boarding school  connection,  actually I did an intra-survey  to see who was  interested in researching in  this particular topic  and I think if you went to our  school most of the  students would tell you that,  and the Native staff  members, that they would have a  connection to  boarding schools because it was  something that was  really prevalent in our  community of people.  And as Cheyenne was saying there  still are some  boarding schools that exist  though they are  completely different than the  ones we're going to  talk about here today.  I'm going to start with just a  little introduction  to kind of lead up to how  boarding schools came to  be a tool that was used by the  government.  So hopefully maybe some of you  know this already and  it's pretty short but I just  wanted to give some  background.  Boarding schools were seen as a  solution to the  Indian problem.  I would like to start by giving  a little background  in what the Indian problem was  and what led up to  the use of these schools.  From the beginning of the  European contact there has  been an effort to educate Native  Americans in  western ways.  While researching we discovered  one of the early  missions of Harvard University  in 1650 was to  educate Indians.  Actually, it was the mother of  one of our presenters  here today that came across this  and it just was  kind of astonishing because that  university has such  a reputation and we were really  kind of  surprised to see that one of the  original missions  of it was to educate English and  Indian use of this  country in knowledge and  godliness.  And that's a common theme you're  going to see that  they felt the people of the era  felt that Native  Americans not only needed to  receive an education  but they also needed to  understand Christianity and  that their ways, the Native ways  were savage. 

 Early attempts at education were  most often made by  missionaries whose main focus  was Christianizing  the savage.  The efforts began in the 1600s  to educate Native  Americans, continued on with the  evolution of the new  world.  With the birth of the United  States a main focus of  the government became what to do  about the Indian  problem.  The problem was that Natives had  land and the  government and its citizens  wanted it.  To achieve this goal in the  early 1800s the  government became involved in  attempting to civilize  the Indian.  The perception still existed  that Native American  customs and traditions were  savage or uncivilized.  And you're going to hear that  word a lot.  I was thinking that the word  savage was something that  modern researchers might have  added to it but as we  were looking through the  literature that word kept  coming up over and over again so  it was really a word  that was used in that time, that  era.  The perception included the  belief that Natives  would want to change if only  they could be  enlightened.  Once they were enlightened they  would leave behind  their culture and assimilate to  American society. 

 Again, most of the attempts in  these early 1800s  were made by missionaries and  were most unsuccessful  so the Indian problem still  remained.  Under Andrew Jackson, the  government instituted  removal policies which  forcefully moved Indian  tribes west of the Mississippi.  The area west of the  Mississippi, excuse me, the  area west of the Mississippi was  at this time  undesirable so it seemed a  perfect place to move the  Native Americans where they  wouldn't cause anymore  problems.  The land wasn't something that  was wanted by the  government at this time.  So a lot of tribes were moved  westward.  Unfortunately, this attempt at  solving the Indian  problem was short-lived.  Once again, something was  discovered.  This time it was gold in the  Black Hills and in  California and this land that  was once undesirable  now became desirable land.  Settlers began to go in droves  into what was  considered Indian territory  wanting to claim a piece  of much of the land that was  there.  From the mid-1850s until the  late 1800s policies  included warfare, reservations  and treaties. 

 And these are topics that  somebody could come and  present another whole short  presentation on.  But that kind of brings us to  where we got to the  boarding schools.  After the policies used in the  past resulted in the  land actually finally being  acquired, you would think  there was no more Indian problem  but now the problem  became we have the land but the  Indian is still  here.  What are we going to now because  after treaties  were signed and the Indian was  placed on  reservation, the relationship  between the Indian and  the government became a  paternalistic one where the  government was kind of  responsible of taking care of  the Native the way the treaties  were worded.  And one of the things that was  placed in the  treaties was the responsibility  of education.  So at this time is when  education became policy for  dealing with the new Indian  problem.  There were four school models  that were used for  educating the Native.  And there's one we don't have a  slide for I'm going  to introduce real quick.  It was one of the earliest types  used in about the  1860s and this one was called  the reservation day school.  Once the Native people were put  on these  reservations they did put  schools on them and it was  similar to schools children go  to where you go there  for the day and you come home  and it wasn't a  boarding school. 

 And there was a desire that what  was originally  thought was that when the kids  went to these  boarding schools they would  receive some education,  some instruction and certainly  they wanted them to  learn English and wanted them to  learn Christianity  but they also taught them  industrial techniques like  farming and for the girls it was  sewing and cooking  and things like that.  But they hoped at the end of the  day that the kids  would go home to their families  and they would  spread that knowledge to them  and they would learn  to speak English and they would  see how civilized  their children were becoming and  they would want to  become that way too.  Unfortunately, for the people  who wanted this to  happen, that's not what  happened.  And eventually this model was  seen as not a  successful method because it  didn't really have any  affect.  The next one is called a  reservation boarding  school.  It's kind of like the next step  into what are we  going to try and Cameron is  going to come and give a  definition of that.  >> Reservation schools were  located on the  reservation.  Students lived at the schools  during the week and  went home for the weekends and  for holidays.  Schools were farther away from  home than the  original boarding schools but in  the end, the  children's parents just moved  closer to the schools  and they decided not to use the  idea anymore.  >> And like Cameron said,  sometimes they stayed  there for the week and a lot of  times they would  stay there for the entire school  year so this is  where the boarding school idea  comes in that  students would be gone for eight  to nine months from  their families and they would  stay there only going  home for maybe holidays or  during summer vacation. 

 It was thought where the day  schools had failed,  students had returned home to  their culture nightly,  now they would be immersed in  the culture, the  white culture and they would  pick it up more and it  would stay with them longer.  Now is the opportunity to cut  them off from the home  connection.  But still the connection  remained.  Because these schools were  located on the  reservations, families had an  easy time of getting to  the reservation schools and if  you can imagine that  your children were sometimes in  the earlier years  were forcefully taken with  threats that your children  needed to go to these boarding  schools you can imagine  that parents wanted to go and  see their children and  find out how they were doing or  just simply visit  them.  And although they were  discouraged the parents still  tried to do this.  So parents tried to visit  regularly and students  could see their families  sometimes.  They could look out the windows  and see they were  outside.  Since these places were located  so close to home.  And I have one excerpt I want to  read to you.  It's a young man who was  attending a school. 

 "Francis La Flesche always  remembers a morning that  students watched from a second  story dormitory  window as their nearby Omaha  relatives broke camp  for an extended buffalo hunt.  It was a wonderful sight to us,  he later recalled.  The long procession, the winding  trail.  Like a great serpent of varied  and brilliant colors.  It was nearly noon when the end  of the line went out  of sight.  The sight had a profound impact  on the school's  operation.  We slowly ate our noon day meal  without speaking.  There seemed to be a general  depression among the  remaining pupils at the school.  A silence pervaded all the  surroundings which made  each boy wish to retire from the  other and to be alone."  So if you can imagine that they  were that close.  I mean, it's one thing to be  homesick but when  you're homesick and your  family's right there but  you can't see them so I think  the people that were  running these boarding schools  came to see that this  was a problem for them. 

 I also read something where they  started, some  places actually built fences up  to 12 feet so that  they could enclose them so they  were still  close by but they were cutting  them off one step  further.  These home connections were  close and difficult to  break.  They were also frustrating to  those whose job was to  educate Indian children.  The mentality of some of the  agents responsible for  education are similar to as  follows.  And I have one more excerpt.  And here's where you're going to  hear the word  savage again.  This is from an Indian agent.  "I am satisfied in Indian school  should be kept in  session the whole year,  concluded one agent, in  order that the children may be  kept away from the  savage influences which they  encounter when they  return to camp during the annual  vacation."  The word savage is constant in  its use.  Some went so far as to build  high fences around the  school.  Now, since this one wasn't  working so well either  there was a new model and we're  going to talk quite  a bit about the gentleman who  came up with this idea,  but Cameron is going to give his  third definition of  this boarding school we're going  to spend the  most time talking about. 

 >> Nonreservation schools were  built much farther  away from the reservation.  In fact, Carlisle was 1500 miles  away from the  children's reservations.  The distance between schools and  reservations was  meant to break the bond between  parents and  children.  At the schools they had a  military style schedule  and children were beaten  severely if they spoke  their language.  At the schools they were taught  that being Indian  was a bad thing.  >> Now the gentleman who came up  with this idea  actually was a colonel.  I'm going to give you a little  background  information.  This was research done by one of  our students as  well.  Richard Henry Pratt is known as  the founder of the  Native American boarding school.  He worked as a military officer  for eight years, was  a civil war veteran and how he  became part of this  process is he was put in charge  of watching over  Indian captives in Florida and  he had a certain  number of them that were brought  to him and when  they were brought to him he  decided that rather than  just keep them as prisoners I'm  going to see what I  can do as far as maybe bringing  civilization to  them, educating them, bringing  Christianity to them. 

 So he decided he was going to  teach them.  So he started experimenting with  teaching Indians  and founded the Nonreservation  Carlisle Indian Boarding  School in 1879 in Carlisle,  Pennsylvania.  His idea was that you should  kill the Indian and  save the man.  Which when I heard that it  sounds pretty dramatic,  but his intent was that the  Native American couldn't  survive in this new existence  with being put on  reservations.  They couldn't really maintain  their culture anymore,  and so that in order for this  person to survive they  had to kill what was cultural  about them but remain  a human and become a human, a  person that could  survive in regular society or  mainstream society.  So he's really well known for  this phrase of kill the  Indian, save the man.  And that's what he designed his  schools around.  That was the focus was their  efforts what they were  going to accomplish with the  young people there.  So in 1879 that's when he began  the first school.  And it's an interesting fact, he  was still on active  military duty so the first  person that was kind  of in charge of these boarding  schools of  these young children. 

 And you can see some of the  pictures that I'll have up  later, but there are some  children that are probably four  and  five years old and they're being  sent to a boarding  school that's styled after a  military type  facility.  And I'm going to have Cheyenne  come up and she's going  to give a little introduction  about Carlisle Indian Boarding  School.  >> In September 1879 the  Carlisle school was founded  by Pratt.  Pratt accompanied by Ms. Mather  headed to Dakota  territory to recruit students he  had been  instructed to enroll in his new  Carlisle school.  Students were to be from Spotted  Tails, Rosebud  reservation and Red Clown's Pine  Ridge Agency.  He needed 36 children from each  reservation.  But Pratt was taking the  children from Dakota two  of his former prisoners were  recruiting potential  students from the nations.  Both men agreed to find more  children to send to the  first off-reservation boarding  school for Indian  children.  Many children came on October 6,  1879.  Teachers were waiting for the  students to arrive at  the Carlisle school. 

 Carlisle had hired a full  compliment staff both for  academic  and industrial instruction.  The teachers' first  responsibility were to get a  barber and cut all the kid's  hair short and put them  into uniforms.  >> And I guess this is, for me  it's one of the  saddest things that would happen  as soon as they got  to the school.  The first thing was that the  off-reservation boarding  school's purpose was to have  them be as far away  from their home reservation as  possible so that they  couldn't run away.  So a lot of the first children  were taken from  reservations in the Dakota area.  And Carlisle is very far away.  I think Cameron said about 1500  miles.  So it wasn't in a place that  children could, for one,  find their way home from and if  they could, it was  over 1500 miles so they probably  wouldn't be able to  walk there though some did try.  Once they got there, they came  by train and I had, I  guess I want to say luxury but  that doesn't feel  like quite the right word, but  our students at the  end of their eighth grade year  at our school get to  go on a field trip and it's  about a week long,  about five days that we go and  they have a choice  between visiting South Dakota  and reservations that  are there but we also have a  choice of going to  Washington, DC, and we purposely  go to Carlisle Indian  Boarding School as one of our  stops because it's still  there and it's used for army  training or something  currently but it's still an army  facility.  And it's very interesting when  you walk on the  campus because a lot of it still  looks very much the  same. 

 But not many of the people there  know the history of  it.  And they walk you to different  places and you can  kind of close your eyes and  envision the things that  happened there.  And they have a place where you  can see where the  the train, where the kids would  come in on a certain  gate from when the train would  drop them off.  And some of the things that  Cheyenne mentioned that  they did was as soon as they got  there was to cut  their hair because that was one  of the steps to  civilize them because most  Natives at that time a  lot of them had long hair.  And there was for the Native  person, I've heard different  meanings of having long hair.  I know for my tribe in  particular I don't know the  meaning that you keep it long  but when you cut it is  a sign of mourning like if  someone passes away you  would cut your hair to show that  you're in mourning.  So when they got to the school  and they were starting to  cut people's hair it was really  a distressing thing  for children because some of  them when they were  young might have made a  connection that maybe somebody  had  died and it was something that  was very tied to  them.  Also the way that they were  dressed they were made  to discard their old way of  dress.  I'm going to forward here a  minute.  They had, the way they were  dressed before and then  the way they were dressed after  was quite different. 

 You can see they were wearing  wool clothing and    shoes that hurt their feet and  it was very military  style of dress.  Also, one of the things, and  those were two things  that happened right away.  We also found a lot of  information about they bathed  them in kerosene or some of  their hair because that  was seen as a way to remove lice  even if they didn't  have lice they saw that as a way  to make sure that  problem wouldn't come to the  campus.  And the personal connection for  me is I remember my  mom when she was, she told me  when she was a child  that her father had done that to  her when she  had gotten lice when she was  younger.  He had used kerosene on her and  I was just shocked  because I thought that I  couldn't believe someone  would put kerosene on their  head.  And I don't know about his  boarding school  experience but for me that was a  connection right  away to this that this is where  they used that  practice so maybe he had learned  it that way too.  Another thing that they did was  to change names.  I don't know that this was  something that happened  immediately but within the first  probably weeks that  the children were there, name  changes were made.  Mrs. Cornelius is one of the  mothers of a student  here and we were talking on the  bus because there is  a lot of names that are common  in Indian community  and to me they sound, I don't  know they're just very  common sounding names and  oftentimes children would  be asked to select a name or  they would simply be  given one.  We came up with a list and it  was funny because she  is a different tribe than I am  but a lot of the  names were similar that I  recognized that were also  common in her community. 

 Like my grandfather's name was  Moses and I know  several people on our  reservation that have that  name of Moses.  But I don't really hear that  other places.  Helen, Ellis, Julius, Gabriel,  Mary, Simon, Leland,  I'd never heard that name before  and when  Mrs. Cornelius and I was were  talking on the bus she  had an uncle whose name was a  Leland and my husband  has a relative whose name was  Leland so I just  think it's possible there were  books, I've heard there  were books that they actually  chose names.  But I think a lot of biblical  names were used  as well.  And the people who ran these  schools sometimes had  little patience for trying to  pronounce the Indian names.  I don't speak my language  fluently and I know bits  and pieces of it, but the names  can be very difficult and  the meaning doesn't translate  easily.  So it makes sense that sometimes  maybe they just  wanted to give them an easier  name.  I'm going to have Marlena come  up now and she's  going to talk a little bit more.  I've been talking about some of  these things but she  also has a section she's going  to share about other  civilization techniques that  were used.  >> Some repressed beliefs and  thoughts about the purpose of  boarding  schools is that the Indian child  has to have total  immersion. 

 This meant that the Indians had  to look and be as  Europeans.  As every student around them.  They had to cut their hair and  sometimes die it  white.  They also had to wear uniforms  and speak nothing but  English.  There was three things they  wanted to change that  was mental conversion as well as  total physical  conversion and immersion.  This meant that they wanted to  change Indians to  have mental change, physical  change and moral  change.  Having a mental change by not  practicing their  religion and physical change by  cutting their hair  and moral change by replacing  the Native in them  with their European ways.  There are many negative  techniques used in boarding  schools and some of the  techniques they used made  Indians believe that it was a  positive way.  A lot of Indians remember this  time as an abuse  because there are so many rules  they had to follow.  Here are some of the rules they  had to follow: They  had to wear uniforms and they  were forced to march. 

 They had to spy on their peers.  They were forbidden to practice  their religion and  forced to memorize the Lord's  prayer and Bible  verses.  >> Another thing when you go to  the Carlisle Indian  Boarding School, and I would  suggest it if you're, I  consider myself a geek of  history, I like history a  lot.  I imagine you guys are too if  you're here at your  lunch time.  But can you ask my students.  But when we got the chance to go  to the Carlisle  Indian Boarding School you have  to make special  arrangements but I believe they  would allow people  to visit it and I think we might  have gotten special  treatment a little bit because  we were an Indian  school and they tried to provide  that because of the  history.  But I do believe they allow such  visits for other  people you just have to set it  up ahead of time.  And when you go there there was  a bandstand  originally on the campus and  that was kind of like  the central focus of the school  and I don't  remember, it was destroyed I  want to say by fire but  I'm not 100%.  But they rebuilt one and it's  still there and  Sierra's going to come up and  give you a little  information about a newspaper  they had there.  But there was this imaginary  figure they called him  the man on the bandstand and  she's going to give  you a bit of information about  what his role was. 

 >> At the Carlisle Indian  Boarding School they had a  newspaper called the Red Man and  the Helper.  At first this paper was written  by and for whites.  This paper was to persuade the  other people that  they were doing the right thing.  They didn't tell people what  emotional and physical  abuse they had to the Indians.  Later then, written and read by  Indians to improve  their reading and writing  skills, the newspaper  carried out news about students,  school  administration and national  Indian affairs.  In the 1890s the Indian Helper  carried out a  notation printed by Indian boys  and edited by  man on the bandstand.  Man on the bandstand was a story  they made up to  scare the Indian children.  They had told them that he was  watching them at all  times and he would tell if they  did anything bad.  The Indians were so scared they  had a hard time  sleeping at night.  In the Red Man and the Helper  the whites tried to  show off pictures of kill the  Indian, save the man. 

 Meaning taking the Indian,  dressing him or her in  nice clothes and making them  religious meaning  reading the Bible and praying.  They took all their Native  customs away and they  were abused and punished if they  spoke their  language or sang their songs.  The only way to put Indians in  boarding schools  because it was cheaper than  killing them.  >> And that was one of the  things we found out too.  I didn't realize but some of the  original rationales  for having these boarding  schools even though they  were expensive was that it was  cheaper than having  warfare against them.  If we just built the schools we  could civilize them  and get them to do what we want  instead of going to  war with them.  And then these are some of those  pictures I showed you a little  bit already.  But this was Pratt's idea.  He had the idea to take a  picture of them as soon as they  arrived and then once the change  had been made you could take a  picture of the same people and  see how different they looked  and it gave the impression of  look how civilized, we've  accomplished what the school has  set out to do.  We can make them look like we  killed the Indian and we saved  the man. 

 And these are exactly the same  people in the picture, they're  just before and after pictures.  Here's another.  And the transformation is  significant.  And if you go online there's a  lot of resources and there's  just a ton of these pictures you  can see of the before and after  and it was really just a way to  show the success of the program.  I mean, it was kind of showing a  false sense of success.  Because deep down most of these  Indian children, a lot of them  did want, or not did want to  change but they did change, they  did appreciate the help.  They've looked at this as an  opportunity to move forward.  But for a lot of people this  experience was extremely  traumatic.  And it wasn't something that  helped them at all.  And the transformation on the  outside didn't reflect what was  going on on the inside for them. 

 There's one program, we don't  have a slide about it, but it  was called the outing program.  And Robin is going to come up  and give you a little  information about that.  It was part of the industrial  training that they received.  >> One of Pratt's successful  programs was the outing system  for Native American students.  It was made for change.  For Native Americans students to  get a different viewpoint of  life.  What it was like to live in a  civilized home.  It provided means which students  could learn special training in  skilled occupations which would  lead to profitable employment.  Pratt made rooms to teach boys  tinsmithing, carpentry, shoe  making, tailoring, wagon making,  blacksmithing and steam fitting.  The girls were taught domestic  arts, dressing, cooking, nursing  and care for children. 

 Pratt would find places for  students in local homes or  businesses to work and practice  their skills.  Each boy and girl that worked  off campus got paid though half  the money was deposited in  interest bearing accounts and  was given back when the student  returned home or graduated.  Many of the students worked in  Quaker families in eastern  Pennsylvania and the surrounding  states.  In ways the outing system  succeeded in placing Native kids  closer to the culture they were  forced to absorb.  A man by the name of Carl --  attended Carlisle school for  some time and he quoted the  memory of good teachers.  Some children remained with  their families year-round and  went to public schools.  >> I was trying to think of a  word to describe this.  The ladies at the Historical  Museum that were showing us  around the campus kind of like  indentured servitude because I  don't know it was so much a  choice that they got to go to  these different placements and  Robin found a really cool  document.  It was a picture that's online  of a contract that was signed  between the Native student and  the school kind of setting  fourth of rules for going to  their placements that their goal  was to become immersed in the  culture and what better way to  do that than in somebody's home.  So that was one of the other  programs that he had used. 

 Now Keith is going to come up  and talk one more piece about a  negative affect that happened to  Native children.  A lot of times, regardless of  the fact that they were over  1500 miles away, this  homesickness really became a  major issue.  So Keith.  >> Because some of the Native  American children at boarding  school were far a way from home,  they became homesick.  And to many of the children  their standard families, aunts,  uncles were very important to  them and that made it worse.  While the children were  homesick, many of them tried to  escape and got caught.  For attempting escape, they were  punished severely.  Whipped with rubber hoses, tied  up, chained to bed or  incarcerated.  On the internet I found a story  by a Caroline Mar about her  experience at what she saw at  her boarding school.  Two little girls who ran away  got caught and as punishment  they were put in the middle of  the hall, got their legs tied up  and their hands tied up behind  their back. 

 And they fell the adults heard  them fall, went out, beat them  and made them stand up again  until they got tired.  >> And a lot of these  punishments that were received,  when I first read them it just  sounds impossible because these  are punishments that are taking  place against children.  But at the Carlisle Indian  Boarding School they took us to  a guard house and it's still  standing there.  It was used as a prison.  I can't remember when it was  originally from but in an early  war.  And what it was used for when  children misbehaved severely  like running away they would  take them to the guard house and  it was pretty much jail and we  got to go in it and it was a  narrow hallway and, not cement  blocks but blocks made out of  rock and it was very cold and  wet feeling in there.  It's kind of like a museum now  but they let us walk back in  there and you got to open the  door and walk back into the  room.  And you can just imagine being a  child and being put in this  room.  It was like being put in a jail  as a punishment.  And these boarding schools not  just from Pratt's time like in  the late 1800s to the early  1900s but these boarding schools  have a map up of how many spread  out across the country. 

 In my mother's era, she was born  in the 1950s and she went to a  boarding school and she told me  that she remembers girls tying  sheets together and trying to  climb out the window and go home  because they were so homesick.  That tie, I think that's true  for any family not just Native  families, that tie with your  family is very close and you  want to be with them and to be  so far away was really hard for  a lot of these children.  Last year we had a really  special man at our school.  He had become a spiritual  advisor kind of like a medicine  man.  His name was Mitch -- .  He's actually mentioned in one  of these books.  But he is my mother's age too  and he remembers being in  several boarding schools and  actually being asked to leave or  kicked out of some of them  because he always would try to  run away.  I'm not going to make you girls,  I was going to have them do a  demonstration of something he  called the duck walk but we're  kind of running out of time.  But he said the punishment that  he would receive is they would  be asked to go down like  squatting very low and to walk  around the room and if they  couldn't, once they weren't able  to do that anymore, they would  get further punishment and we're  fortunate in a way that at our  school we have resources like  this who are able to come into  the classrooms and talk to the  students about this.  Because they do learn about it  a lot and I think they get a  little removed from the reality  of it. 

 But it's something that we have  people come in and talk to them  about it and they realized wow  this happened to somebody who's  in our classroom right now.  Cheyenne's going to come back up  because we were talking we  thought maybe some of the deaths  that occurred at these boarding  schools maybe were from  homesickness.  Can't really document that that  happened.  But there were a lot of  illnesses that came to these  schools but also were there and  when the children got there they  became sick.  Cheyenne's going to read a  little part about this.  >> Every off-school reservation  had their own cemetery.  At the Carlisle School, as on  the reservations, the health of  many Indians people was in  peril, particularly after  European contact.  Illnesses contracted at boarding  schools are brought to school  from home communities are the  typical communicable diseases so  prevalent at the boarding  schools.  Tuberculosis, trachoma, measles,  pneumonia, mumps and influenza.  While other students could not  cope with the severe stress of  separation from the family and  tribe so they most likely died. 

 Most of the children who became  ill were sent back home from  their families but some did pass  away at school and are buried  there.  Of the 190 children buried in  the Carlisle Indian School  cemetery from more than three  dozen nations, the Apache  represent the greatest number.  >> And this is another thing you  can see that the school is still  there.  They actually moved it.  They were building a new  structure and the cemetery was  moved.  But the people there have tried  very hard to be respectful of  the history with the boarding  school.  But still they moved the  cemetery and it's now next to a  road and when we go there that's  one of the last places that we  visit and a Native custom is for  put tobacco down it's kind of  like an offering.  And to say a prayer and remember  these kids.  Some of the graves it's not  known who the person is that's  there.  And some of these boarding  schools it was common for them  to have cemeteries because the  death rate at them was so high. 

 Let me see here.  And this shows you a map of some  of where the off-school,  off-reservation boarding schools  were.  Carlisle is in Pennsylvania.  There were some here in  Wisconsin, Tomah.  -- is one that we have.  Some students at our school have  a connection to but you can see  they're all spread out all the  way over to the west coast.  Mission schools, we're not going  to go too much into this.  It's a common, very common to  boarding schools except the  group that was running it was  not the federal government at  times and Cameron has one last  definition of what a mission  boarding school is.  >> The original purpose of the  mission schools were to convert  Native people to Christianity.  The difference between mission  schools and regular boarding  schools was that mission schools  were run by the church and not  the government. 

 Missionaries believed that  Natives were savages and should  have been saved so they decided  to convert them.  There were two different kinds  based on funding.  The first was government and  they were supported by the  government and the missionary  schools were supported by the  church and nothing else.  >> And I believe my grandfather  probably was a mission school  that he went to because in his  adult life he was a layman  minister, part of the  congregational church.  And I have memories of him  preaching at a church right near  his home in his language.  So he still taught and spoke in  his traditional language but he  was speaking about the Christian  faith and that's what he  practiced all of his adult life.  He never practiced anything that  I was aware was traditional.  And I believe that he probably  was at one of these mission  boarding schools.  Though my family never told me  that, that's my guess.  And these boarding schools that  we're talking about are from the  time of the late 1800s up until  my mother was in one so in the  1950s, 1960s and there still are  boarding schools in existence  today though they are completely  different from those of the  past. 

 But right around the time of the  civil rights movement is when  the Indian community also  started deciding they wanted to  do something different too as  far as getting rights for  themselves and this is when we  see groups like there's one  called AIM, American Indian  Movement, which is another topic  you might be interested in  researching.  And they just were really  speaking out about rights of  Native people.  And this is when Indian people  decided maybe we want to do  something as far as Indian  education is concerned.  And this is known as  self-determination.  Now is a time we have policies  coming from the government that  are actually reflecting helping  the Native American in a  different way.  And Jessica's going to talk,  this is I think one of my last  speakers.  I know we're going over the  time, is that okay?  It's 1:00 o'clock right now.  Jessica is going to speak a  little about what  self-determination is what that  meant for schools.  >> Around the 1970s, Indian  people had a say in the way  their children were taught.  The Congress acted upon the  Native parents and educators'  advice. 

 This was known as  Self-Determination and Education  Act of 1975.  Which meant that the Natives  could own their own schools and  teach them what they thought was  necessary for the young Indian  boys and girls.  They didn't need the Bureau of  Indian Affairs to tell them what  to teach and what was right for  children.  The -- school was the first  tribally controlled high school  since the Cherokee and Choctaw  schools which had closed in the  early 1900s.  Though Oneida Turtle School is  very similar to the Indian  Community School.  They teach the Native Oneida  children about their culture, as  is we do.  Although we teach three  different languages such as  Menomonee, Oneida and -- we  still have the same idea about  what we want the children in our  Indian Community School and at  Oneida Turtle School to learn.  And I'm very glad that we have  the honor to still learn our  languages and cultures at the  Indian Community School.  >> So this is time when you  begin to see the languages that  are taught in schools which  obviously was the exact opposite  of the purpose of the boarding  schools was to stop the  speaking, stop knowing the  language.  And you can see that affect now. 

 When I was asking my students  questions about how they felt  about being students at our  school one of the things they  said was in language class we  don't really learn the language.  And that's a sad fact but many  of the speaker, fluent speakers  are passing away and many of  them were students in boarding  schools and so they were taught  not to speak their language.  That it was really undesirable  to.  That it was a bad thing, a  really negative thing.  And so they didn't pass it on to  their family members.  And so now we have a generation  that we're entering into where  we're trying to claim that but  sometimes the language is gone  or there's so few people that  know it that the opportunity  isn't there anymore.  So right now in this time a lot  of people are trying really  hard.  There's some immersion schools  but at our school it's a  challenge because we have three  language teachers but none of  them are fluent in the language  so that's something that we're  dealing with as well.  Before we show you slides of our  school and another school in the  area, Cheyenne is going to talk  a little bit about how there are  still boarding schools in the  country today.  I know that on my reservation  there's one and there are  several throughout the school  and she has a personal  knowledge, she has family  members that are students at  them so these going to talk a  little bit about that. 

 >> My great grandparents and her  grandmother and father were in  boarding schools in the early  ones.  And they were taught not to talk  about it to my grandmother so  she didn't tell me that much  other than that they were really  abused.  And I believe my great  grandmother was sexually abused  too.  But to the modern boarding  schools I have cousins and my  father, his sister who went to  boarding school CNS in -- .  CNS is in North Dakota and -- .  And I have my cousin Jesus who  is 12 years old right now went  there last year and is returning  next year.  He came back because of  homesickness.  He described the school as it  was fun.  It was like any other school  besides the fact that you have  to sleep there.  And I guess that there is a drum  group. 

 He got a lot of Menominee  language in him.  Then -- , I have two cousins  that go there right now.  One's a senior and one's a  sophomore.  Isaiah -- and Avery -- .  They are smart.  They are on the drum.  One of them is a very good  singer.  He helped make a CD for the --  music.  He used to sing me to sleep when  I was little a lullaby he made.  And it was kind of cool. 

 The first time his mom heard it,  because she went to boarding  school and they didn't really  have, they were kind of -- to  her.  She cried when she first heard  it.  It was sad and happy at the same  time.  My cousin who graduated from  there -- who's 20 right now.  Graduated as valedictorian with  a 4.0.  All my cousins describe it as an  important event in life.  It helps you stand up on your  own.  It helps you prepare for life.  They said the teachers put up  with a lot more there than  teachers at regular schools  because there's homesickness and  there's a lot of kids always  crying and stuff.  But then again they don't  because the kids there are  really helpful, they help around  a lot. 

 And if you want extra cash you  can have some jobs there like  cleaning the rooms, helping the  services prepare meals and  stuff.  And I asked my cousins why do  you think the reason is that  kids who come to the school from  all over the country and Alaska?  He said it was because either  the parents can't take care of  them, they're drunks or some of  them are in like foster care and  stuff.  So it's kind of sad.  >> And Cheyenne brings up an  important topic because it's  like the history of these  boarding schools, the situation  they created for Native people  caused a lot of devastation  within the community of Natives.  Like the consequences, I guess,  is that once people got back to  the reservations they would go  to their community members and  sometimes they weren't seen as  Natives anymore so they really  lost their identity.  It's kind of like they're trying  to be in two worlds and neither  world is really recognizing who  they are.  Alcoholism is a huge problem  among the Indian community and  the suicide rate I want to say  is the second highest in the  nation.  The consequences are still being  felt.  And you can see that Native  people are still using boarding  schools because for some of them  it was a learned experience and  they make the choice to send  their own children there so they  are much different than the  original boarding schools.  So we're just going to end real  quick talking about two schools. 

 Up in Oneida, you can see it's  pretty cool it's called the  Turtle School.  And it's part of the Oneida  tribe and language is their main  focus and it's not part of the  BIA system so this is an example  of a school that is trying to  determine what their Indian  children are going to learn.  And then this is our last slide.  This is our school that we are  from and it's called Indian  Community School.  And it was really interesting  when we were trying to research  this there is really no written  information at our school about  this.  If you know about Indian history  a lot of the history is oral  tradition that's passed down,  it's not a written history.  And so Keith was actually put in  charge of finding out facts  about our school.  So what I'm going to give you is  what I've heard but it's not  something I can document at this  time.  But the story is that three  mothers in the '70s decided that  they were going to take their  kids out of the Milwaukee Public  School system because they were  really unhappy with the things  that were going on for their  students.  That they weren't learning about  their culture, that there was  racism. 

 And they just wanted to provide  and different learning  experience.  So they took their students out  and I think they started  teaching them in a basement  originally and from there it  moved to different places.  For a time they were at the  coast guard station in  Milwaukee.  And then from there when I  started working there five years  ago, five and a half years ago,  they were at an old Concordia  campus on State Street.  And at this time, there wasn't a  lot of funding.  Sometimes I think there was a  period when the school wasn't in  existence.  But Potawatomi Casino had to  sign an agreement with the state  and they had to provide a  certain amount of funding  towards education and so they,  it was kind of like a match up  there and they decided that they  were going to donate money  towards our school.  And that would satisfy that  their obligation was part of  their agreement and so then our  school all the sudden had a lot  more money than it had ever  previously had before.  I don't have any pictures of the  old school but it's an old  Concordia campus.  And actually the money that  they've gotten they built a new  school for the students and it's  really an amazing thing if you  ever get a chance to see it in  Franklin. 

 But it's a huge school and it's  very beautiful and they tried to  really include different  elements of nature and they  really considered different  things as far as the tools that  they, or the materials that they  used for the design of the  school.  You can see that this is an  older picture but this is, they  have a drum and so the kids get  to learn to sing on the drum.  And we have, there's a picture  up here, this was a recent visit  where we had elders from the --  community come and visit our  schools.  The kids all wrote some  statements.  I'm probably going to skip that  part for right now.  We'll do that at the end when we  have question and answers.  But I really kind of wanted you  to get a taste of the spectrum  of where boarding school  education and now we're at where  we have this school.  It's considered an intra-tribal  school.  There's three main tribes there  but it's kind of like they've  come a long way and there's  still things to change and be  done but I think it's really a  positive thing for our Indian  kids.  And I think with that I'll end  there. 

 Thank you.  [APPLAUSE]