Education for Extinction, American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875-1928 by David Wallace Adams; 1995; University Press of Kansas,Lawrence, KS; 396 pages; ILL from University of Portland; 0-7006-0735-8; 4/9-4/19

We need to awaken in him wants. In his dull savagery he must be touched by the wings of the divine angel of discontent. Then he begins to look forward, to reach out. The desire for property of his own may become an intense educating force. The wish for a home of his own awakens him to new efforts. Discontent with the tepee and starving rations of the Indian camp in winter is needed to get the Indian out of the blanket and into trousers,– and trousers with a pocket in them, and with a pocket that aches to be filled with dollars. Merill Gates

A second them was man’s fundamental interrelatedness with nature. Unlike Christianity where God and man stood apart–really above-nature, Indians lived in ecology harmony with their environment, approached it reverential humility, and ultimately ascribed to it a spiritual significance unknown to European-Americans.

Another obstacle to self-sufficiency was the traditional Indian ethic of sharing. “With the Indians, he is richest who gives most, with us, it is the one keeps most.” mused William Hailman, Superintendent of Indian Schools…

Around 1875, “reformers” came up with a new twist on the adage, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian”, the new and improved adage was “Kill the Indian, Keep the Man”. With this in mind, Native American youth were plucked from their families, sometimes by force and sent to school. Some of them were sent all the way across the country so their was no influence by families and the tribe. The point of this education was not just to teach the children the 3 R’s but to teach them to be white. All external trappings of who they were removed and prohibited, no long hair, no painting, no speaking their native languages, no practicing their religion, anything associated with being Native American was bad, the only good was being white. American consumerism, which we often think of being somewhat new was obviously in vogue then, as shown by the first quote above. To make man civilized we have to make them want, we have to make them want more than others. We have to make them stop sharing and hoard. A poem many of the children had to learn was “The Man who Wins”, which says the man who wins is the one who hears the crys of the envious.

The white man has come to realize, hopefully, that we need to be more interconnected with nature and be good stewards of what we have. We have, again hopefully, come to realize that we need to share more. We cannot simply be concerned about ourselves, because what happens to one of us affects us all.

For a University Press book, this study is very readable and not too lofty and ivory towerish. RRRR