The turn of the 19th century saw the rise of many Native American boarding schools which were tasked with teaching “American” customs and culture to Native Americans. One such school was The Carlisle Boarding School for Native Americans, located in Pennsylvania, which was one of the first schools to attempt this. Richard Pratt, founder and superintendent of The Carlisle Boarding school, had his own beliefs for how Native Americans should be taught these practices. In his speech, “Kill the Indian, Save the Man”, Richard Pratt outlines the goals of the boarding school and its commitment to assimilating Native Americans (Pratt, Para. 18). Pratt outlines that he would like to “civilize” the native people and assimilate them into “Civil” culture (Pratt, Para. 19). Pratt presents his ideas with a particular self-righteous pity that led readers to believe that Carlisle school had high moral standings; that they were hoping to save the Native Americans from their own fate. However, in the years that followed, many students and family members gave their own accounts of their involvement with boarding schools such as the Carlisle School. The narratives of these students paint a strikingly different picture of these schools compared to how Pratt describes their goals. Zitkala-sa, a former student of the Carlisle School, gives her account of her time spent in the school and the effects it had on her. Zitkala-sa’s writing can be read as a rebuttal to the stereotyping ideas, such as the ones claimed by Pratt, thought at the time. Her articles also enlightened readers of the conditions at the school, as a response to how the school claims it conducted itself. In her articles, Zitkala-sa uses her personal narrative as a way to subvert the ideals of the Carlisle School. This subversion of Pratt’s ideas can be seen in the way that Zitkala-sa recounts her childhood and her time spent in the Carlisle boarding school.
While the speech, “Kill the Indian, Save the Man”, is not a formal mission statement of the Carlisle Boarding school, as its president, Pratt’s beliefs served as a guide for how the school was operated. Additionally, Pratt’s speech can be seen as a representation of the common thinking of Americans in power during this time period and how misguided it was. Through his speech, we can see that many Americans at the time were also deliberating how the country should deal with their Native American neighbors. Pratt was a critic of the notion of missionaries going into the Native American lands to teach them “American” culture. As Pratt explains, “What would be the result of an attempt to plant American customs and civilization among the Germans in Germany, demanding that they shall become thoroughly American before we admit them to the country?” (Pratt, Para. 19). Pratt believed that the only way that the Native Americans could become civilized was by being brought into, and immersed, in white culture itself. This quote shows the mission of the Carlisle school because it justifies the school’s practice of separating families in order to teach children at the school. Pratt also describes the goal of the school as releasing the Native Americans from the ties they have with their tribes. As Pratt describes, “giving no other experience and leading to no aspirations beyond the tribe, leaves them in their chronic condition of helplessness, so far as reaching the ability to compete with the white race is concerned” (Pratt, Para. 13). In this quote, Pratt shows that he believes that white culture is superior to native culture and for their own sake, in order to compete with whites, they need to be cut from their tribal ties. Pratt implies to his audience that Native Americans do not want to remain part of their tribe and that the school does them a great service by giving them the opportunity to break the shackles of tribal life. These quotes show the real institutional mission of the Carlisle Boarding school, which was to rid native people of their ties and identity and replace it with white culture.
One of the ways that Pratt conjures support from his audience is by showing that Native Americans were people that needed help from themselves. Pratt uses language that exemplifies the differences between the “civilized” whites and the “savage” Native Americans. Contrary to this description, illustrated by Pratt and the Carlisle Boarding school, Zitkala-sa, paints a different image of life as a native American; one that would have been quite startling to most Americans in power at the time. Contrary to the ideas of Pratt, Zitkala-sa does not describe her childhood as painful or struggling. In fact, she describes a childhood that many white Americans in power would have been able to resonate with as shared experiences. In Zitkala-sa’s account, she describes her childhood memories as being filled with playing and often being at her mother’s side. For example, Zitkala-sa recounts that during the summertime she and her friends, “roamed over the hills with me. We each carried a light sharpened rod about four feet long, with which we pried up certain sweet roots. When we had eaten all the choice roots we chanced upon, we shouldered our rods and strayed off into patches of a stalky plant under whose yellow blossoms we found little crystal drops of gum. Drop by drop we gathered this nature’s rock-candy, until each of us could boast of a lump the size of a small bird’s egg.” (“The Beadwork”, Para. 7). While many Americans may have imagined Native Americans as struggling savages, this quote by Zitkala-sa shows that she and her friends played exactly like anyone else. They had fun and got lost in the innocence of childhood. This quote hardly shows that her tribe struggled, in fact, it shows that they had shared experiences with many Americans. Later In her article, Zitkala-sa shares a story she remembers about her aunt and her mother and how they had a special relationship. While Zitkala-sa describes her mother as quiet and soft-spoken, she states that when her aunt was around, she “forgot her accustomed quietness, often laughing heartily at some of my aunt’s witty remarks” (“The Ground Squirrel”, Para. 2). This idea of a warm, friendly, household filled with laughter and jokes tells a much different story to the reader than what may have been expected at the time. While Pratt’s speech paints an image of struggling Native Americans who desperately needed help to save them from themselves, Zitkala-sa’s narrative instead teaches us that her family was not one that needed to be saved at all; they were doing fine without any white influence.
Zitkala-sa also responds to the ideas of Pratt and many other Americans by detailing her experiences at the Carlisle school itself. In Pratt’s eyes, the goal of the school was to strip the Native Americans of their “savage ways” (Pratt, Para. 19). For example, when discussing the Native American’s ability to adopt white culture, 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” (Pratt, Para. 19). In this quote, Pratt suggests that the school should be civilizing the Native Americans. His tone implies a certain hollow understanding of Native Americans and what they need. His language implies that any language and culture different than his own is something that needs to be changed because it is not correct. However, one of Zitkala-sa’s stories sheds a different light on the school’s attempt to civilize her. In her article, “The School Days of an Indian Girl”, Zitkala-sa recounts when she had her hair violently stripped from her at the school. As she recalls, on her first day at the school, Zitkala-sa learned from her friend that the school planned on cutting off her long hair (“The Cutting of My Long Hair”, Para. 9). In her culture, having your hair cut by the enemy was a sign of cowardice; Zitkala-sa was terrified of having her hair cut. She tried to hide under a bed in an attempt to resist; however, as Zitkala-sa recalls, “I remember being dragged out, though I resisted by kicking and scratching wildly. In spite of myself, I was carried downstairs and tied fast in a chair.” (“The Cutting of My Long Hair”, Para. 9). Once she was tied down, and couldn’t move, Zitkala-sa recalls that she “cried aloud, shaking my head all the while until I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck, and heard them gnaw off one of my thick braids. Then I lost my spirit” (The Cutting of My Long Hair, Para. 9). These quotes challenge the views of Pratt because they effectively blur the lines between “Savage” and “Civil”. These quotes make the reader question who is the savage exactly? The school is tasked with “civilizing” the Native Americans, but where is the civility in barbarically chopping off a little girl’s hair while she begs against it? In this way, Zitkala-sa subverts the moral standings of the Carlisle school by showing the reality of how they practiced their “assimilation”.
By examining Zitkala-sa’s articles, one can see how personal narratives work as a powerful force of resistance against oppression. Zitkala-sa’s narrative does an amazing job of switching the conversation from, as Pratt puts it, “what to do with the Indian” to, why do anything at all (Pratt Para. 24)? Zitkala-sa’s narrative is so powerful because it is the only way the truth of the school would be exposed. If everyone who listened to Pratt’s speech, or knew the mission of the school, took everything they said at face value, then not many would have objected. In fact, many probably would have felt quite self-righteous supporting such a program that was “helping” the Native Americans. It is only through the personal testimony of someone in the system that we can really judge its effectiveness at accomplishing its goals. Through Zitkala-sa’s writing, we are able to see the power of a story and how it can work to bring about change.
Works Cited
Zitkala-Sa. “American Indian Stories.” A Celebration of Women Writers, digital.library.upenn.edu/women/zitkala-sa/stories/stories.html.
“‘Kill the Indian, and Save the Man’: Capt. Richard H. Pratt on the Education of Native Americans.” HISTORY MATTERS , historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4929/.
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