The Middle Five: Indian Schoolboys of the Omaha Tribe

by Francis la Flesche, David A. Baerreis (Foreword), Angel De Cora (Illustrator)

The Middle Five , first published in 1900, is an account of Francis La Flesche's life as a student in a Presbyterian mission school in northeastern Nebraska about the time of the Civil War. It is a simple, affecting tale of young Indian boys midway between two cultures, reluctant to abandon the ways of their fathers, and puzzled and uncomfortable in their new roles of "make-believe white men." The ambition of the Indian parents for their children, the struggle of the teachers to acquaint their charges with a new world of learning, and especially the problems met by both parents and teachers in controlling and directing schoolboy exuberance contribute to the authen-ticity of this portrait of the "Universal Boy," to whom La Flesche dedicated his book. Regarded by anthropologists as a classic of Native American literature, it is one of those rare books that are valued by the specialist as authentic sources of information about Indian culture and yet can be recommended wholeheartedly to the general reader, especially to young people in high school and the upper grades, as a useful corrective to the often distorted picture of Indian life seen in movies, comics, and television.

Genres: History, Native American, Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, American History, Education

156 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1900

Reviews

[Catie Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book charming and sweet; a real pleasure to read. It's amazing the way he seems to unselfconsciously relate the massive culture divide he had to straddle as a boy, all the while telling a story that allows you to truly love the characters within. One of the most interesting parts of the book is in the introduction at the beginning, when he explains that he is not making the choice to tell you about the Anglicized Omaha boys he knew at the school instead of the ones back at the village because of any lack of regard he had for the latter group; it's just that he believes that his audience will only be able to relate to his friends as true humans if he chooses to tell us about the ones who bear some resemblance to us. Same deal with his choice to use the boys' American names -- he doesn't want us to become dizzied by the strangeness of their Omaha names, and thus forget that they are individual people. It's tragic that he has to do this, but I think it shows a clarity of thinking about the gap he spent his childhood trying to span --and likely his adulthood too-- that permeates the tales in the book with a haunting elegance, and no lack of nostalgia. The way the schooling system is framed in the story -- as a boon to native survival rather than a near-genocidal exploitation -- is likely to seem strange to readers who know the historical context, but what we are hearing is a telling of his true story, with a view into the mindset of the people around him, there and then.

[Emmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very amusing, eyeopening, and sometimes shocking story of growing up as a Native American (Omaha) in an Indian School. Told through a series of short stories, this is a quick and enjoyable read that I would never have heard of if it weren't for Substack.

And now some personal stuff:
My reading buddy, Dz. always had a very deep love of the Native American people and was very generous in his donations to any cause that he knew would help them. Our first book read together was about a priest who lobbied to help the Cheyenne. So, reading this book, about a Native American man's experiences as a child growing up in a Christian Indian school felt like something that Dz. would have found so interesting.

I've been avoiding reading the sorts of things that we enjoyed reading together, because every time I picked up a book, it just feels hollow to me. So, this title snuck up on me and I enjoyed it far more than I think I would have if I went into things thinking about Dz. But, I know he would have loved this book and we both would have cried a little at the end.

In a very happy accident, it felt like I was reading with him again.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming and often humorous collection of anecdotes from the author's time as a (willing) student at a missionary school in the 1860s.

[Caitlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for a Native American literature graduate course this winter, and it was fascinating. Each chapter details a memory of La Flesche from his Omaha tribe and his Presbyterian boarding school nearby. It's short enough to enjoy over a weekend and it raised a lot of interesting questions and debates on the light-hearted language, the relationship between Christianity and Native Americans, who is the universal boy that this book is dedicated to, and La Flesche's experiences compared to others at mission and federal boarding schools. La Flesche wanted to humanize his tribe and culture so that non-natives could understand his stories. It's interesting to read some beautiful and happy memories alongside twisted moments such as punishments and education, the struggle to balance or even choose between two different cultures, and challenging topics like death. He descriptions are awesome and it gave me a new appreciation for Native American culture. It also challenged me to see that not everyone at these boarding schools had overwhelmingly negative experiences and see the many reasons for parents sending their children to school. This book is underrated and totally necessary.

[SouthWestZippy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Francis La Flesche tells the story of five boys that went to a Presbyterian mission school in northeastern Nebraska.
The book is yet another eye opener on the realities of trying to find a way to learn new ways and keep the traditions.
The end of the book grab me and that image will stay with me. Well written book.

[Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

read via Public Domain Book Club on substack.

This is notable for being a memoir written by a Native man who attended one of the American residential schools in which Native children were taken from their homes and communities and taught English, Christianity, and essentially pushed into erasing their own culture in favor of white society. And, I don't know, perhaps it's possible that La Flesche really did have the experience represented on the page here. Because it reads like he got a formal education (which, is its own loaded phrasing ofc, but I'm not going to unpack it here) as well as the ability to hold onto his familial and communal ties. He made friends at his school, he went back home to his parents regularly, and frankly it sounds somewhat lovely.

But I am skeptical. We know now how awful, how violent, how appalling these schools were. Kidnapping children, enforcing them to abandon their entire culture, abusing them, murdering them. The entire point of these schools was to create a generational shift in which indigenous cultures were forgotten and societies erased. So I do wonder how much editing La Flesche did here, both perhaps due to selective memory as well as intentional misrepresentation. And I recognize the possibility that he may not have been the one to edit, to misrepresent. Because this entire book feels like a reassurance to white people that they aren't doing anything wrong, and to Native people that their children are fine. It was published in the early 20th century, and my cultural history is a bit poor, so I don't really know the context this would have come out in. But reading it now, it just seems like propaganda.

And, I suppose it could be possible that what is on the page is in fact representative of his experience. To that slim possibility, I would just say that his experience was certainly not, based on what we have learned in the last several years, the norm.

As to the writing, it's pedestrian and meandering. Easy prose to read, to be sure, but the book functions more as a series of vignettes rather than a narrative whole. It's fine, but I would not want to hand this to someone to form their impression of residential schools with no other context. That would be disingenuous at best. Nevertheless, it is nice to read a memoir about Native experiences from a Native voice, even if I wonder how much of it is purely his voice, free from pressure to make it sound better than it was.

[Danny Ruggles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. La Flesche is a master of rhetoric. His firsthand account of a Native schoolboy in a mid-19th-century boarding school is incredibly moving. I love every character (even Grey-beard, whose name is a reflection of a sense of native rebellion), but I particularly like Little Bob, albeit he is a minor character. The ending threw me for a loop, and I feel incredibly unsatisfied with how the story ends, but it is such a meaningful end that you can’t help but want more. I am very surprised by the tone of the piece, I thought it would be somber and sad, yet it doesn’t come off that way in its entirety. It challenges the preconceptions of the Native experience at these schools, and really makes you consider La Flesche’s purpose in writing this, especially with a biographical knowledge of who he was. I would definitely recommend this book.

[Becki]

This is a series of short vignettes from Francis LaFlesche's life at the boarding school on the Omaha land in Nebraska. It was interesting but I think maybe presents a more positive picture than things that are just now coming to light show.

[Alba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ligero , pero interesante, algo apresurado el final.

[Kelsey Porter · Rating 4 out of 5]

“By your presence you aided and encouraged those wicked boys. He who is present at wrong doing, and lifts not a hand to prevent it, is as guilty as the wrong-doers” (La Flesche 128)

“The persecution of the poor, the sneer at their poverty is a wrong for which no punishment is too severe” (La Flesche 128-129).

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ = Good.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the preface to The Middle Five the author Francis La Flesche noted that he chose to write about boys from the Omaha Tribe living in in a boarding school for NA children and teens rather than those still living in their villages in the plains of Nebraska circa the 1860’s because he thought the familiarity of the school setting would make the tribe more readily comprehensible to the European American reader. In describing the friendships, conflicts, adventures, and occasional misadventures/misdeeds in a way that one gains a sense of what daily life in such a school might have been like he hoped it would still provide insights into the Omaha perspective on life and relationships.

I concur that the book does accomplish that in some respects. But I must admit that I found myself wishing that it depicted more about Omaha tribal life. Whereas nonfiction accounts note how disruptive, if not harmful, these schools were to the self esteem of these children as well as to the NA culture and language this book does not depict the alienation nor the loneliness the children must have felt being apart from their parents and siblings. There is one chapter about the narrator and some of his friends running away to join their families on the hunt. In another they sing an Indian song for visiting government agents but this is seen as ‘savage.’ Subsequently, the students are made to sing the English language songs they have been taught. La Flesche noted in the book that they were forbidden to speak their own language at the school. And he described incidents of corporal punishment of the boys by the staff. Through all of this, however, nothing is noted about the difficulties, let alone harm, that these practices might have caused the narrator and his friends.

TMF is quite readable because of its use of simple declarative sentences. Additionally, the use of lyrical metaphors to describe a setting or the thoughts/feelings of the narrator give it a satisfying richness at times. Sometimes the phraseology sounds like it has been translated directly from the NA language of the author. This gives one a sense of authenticity without much stiltedness.

I recommend the book for those interested in the experiences of NA boys living in boarding schools in the 1860’s. But it was disappointing to me that some relevant aspects of that life were left out. Perhaps La Flesche gave a more comprehensive accounting of NA life in the mid to late 19th century in some of his other books.

[Melinda Borda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A novel based on the author’s own experience in a residential school in Nebraska. Not the most engaging writing, but at the same time, a necessary look at this particular bit of history. Another good book that ties in is “The Soul of the Indian” by Charles Eastman

Content considerations: physical abuse, death

[NoOr Belasi · Rating 4 out of 5]

So little that I know about the native Americans or Indians and it gives me great pleasure to read even a bit about one tribe trying to communicate and live with the different culture during that era.
I realized that I want more about Indians I need the whole story but about our book now the emotions and lessons are endless , so touched by the speech of Frank's father it got me thinking about alot of things and reevaluating them.
Also in love with their beliefs and spiritual lives so beautiful to hear the wind and give meanings to all little things it teaches the children about manners.
Finally , Brush has stolen my heart away.

[Glenn Banks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Will it was kind of interesting I can say it was something I would expect when children are placed in boarding school. Can't see how it was much different if it was some other group. Now that said I do not think they should have done this. Speeds up the loss of a language and culture.

[Allison6876 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for AMIN 3201W paper

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book deeply touched me 13 years ago.
This book deeply touched me today.