Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940

by Brenda J. Child

Boarding School Seasons offers a revealing look at the strong emotional history of Indian boarding school experiences in the first half of the twentieth century. At the heart of this book are the hundreds of letters written by parents, children, and school officials at Haskell Institute in Kansas and the Flandreau School in South Dakota. These revealing letters show how profoundly entire families were affected by their experiences. Children, who often attended schools at great distances from their communities, suffered from homesickness, and their parents from loneliness. Parents worried continually about the emotional and physical health and the academic progress of their children. Families clashed repeatedly with school officials over rampant illnesses and deplorable living conditions and devised strategies to circumvent severely limiting visitation rules. Family intimacy was threatened by the school's suppression of traditional languages and Native cultural practices. Although boarding schools were a threat to family life, profound changes occurred in the boarding school experiences as families turned to these institutions for relief during the Depression, when poverty and the loss of traditional seasonal economics proved a greater threat. Boarding School Seasons provides a multifaceted look at the aspirations and struggles of real people. Brenda J. Child is an associate professor of American studies at the University of Minnesota.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Indigenous, Education, Native American, College, American History

154 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1981

About the author

Brenda J. Child is Northrop Professor and Chair of the Department of American Studies
at the University of Minnesota, and former Chair of the Department of American Indian
Studies. She is the author of several books in American Indian history including
Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940 (1998), which won the North American Indian Prose Award; Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community (2012); Indian Subjects: Hemispheric Perspectives on the History of Indigenous Education (with Brian Klopotek, 2014). Her 2014 book My Grandfather’s Knocking Sticks: Ojibwe Family Life and Labor on the Reservation won the American Indian Book Award and the Best Book in Midwestern History Award.

She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Museum of the American Indian-Smithsonian and past-president of the Native American & Indigenous Studies
Association. Child was born on the Red Lake Ojibwe Reservation in northern Minnesota
where she is a member of a committee writing a new constitution for the 12,000-member nation.

Reviews

[alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was exactly what I was hoping for - a good overview, much of it drawn from the words of indigenous students at government schools and their families. I learned a lot and feel like I have a lot more context about this subject than I ever did from school. At times heartbreaking, it’s a part of our history we cannot skip over.

[Dasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Child begins by detailing the reality many Ojibwe communities faced in the early twentieth century. Indeed, economic hardships, poverty, landlessness increasing single parenthood due to disease, and an increasing number of parentless children of whom the community could not care for in a traditional manner, resulted in the decision to send some children to boarding schools to receive care, education, and vocational training. While the boarding schools were a product of the American Indian policy which aimed to assimilate and civilize Indigenous children, Child highlights the choices of parents and children in utilizing these schools (p. 27). Experiences varied at boarding schools but children often experienced frustration, homesickness, isolation, hunger, and sickness. Yet, as Child argues based on her extensive study of letters sent to and from families, parents and community members never stopped advocating for their children’s well-being and utilized letters to keep in contact, ensure safety, and provide children with a connection to their community and culture. As she concludes, “The schools designed to separate Indian families, dilute the influences of home, and impost a new set of cultural values ironically helped many Ojibwe families survive hard times” (p. 112). Letters demonstrate the continued importance of kinship in maintaining Ojibwe identity.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

With the recent news report of a mass grave found at a residential school site in Canada, the facts presented here are even more disheartening. The treatment of young children whose parents were coerced or forced to enroll their children in schools so far from home reeks of criminal levels of neglect. Rampant disease, limited training opportunities (the children became an excuse for a work house, it seems).

Every time the author quotes from a parent's letter begging school officials to allow their children to come home, i am saddened by the refusals.

Another awful period of our nation's history.

[Nathan Willard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed accounts of the lives of Native American children at the exploitative westernizing schools of the upper plains, told through their letters. Child does a good job of illustrating both the balance of reservation life vs the complex offers of the schools and the realities of life in both places.

[Natalie Aziz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had to read for a IAH class but honestly not mad at it. It was extremely eye opening. It’s short only 100pages (last 50pages are the appendix and what not) so if you like learning about history that schools don’t teach you about I highly recommend :))

[Sahel's · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a beautifully explored history of boarding schools which neither glorifies nor demonizes them. It is written as a humane, life-like depiction of life in boarding schools. The book is an honest research based on the archived letters corresponded between boarding school agents and parents, and Native American students and their families (most often under the assimilators' surveillance and scrutiny). The three schools are as listed:Haskell Boarding School: in Kansas
Flandreau Boarding School: in South Dakota
Pipestone Boarding School: in Minnesota

Declaring that students frequent visits to family would disrupt their total focus on learning American culture and values, assimilators did not approve of children going back home even for shorts visits. Some students did not travel home until after their studies finished. However, after the 1920s with the change of management in Flandreau and Haskell, it was advised that younger students should visit home.

On the one hand, with bad food plans, lack of health services, shortage of space for children, mostly went back home with diseases, malnutrition and psychological trauma. On the other hand, these schools were sometimes places for children to register with their cousins and friends and gather together at least for a while so that homesickness would vanish. Moreover, they could get away from the poverty, food deserts of reservations and sadness of home in case of the absence of parents or one of them (due to any reasons).

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this book had just been edited it might have been really good. It used lots of personal letters to show the experiences families faced with children in the Indian Boarding Schools. But it wasn't edited. Or at least it wasn't edited well. At only 100 pages there was at least a good 10 that could have been removed due to all the repetition (and repetition of material that was really sufficiently stated the first time). Still, it's an important part of the literature on this subject because there isn't much of it, making each letter cited that much more precious.

Oddly, I left with the feeling that things weren't THAT bad for the students. They made it clear that the administration was usually chock full of racists, the students weren't always taught useful subjects and the schools were underfunded, but there wasn't much mention of the abuse that I usually associate with these schools. In one chapter, the author discusses female students sent to work as maids for white families. It was mentioned that these girls were rebellious and didn't want to do the work, but to me, when studying a domestic science program i'd say that kind of work was the reasonable end (racist as the setup may have been). Overall I often found myself thinking "damn these kids were kinda spoiled sounding" and that's really the opposite of what I expected to think. I'm definitely going to read more on the subject to get a better, broader picture of the situation.

[Julia Alberino · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a story that must be told: that of the government boarding schools in the years 1900-1940.The U.S. Government's obsession with separating Indian children from their families and attempting to eradicate their language, relationships, and culture all in the quest for "assimilation" is today seen as misguided at best and evil at worst. The author's use of anecdotes, actual letters from children and parents, and vivid descriptions of conditions at the schools enhances the message, and puts a human face on the affected children and parents. Reading about educational philosophies of the government agents and school administrators provoked in me alternating sadness and hope (as there were some who seemed to really care about the children). The book stops in 1940, but it will lead the conscientious reader to do some research into how things are now. In some respects, things are better. Indian children are allowed to keep their language and cultural heritage, and are no longer sent out to work for pennies a day as part of their "education."

Note: The author does not deal with Church-affiliated boarding schools and the sexual abuse in them that is coming to light and being addressed now. She limits herself to the government-run schools.

[Ronnie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Informative but could have used another round of editing...

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting. For a more factual and complete read on the same subject, I'd recommend Education for Extinction instead. But I think that this book adds some important nuances to the discussion.

[Allie Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think the author does a great job of introducing the idea of Indian boarding schools in the late 19th and early 20th century. This is by no means a complete history but a well structured history book full of primary sources and citations to help you continue your research.
I am giving it 5 stars because I think the book did its job, it seems like many of the reviews wish a 100 page book would somehow give them decades worth of historical info, when that doesn’t seem to be what the author intended at all.

[Nora · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a good, if sometimes a little repetitive, introduction to the experience of many Native Americans at boarding schools. I read this as part of my research for a paper on American Indian Boarding schools, and if you know nothing about the topic it is surely a very accessible intro. I also like that the author is Native herself and she focuses a lot on the history of her own tribe, which makes this a bit more emotional to read. But yeah, it's not too long, so if you don't even have to take notes on the content, this would be an even faster read.

[Abbe L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite some repetition to support her thesis, Childs uses primary source letters to flesh out and stake new ground on the neglected and under-taught topic of residential boarding schools for Indigenous children in the US. Read this study to hear the voices of children and parents and to grasp the varied and complex ways the white Americans aimed to transform and erase Indigenous culture and the individual and collective agency of Nations to work with and again the system and structures.

[Jayden Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

had to read this for a class but it really pissed me off because it kept using the term “American Indians” or “Indians” which is completely incorrect and uneducated. also a lot of this book felt like tons and tons of very vague accounts that fell under broad themes, and I wish it was more structured

[Sanchita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lucidly written academic book, even though it doesn't describe the lived realities of the Native American community kids. More institutional in its outlook, this book left me begging for a more personal touch of the students.

[Janine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

This book filled in many necessary parts of the history of Native American boarding schools in the early 20th-century. The editing was a little rough, and I found the flow to be a little off at times. But, overall, informational and insightful.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will admit, this book was for more school and I did skip a couple chapters, but I think this was great insight into how boarding schools were for children in their most prevalent time. The first hand accounts with letters and pictures was fascinating.

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear compilation of facts about boarding schools for Native Americans around the turn of the 20th century and beyond. Focuses on Flandreau.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! So much of our country's history is not taught in schools or watered down. A somber read. Makes one rethink what it means to be an American.

[Lissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very informative, albeit heartbreaking, read. The author repeats themselves a lot, which I don't love. But it had a significant impact on how I view parts of our history. Good read overall.

[Tasha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Broadly informative but lacking depth and structure. Agree with other reviews pointing out the need for better editing.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Great story about how American Indians were treated in boarding schools in the late 1800s and early 1920s.

Read this for my graduate school class

[bri · Rating 1 out of 5]

COLLEGE READ:

tbh could have been like 15 pages there was so much repetitiveness

[Lauren Schick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was interesting and sad. Now a book I ever would have read if not for a college assignment but I enjoyed it.

[Hilary Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

The lifeblood of this book comes from excerpts of letters written between parents and children attending Indian boarding schools. I was most interested in the methods of resistance and rebellion employed by Native communities and individual students. This book was painful and eye-opening, but reminds us over and over that to say boarding schools destroyed Indian families is to underestimate Native communities themselves, and the powerful bonds between parents and their children.

[Billy Marino · Rating 4 out of 5]

While often redundant and oddly organized, likely due to three chapters being previously published articles, this book is still well worth a read. Child tells the history of three boarding schools, Flandreau, Haskell, and Pipestone not only from her perspective as an Ojwibe woman with family ties to these schools, but also using the letters that children, their parents, and school officials exchanged. If you know nothing of boarding schools as part of US assimilation policies, it may be wise to start with something like Education for Extinction for an overview, but it is still possible to read this on its own. The most important thing this book adds to the scholarship is the perspective of American Indian families, specifically here those of the Ojwibe children who attended these schools. Additionally, what these perspectives reveal is the complicated legacy these experiences left, namely that while they were certainly negative, many American Indian families, sought opportunities for their children and their reservations through education at these institutions. Even though these school consistently failed to provide what they promised both American Indian's and the government, they also produced a generation of Indians with knowledge of politics, histories as sports stars, and talented artists. This does not take away from the tragic events that took place at boarding schools, but it does reveal the importance of understanding them from all perspectives.

[britt · Rating 1 out of 5]

COLLEGE READ:

tbh could have been like 15 pages there was so much repetitiveness

[SB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boarding School Seasons is about the boarding school program created in the U.S. the early 1900s in order to assimilate Native American Indians into white society. The book was repetitive in parts, but I was a novice to the topic and therefore didn't mind it too much; some of the repetition served as good reinforcement of the concepts. I found it encouraging that the author, Brenda J. Child, who had family members who actually went to these boarding schools relied heavily on actual letters (primary sources!) written by Indian students and parents of the Flandreau school in South Dakota and the Haskell Institute in Kansas in order to write the piece. It was her use of primary sources that actually drove my interest in the book. Based on these letters as well as other primary sources, Child offers conclusions; however, she does so while also leaving room for the reader to ask their own questions and pursue further research of their own accord.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I expected: this is an indictment against the U.S. boarding school policy for American Indians. I was hoping to understand what day-to-day life was like at these schools, but instead this is a (convincing) catalog of the miseries at these boarding schools. If you're looking for stories of American Indian culture, you won't find them here; the author convinces us that the schools did everything they could to crush it.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a very good overview of the Boarding School era, but I feel that the author made some rather sweeping unsubstantiated claims at certain points in the text. I would have like to have seen statistical data to reinforce some of her arguments. Otherwise, a very compelling work, firmly rooted in primary sources.