Comprehensive Study Notes – Chapter 5 Timeline of Native American Education Policy

Timeline Framework

• Reyhner & Eder (1989) periodization adopted, plus a contemporary add-on
  • Colonial Missionaries Era: $1492–1776$
  • Western Removal Era: $1776–1867$
  • Government Control Era: $1867–1924$
  • New Deal Era: $1924–1944$
  • Termination Era: $1944–1969$
  • Self-Determination Era: $1969–1989$
  • United Nations Declaration Era: $1989–present$ (added by authors)
• Boarding‐school & mission-school episodes overlap Government Control & New Deal eras (pp. $64–99$)

Colonial Missionaries Era ($1492–1776$)

• Foundational motive: “civilize,” Christianize & economically exploit Indigenous peoples
• Spanish pattern (post-$1492$):
  • Forced labor + Catholic indoctrination; goal: malleable slave class
  • Quote: Spanish sought “to exploit Indians through forced labor and to convert them to Catholicism” (Reyhner & Eder, $1992$, p. $35$)
• English pattern reproduced Spanish logic but Protestantized
  • $1617$: King James orders Anglican clergy to raise money for Indian churches & schools in Virginia
  • Early U.S. colleges (e.g., Dartmouth) financed to Christianize & educate Indians (Wright, $1997$)
• Denominational differences
  • Presbyterians = elite-leader conversion; Baptists/Methodists = common people; Quakers/Shakers/Moravians = relatively respectful, learned language, listened
  • Example: Moravian patience with Muskogee language (Martin $1991$, p. $109$); expelled $1739$ due to pacifism during Spanish–Georgian tension
• Treaties rarely referenced education (Oglethorpe Cession $1733$; Treaty of Augusta $1773$ focus on land & debt payment)

Western Removal Era ($1776–1867$)

• Post-Revolution drivers
  • Land hunger + Lockean private-property ideology ⇒ dispossession necessary for republican survival (Adams $1995$)
  • Early treaties mainly cede land; education only vaguely promised
• Key federal statutes & policy innovations
  • Trade & Intercourse Act $1790$: regulate frontier trade, enforce treaties
  • Civilization Fund Act (CFA) $1819$ ($\$10,000$/yr): authorized Pres. to fund agriculture & literacy instruction; sparked missionary “ardor” – missions jumped from $3$ (pre-$1820$) to $18$ (by $1826$)
• Mission-school growth
  • Spring Place (Moravian) $1801$; Sale Creek & Hiwassee (Presbyterian) $1803–1810$
  • Brainerd (American Board) $1817$; Eliot (Choctaw) $1818$
• Contradictory dual policy: simultaneous $\$15,000$ civilizing fund ($1802$) & Georgia Compact promising Indian removal
• Major Creek treaties & educational clauses
  • Treaty of Creek Agency $1827$: $\$27,491$ direct, $\$15,000$ (incl. $\$5,000$ to Choctaw Academy; $\$1,000$ each to Withington & Asbury schools)
• Removal Treaties
  • Dancing Rabbit Creek (Choctaw) $1830$: education Article $20$ – $40$ youths x $20$ yrs, $\$10,000$ yearly for council/ churches/schools, $\$2,500$/yr for teachers
  • Creek Removal $1832$: $\$3,000$/yr $\times20$ yrs for emigrant children education
  • Creek-Cherokee-Seminole boundary treaty $1833$: $\$1,000$/yr education “so long as President considers beneficial”
• Later Plains example: Oto & Missouri $1854$ ($10 Stat. 1038$) – sliding annuity $\$20,000\to\$5,000$ over $40$ yrs; education funded from annuity at President’s discretion + farmer for $10$ yrs
• Creek–Seminole treaty $1856$ ($11 Stat. 699$):
  • $\$6,000$/yr education $\times7$ yrs, $\$1,000$/yr ongoing (old treaty obligation)
  • $\$200,000$ trust @ $5\%$ ⇒ $\$10,000$/yr education interest; tribes allowed to hire own teachers
• Civil War aftermath: Treaties $1866$ (e.g., Creek $14 Stat. 785$)
  • Creek lose western half, get $\$0.30$/acre; up to $\$2,000$ for mission-school repairs; $160$-acre grants for missionary/educational sites; slavery abolished; freedmen citizenship
  • Parallel punitive treaties with Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole; foreshadow allotment

Government Control Era ($1867–1924$)

• Fort Laramie Treaty $1868$ (Sioux, Cheyenne etc.)
  • Reservation set-up; $160$ acres/household; compulsory schooling $6–16$ yrs – 1 teacher/$30$ pupils $\times20$ yrs; artisans, physician, farmer etc. promised
• End of “Treaty Era” $1871$: rider to appropriation bill – tribes no longer recognised as sovereign treaty partners; driven by railroad interests
• Emergence of military-educational strategy
  • Lt. Richard Henry Pratt’s Fort Marion experiment $1875$ – literacy & acculturation for Apache POWs ⇒ $17$ sent to Hampton Institute
  • Conflict w/ Hampton’s segregation → need standalone Indian institutions
• Act of July $31$, $1882$ (22 Stat. $181$): convert abandoned forts to Indian industrial schools – marks strong federal commitment
  • Pratt opens Carlisle Indian School (Penn.) $1879$ as model; many off-reservation boarding schools follow; church societies reimbursed from tribal appropriations
• Dominant philosophy & methods
  • Commissioner Hiram Price $1882$: Christianity + English + labor essential; “teaching an Indian youth in his own barbarous dialect is a positive detriment”
  • Commissioner J. D. C. Atkins $1887$: bans Native languages, cites Bismarck precedent; “language good enough for a white man… ought to be good enough for the red man”
  • Commissioner Thomas J. Morgan $1889$ Lake Mohonk: schools must “disintegrate tribes,” inculcate patriotism; force if necessary
  • Practices: haircut, uniforms, English-only, Christianity, geographic isolation, “outing” system (apprentice in white households)
• Tribal school alternatives
  • Five Civilized Tribes (Oklahoma) retained trust funds: Cherokee $\$2,716,979.98$; Choctaw $\$975,258.91$; Chickasaw $\$1,206,695.66$; Creek $\$2,275,168.00$; Seminole $\$2,070,000.00$ (figures $1894$)
  • Tribes maintained elementary “neighborhood” schools + quality boarding schools; some funded college students
• Early internal critique
  • Commissioner Francis Leupp $1907$: shift from boarding to reservation day schools; boarding breeds dependence – “Was ever a worse wrong…?”

New Deal Era ($1924–1944$)

• Boarding school decline justified on $4$ arguments (Adams $1995$): racial-capacity doubts; cruelty to families; dependence; positive value of Native lifeways
• Consolidation of day schools viewed as signal govt understood failed assimilation
• Meriam Report $1928$: condemns removal philosophy; stresses family-based schooling; informs policy for >30 yrs
• Key legislation $1934$
  • Johnson-O’Malley Act: federal contracts w/ states for Indian education, health, agriculture; excludes Oklahoma
  • Indian Reorganization Act (Wheeler-Howard): ends allotment, facilitates tribal corporations, loans, BIA Indian hiring; Oklahoma tribes initially exempt (Collier objects)
• Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act $1936$: extends IRA benefits to Oklahoma tribes except Osage County

Termination Era ($1944–1969$)

• Post-WWII shift away from Collier’s self-rule – Public Law $280$ $1953$: state criminal/civil jurisdiction in Indian Country; weakens sovereignty
• Commissioner Dillon S. Meyer plan: “free” Indians from BIA ➔ Congressional Concurrent Resolution $108$ $1953$ targets $5$ tribes + all in $CA, FL, NY, TX$ for termination; abolish regional BIA offices
• Education impacts: potential loss of federal support & trust resources; intensified resistance

Self-Determination Era ($1969–present$)

• Pushback
  • Menominee Restoration $1973$ reverses termination (USSL $87:700$)
  • $1961$ Declaration of Indian Purpose (Chicago conference): rejects termination; calls education “broad best procedure”
  • Presidents Johnson $1968$ & Nixon $1970$ publicly embrace self-determination
• Senate Special Subcommittee on Indian Education Report $1969$ (Kennedy): excoriates conditions; demands systemic overhaul
• Education Amendments Act $1972$, Title IV
  • Grants for Indian K-adult programs
  • Creates Office of Indian Education (OIE) & National Advisory Council on Indian Education (NACIE, $15$ Native members)
• Critiques (Deloria & Lytle $1983$): law codified what tribes already did; bureaucracy slows delivery; addresses outdated problems
• Student Rights & Due Process $1974$: guarantees constitutional rights in BIA schools – break from historic authoritarianism
• Indian Self-Determination & Education Assistance Act $1975$ (Public Law $93-638$)
  • Tribes may contract/grant to run BIA programs & schools; purpose: “maximum Indian participation”
• Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act $1978$: federal grants for tribal colleges
• Education Amendments $1978$, Title XI: sets facility & instructional standards; exempts personnel from civil service
• Tribally Controlled Schools Act $1988$: shifts from contracts to grants, embodies anti-paternalist language; embraces right to design culturally relevant curricula
• BIA Policy Statement $1984$: “Era of paternalism is dead” – BIA now assists rather than manages $488$ tribes; Comprehensive Education Plan in progress $1988$
• Ongoing debate: self-determination vs. covert termination; administrative complexity; funding shortfalls

United Nations Declaration Era (emergent)

• UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (adopted $2007$) signals global commitment to protect Indigenous cultures
• Authors view it as potential enhancement, not replacement, of Self-Determination framework

Sociological & Philosophical Analysis

• Boarding-school policy = Functionalist project
  • Schools reproduced dominant worldview; treated English literacy, Christianity, work ethic as universal “truths”
  • DeMarrais & LeCompte’s Functionalist purposes met: cognitive skills (basic liberal curriculum), patriotism (forced flag rituals, history myths), labor preparation (industrial/vocational tracks), social control (haircuts, uniforms, isolation)
• Contradictions & Power
  • Conflict Theory exposes land-hunger & cultural genocide motives; schools cheaper than warfare (Reyhner & Eder $1992$)
  • Classist angle: Indian youth groomed for lower economic positions akin to Black labor class
• Interpretive turn
  • Self-Determination values subjective meanings; gives tribes voice in defining success, curriculum, language policy
• Critical / Post-Critical perspectives
  • Challenge hegemonic knowledge; argue ongoing dominant framing despite reforms
  • Feminist, Post-structural critiques: warn of continuing external definition of “problems” & “solutions”
• Balance imperative: need to honor Indigenous epistemologies and equip students to navigate dominant society

Key Numerical & Financial References (chronological snapshots)

• CFA $1819$: $\$10,000$/yr education fund
• Treaty of Creek Agency $1827$: $\$27,491$ signers; $\$15,000$ education split
• Choctaw Article $20$ $1830$: $40$ youths × $20$ yrs; $\$10,000$ annual school-church fund; $\$2,500$/yr teachers
• Oto-Missouri annuity ladder $1854$: $\$20,000$ (3y) → $\$13,000$ (10y) → $\$9,000$ (15y) → $\$5,000$ (12y)
• Creek $1856$ trust: $\$200,000$ @ $5\%$ ⇒ $\$10,000$/yr
• Oklahoma trust funds $1894$: totals exceeding $\$9.2$ million

Examples, Metaphors, Scenarios

• Reverend James Ramsey $1846$ map lesson: small English-speaking world owns “greatest part of wisdom”; equates power with Christianity ⇒ metaphor for cultural hierarchy
• Pratt’s “outing” = immersive apprenticeship, likened to linguistic total-immersion but with cultural erasure

Ethical, Philosophical, Practical Implications

• Ethical tension: education as uplift vs. tool of dispossession & genocide (Grande $2000$)
• Practical outcome: loss of language, family bonds, cultural knowledge; boarding school trauma documented by contemporary critiques (Meriam Report, Senate $1969$)
• Modern policy strives for tribal control yet faces underfunding & bureaucratic delays – raises question: is self-determination genuine autonomy or devolved responsibility without resources?

Cross-Lecture / Real-World Connections

• Link to Locke’s property theory & Manifest Destiny ideology
• Parallels between Indian boarding schools & later assimilationist projects elsewhere (e.g., Canadian residential schools, Australian Stolen Generations)
• Use of federal contracts in Johnson-O’Malley prefigures present-day block-grant models in social policy
• Current language revitalization movements counteract English-only legacy of Atkins/Morgan era

Formulas & Theoretical Pointers

• Trust interest formula applied $I = P \times r$, e.g., Creek $I = 200,000 \times 0.05 = 10,000$
• Population/head-right logic behind $160$ acres/household reservation allotment (Fort Laramie)

Quick Era-Transition Matrix

• Missionary ➔ Removal ➔ Reservations & Boarding ➔ IRA Reforms ➔ Termination ➔ Self-Determination ➔ UN Global Stage

Study Prompts

• Explain how CFA $1819$ altered missionary dynamics.
• Compare Pratt’s assimilation rationale with Morgan’s language policy.
• Evaluate merits & flaws of Johnson-O’Malley contracting versus PL $93-638$ self-determination contracts.
• Discuss Functionalist vs. Conflict interpretations of the boarding-school system.
• Forecast how UNDRIP might reshape U.S. policy gaps identified since $1975$.