Digital Commons Network^™

Carlisle Indian Boarding School's Role In The Unconstitutional Relationship Between Organized Christianity And The U.S. Federal Government, Kayleigh Hogg

Honors College

The Carlisle Indian Boarding School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania was the first large Indian boarding school to open in the United States. Carlisle was founded by Richard Henry Pratt and opened in 1879. Carlisle was the first of hundreds of Indian boarding schools that operated throughout the United States and served as the model for many of the schools that followed it. The school was military-run and federally funded until its closure in 1918. The purpose of Carlisle and the rest of the boarding schools was to culturally assimilate American Indians and do so by forcibly removing them from their families. …

President Memo_The Importance Of Indigenous People's Day, Joan Ferrini-Mundy

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Message to the University of Maine community from President Joan Ferrini-Mundy regarding Indigenous People's Day and the relationship between Native Americans and the University of Maine.

The Stained River Of Immaculate Conception: An Analysis Of Judeo-Christian European Dominion Of Nature Along The Mississippi River, Rosalie Looijaard

Race, Ethnicity, & Religion

This paper analyzes how the Mississippi River and its surrounding land were co-opted by European explorers to establish Christian dominance in hopes of remaking the Garden of Eden. Christian colonizers both deified and dominated nature to both justify colonization and display their own power over space and religion. This paper first analyzes Hernando de Soto's and Jacques Marquette's naming of the river, and then argues how this initial naming is indicative of a larger trend of occupying and deifying perceived virginal nature and wilderness in order to establish a Christian space on the North American Continent.

Winnebago Nation Of Nebraska Response Patterns, 1865-1911: A Gendered & Generational Analysis, Ashley Morrison

Honors Theses

During the era of federal assimilation policy, the Winnebago people asserted their cultural identity and history at every step of allotment and boarding school policy. From their distinct responses, Winnebago men and women defended their autonomy and sovereignty to federal intervention. By examining their unique opinions, a more cumulative understanding of the various tactics the Winnebago people used can be further explored. Gender, education, and generation shaped individual responses. Through demanding an inclusion of women in allotting land to taking children away from the Winnebago Industrial School, the Winnebago people resisted against the paternalistic control of the United States. These …

The Shifting Sands Of American Indian Education In The Northwestern United States, Patricia Hornback

Faculty Publications - Department of History and Politics

This article is intended to provide an overview of significant historical influences affecting American Indian education and to identify encouraging emerging trends in American Indian education in the Northwest. An overview of historically significant approaches to federal American Indian education is discussed. Specific examples of encouraging trends in increased tribal involvement observed in federal Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and Northwest public school districts are provided. Examples include educational partnerships with the Navajo Nation as well as Northwest tribes such as the Lummi Nation, Spokane Indian Tribe, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

The Toxicity Of Otherness, Justin Malone

English Department: Traveling American Modernism (ENG 366, Fall 2018)

This article discusses the dangerous philosophical principle of Othering, wherein a group of people are ostracized for being different from the majority. While categorization of information is a fundamental aspect of how the brain works, the categorization of people homogenizes their complexities. In doing so, a group is seen as a single entity, rather than individuals, which strips them of their humanity. After a group has been Othered, society will inevitably invoke some method of forced displacement upon them. Additionally, the article emphasizes the importance of affected individuals telling the stories of their experiences with oppression from Othering. Sharing one’s …

The Effect Of Military Service On Indian Communities In Southern New England, 1740–1763, Brian D. Carroll

History Faculty Scholarship

Military sources combined with existing ethnohistorical narratives about the experience of Algonquian groups living ‘behind the frontier’ in colonial southern New England provide insight into the impact of imperial warfare on Indian peoples. Virtually every indigenous male in the region after King Philip’s War served in the colonial military. Tribes used the service of their men as leverage in negotiations with colonial governments as they attempted to advance their own agendas and protect their sovereignty. Yet Indian soldiers died in large numbers, mainly from infectious disease. Death rates for Indian soldiers were so high that it affected tribal demographics and …

Between Two Fires: The Origins Of Settler Colonialism In The United States And French Algeria, Ashley Sanders

Library Staff Publications and Research

This dissertation is a comparative study of the establishment of settler colonies in the American Midwest (1778-1795) and French colonial Algeria (1830-1848). It examines how interactions between the Indigenous populations, colonists, colonial administrators, the military, and the métropole shaped their development and advances the theory of settler colonialism. This study centers on the first fifteen to twenty years of conquest/occupation in the American Midwest, focusing specifically on southern Illinois and Indiana, and the province of Constantine, Algeria. Despite differences in geography, relative size of the military presence and Indigenous demographics, the process of establishing settler colonies in both locations followed …

Carlisle Indian School Students Database, Amelia Trevelyan

Carlisle Indian School Students

This data collection helps to identify students who attended the Carlisle Indian School from 1879 to 1918. Data were collected from periodical publications in the Carlisle Indian Industrial School (CIIS) archive, such as The School News, The Red Man, The Indian Craftsman, and The Morning Star. Many of these publications are now available online in the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center.

Product Of The Past: The Struggle Between The Lakota Sioux Nation And The United States Government, Brittany Lombardo

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Many may be familiar with the national landmark that is Mount Rushmore, located in South Dakota. The heroes represent the leaders of the United States, the founding fathers. However, it shadows a rich history that is what came before the United States' invasion. The Lakota Sioux roamed freely throughout the Midwest, that is until the the US began to expand westward. The rich history of the Lakota lingers throughout their lives today, but is suppressed under a thick lair of oppression and mistreatment by the United States Government.

William Vandever: Presbyterian, Congressman, General, Douglas Firth Anderson

Faculty Publications

What happens to Dutch ethnic identity after several generations in America? William Vandever (1817-1893) illustrates at least one path of acculturation. He was a Congressman twice--first from Iowa, later from California. During the Civil War, he raised a Union regiment from Iowa and was a general by the time the war ended. In the 1870s he was a U.S. Indian Inspector. His Dutchness, though, persisted through his self-identification as a devout Presbyterian--in the greater Reformed tradition of his Dutch ancestors of the 17th century.

Adapting To A Changing World: An Environmental History Of The Eastern Shoshone, 1000-1868, Adam R. Hodge

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Using the Eastern Shoshone Tribe as a case study, this dissertation argues that the physical environment must be considered integral to processes of ethnogenesis. It traces the environmental history of the people who became known as the Eastern Shoshone over the course of several centuries, exploring how those Natives migrated throughout and adapted to a significant portion of the North American West – the Great Basin, Rocky Mountains, Columbia Plateau, and Great Plains – prior to the reservation era. In examining that history, this project treats Shoshones, other Natives, and Euro-Americans not as people who simply used the environment, but …

Many Worlds Converge Here: Vision And Identity In American Indian Photography, Alicia L. Harris

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

Photographs of Native Americans taken by Frank A. Rinehart at the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in 1898 were then and continue to be part of the construction of indigenous identities, both by Anglo-Americans and Natives. This thesis analyzes the ramifications of Rinehart’s portraits and those of his peers as well as Native American artists in the 20^th and 21^st centuries who have sought to re-appropriate these images to make them empowering icons of individual or tribal identity rather than erasure of culture.

This thesis comprises two sections. In the first section, the analysis is focused on the historical …

Smoke And Mirrors: A History Of Nagpra And The Evolving U.S. View Of The American Indian, Lindee R. Grabouski

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

While paintings of Native Americans and Europeans exchanging goods and cultural values adorn the walls of museums around the United States, actual Native/non-Native interaction over the past 500 years has been one of illusion, not cooperation. Until recently, legislation “protecting” Native Americans appeared altruistic on the surface, but, instead, served only as a facade for keeping Native artifacts in the hands of scientists and collectors. Even the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the most recent legislative attempt to reconcile the past mistreatment of Native Americans, is riddled with obstacles and optical illusions.

Certainly, NAGPRA demonstrates the most …

Moneneheo And Naheverien Cheyenne And Mennonite Sewing Circles, Convergences And Conflicts, 1890-1970, Kimberly D. Schmidt

Great Plains Quarterly

Marie Gerber Petter was skeptical. Born in the Swiss Jura Mountains, she knew that one does not find water in high places. It was 1893 when Marie and her husband, Rodolphe Petter, came to North America for the express purpose of bringing Christianity to Native Americans. After studying English and visiting Mennonite churches in Indiana, Ohio, and Kansas to garner monetary support for their work among the Southern Cheyenne, they made the forty-mile journey from Darlington, Oklahoma Territory, to an area near present-day Hammon by covered wagon. She was in need of water. When she asked, the local Cheyenne chief, …

The Idaho Territorial Penitentiary's First Female Inmate, Fred E. Woods

Faculty Publications

While doing research on the experience of Mormon polygamists incarcerated at the Idaho Penitentiary, Fred Woods became curious about a woman imprisoned there at the same time. The Idaho Penitentiary's Convict Register names "Heneba" as the first female inmate received, on May 31, 1887. Next to her name is written in parentheses "squaw." For many years it has been unclear whether "Heneba" was her first or last name and what the background of this mysterious Native American was. Information about her age at the time of her incarceration, her family life, and the details of her later years and death …

Letter From George Sibley To Thomas Mckenney, April 16, 1819, George Champlin Sibley

George Champlin Sibley Papers

Transcript of Letter from George Sibley to Thomas McKenney, April 16, 1819. Sibley complains of the way the U.S. Government has managed the trading posts; how letting individual traders will make relations with the Native Americans worse.