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    To Educate American Indians
    Selected Writings from the National Educational Association's Department of Indian Education, 1905–1909

    Larry C. Skogen (Author)

    9781496240453

    Hardback, published 1 November 2025

    378 pages, 9 photographs, index
    22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.666 kg

    “Larry Skogen’s important and seminal work is a timely adjunct to the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, which seeks to expand our nation’s understanding and documentation of the federal Indian boarding schools. This collection of papers presented by Indian school employees at the annual meetings of the National Educational Association and Skogen’s commentary with them provide another lens through which to see the motives of educators in the national effort to solve the ‘Indian problem.’ With this book we are drawn toward a better understanding of the challenges faced by the Native students subjected to the federally mandated curriculum designed to make these First Americans into white-defined American citizens.”—Cynthia Lindquist (Spirit Lake Dakota), president emerita of Cankdeska Cikana Community College in Fort Totten, North Dakota
    “Since the launching of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative in June 2021, our nation has learned much about the establishment of Indian schools, the conditions children experienced at those institutions, and the intergenerational consequences of the trauma suffered. These papers from the National Educational Association’s Department of Indian Education and Larry Skogen’s commentary with them provide clear evidence that along with the consequences of trauma, we must also acknowledge the intergenerational impacts of an educational curriculum designed to relegate Native students to the bottom rungs of society. Being denied a true academic education and prepared solely as laborers in white society has also negatively affected Native peoples and nations for generations. This is an important contribution to understanding the relationship between our Native nations and the federal government.”—Ruth Anna Buffalo (Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation, Chiricahua Band of Apache descent), president of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition
    “I was left with a greater realization of the influence the Department of Indian Education, under the leadership of Superintendent of Indian Schools Estelle Reel, had on national educational policy of marginalized students during its short ten-year association with the National Educational Association. Not only does Larry Skogen make available the NEA articles, but he also locates contemporary publications or versions edited by Superintendent Reel to demonstrate how Reel controlled the message of educational theory in Indian schools, Skogen’s extensive footnoting and addition of background documentation illuminates the characters and their philosophies.”—David H. DeJong, author of Paternalism to Partnership: The Administration of Indian Affairs, 1786–2021
    “This volume investigates a short, but critical period, when efforts to Americanize ‘Indians’ were brought into alignment with the challenges of educating a massive, new, urban immigrant population, to render the latter fit to join the industrial work force. It engages with the ideas of social Darwinism that were current, and their impact on curricula. Previous scholars have touched on this topic, but the National Education Association has never before been the main focus of study. Carefully selected primary sources make up the bulk of this work. The different parts are linked by a clear and convincing argument that is progressively developed. The fact that these documents are assembled here will provide ready access to thinking and discussion about Indian education during these years, which will be a boom to all those grappling with primary source collections.”—Jacqueline Fear-Seagal, coeditor of Carlisle Indian Industrial School: Indigenous Histories, Memories, and Reclamations

    From 1900 to 1909, Indian school educators gathered at annual meetings of the National Educational Association’s Department of Indian Education. The papers they delivered were later published in the Journal of Proceedings and Addresses of the National Educational Association, but strict guidelines often meant they were heavily edited before publication. In this second volume of Department of Indian Education papers, Larry C. Skogen presents selected complete papers from the years 1905 to 1909 and provides historical context.

    During this period educators promoted the belief that Natives could never be fully integrated into white society and argued instead for vocational and practical education near or on reservations, a clear break from earlier years, when prominent Indian school administrators advocated education far removed from Native communities. Indian school educators at these annual meetings also shared their methods with other educational thinkers and practitioners, who were seeking alternative pedagogies as new immigrants arrived in U.S. cities and challenges arose from new island territories. These selected writings reveal how the NEA influenced Indian school educators and how those educators, in turn, affected mainstream educational thinking.
     

    List of Illustrations
    Acknowledgments
    Introduction
    List of Abbreviations
     Part 1. Asbury Park and Ocean Grove, New Jersey, July 3–7, 1905
    1. Greeting to Indian School Educators
    Honorable John J. Fitzgerald, Member of the Committee on Indian Affairs, U. S.
    House of Representatives
    2. Greeting to Indian School Educators
    Mary R. Campbell, Graduate Student in Philosophy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
    3. Greeting to Indian School Educators
                Estelle Reel, Superintendent of Indian Schools, Washington DC
    4. Music of the American Indian
                Natalie Curtis, New York City
    5. Teaching Indian Pupils to Speak English
                Reuben Perry, Superintendent, Navajo Indian School, Fort Defiance, Arizona
    6. Indian Characteristics
                Mary C. Judd, Minneapolis, Minnesota
    7. The Advisability of Conducting Normal Schools to Train Teachers for the Specific Purpose of Instructing Indian Children
                John D. Benedict, Superintendent of Schools in Indian Territory
    8. The Necessity for More and Better-Equipped Day Schools
                James J. Duncan, Day School Inspector, Pine Ridge Agency, South Dakota
    Part 2. Los Angeles, California, July 8-12, 1907
    9. Indians and Their Education
                Francis E. Leupp, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington DC
    10. Response to Greetings from Local Dignitaries
                Francis E. Leupp, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington DC
    11. Essential Features in the Education of the Child Race
                George P. Phenix, Superintendent of the Academic and Normal Departments, Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Hampton, Virginia
    12. Native Indian Art
                Angel De Cora, Instructor in Native Indian Art, Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Carlisle, Pennsylvania
    13. Roundtable Conference
    Chairman-Francis E. Leupp, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington DC (Question and Answer Portion)
    14. Address
                Elmer Ellsworth Brown, U. S. Commissioner of Education, Washington DC
    15. Manual Training in the Indian Schools
                Moses Friedman, Assistant Superintendent, Haskell Indian Institute, Lawrence, Kansas
    Part 3. Cleveland, Ohio, June 29-July 3, 1908
    16. Utilization of Experience in Home Environment
                Ella Flagg Young, Principal, Chicago Normal School, Chicago, Illinois
    17. Progress the Indian is Making Toward Citizenship and Self-Support
                John H. Seger, Farm Manager, Seger Indian School, Colony, Oklahoma
    18. How Far Are the Principles of Education Along Indigenous Lines Applicable to American Indians?
                G. Stanley Hall, President, Clark University, Worchester, Massachusetts
    19. Commencement Exercise: An Oration Entitled “My People”
                Elisabeth Penny (Nez PercÉ), Class of 1908, Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Carlisle, Pennsylvania
    Part 4. Denver, Colorado, July 3-9, 1909
    20. President’s Address: A ResumÉ of Indian Work
                Charles E. Burton, Superintendent, Grand Junction Indian School, Colorado
    21. The Prevention of Tuberculosis in the Indian Schools
                Joseph A. Murphy, Medical Supervisor, U. S. Indian Service, Washington DC
    22. Demonstration Lesson-Wheat and Bread Making
                Haskell Indian School Teachers and Students, Lawrence, Kansas
    23. Our Educational Duties to the Indian
                James H. Baker, President, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado
    24. Essential Features in the Education of the Child Races
                Charles Bartlett Dyke, Headmaster, State Preparatory School, Boulder, Colorado
    25. The Teacher’s Responsibility to the Indian Child
                Sylvanus L. Heeter, Superintendent of Schools, St. Paul, Minnesota
    26. Character-Building-The Foundation of Education
                John H. Phillips, Superintendent of Schools, Birmingham, Alabama
    27. What Education Has Done for the Indian
                Hervey B. Peairs, Superintendent, Haskell Indian Institute, Lawrence, Kansas
    28. Moral Training-Discussion
                George W. Cross, Principal, Tohatchi Indian School, Tohatchi, New Mexico
    29. The Preservation of Aboriginal Arts
                Arthur J. Fynn, Principal, Longfellow School, Denver, Colorado
    30. Elementary Industrial Training in the Day School
                S. Toledo Sherry, Day School Inspector, Standing Rock Agency, Fort Yates, North Dakota
    Conclusion
    Bibliography
    Index

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