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They called it prairie light : the story of Chilocco Indian School
Image courtesy of University of Nebraska Press

They called it prairie light : the story of Chilocco Indian School
Walter C. Koerner Library, University of British Columbia

1994
Book > Biography
Creators
Lomawaima, K. Tsianina
Description
"Established in 1884 and operative for nearly a century, the Chilocco Indian School in Oklahoma was one of a series of off-reservation boarding schools intended to assimilate American Indian children into mainstream American life. Critics have characterized the schools as destroyers of Indian communities and cultures, but the reality that K. Tsianina Lomawaima discloses was much more complex.


Lomawaima allows the Chilocco students to speak for themselves. In recollections juxtaposed against the official records of racist ideology and repressive practice, students from the 1920s and 1930s recall their loneliness and demoralization but also remember with pride the love and mutual support binding them together—the forging of new pan-Indian identities and reinforcement of old tribal ones"--publisher's website.

Language
English

More Information

ISBN
0803229046
Statement of Responsibility
K. Tsianina Lomawaima
Publication Information
Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press
Physical Description
xviii, 205 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm
Notes
Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-201) and index.
Issued also in electronic format. 
Contents
'They Called it Prairie Light' -- 'The Fines' School on Earth' -- 'I Could Always Plow A Pretty Straight Line' -- 'You're A Woman, You're Going to Be A Wife' -- 'You Dizzy Bastard, Get in Step!' -- 'Hm! White Boy! You Got No Business Here!'
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