Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
Fall 2003
Citation
Great Plains Quarterly Vol. 23, No. 4, Fall 2003, pp. 262-63.
Abstract
Ruth Spack's thoroughly researched study of English education in Indian boarding schools goes beyond historical investigation. Spack shows how the methodology of teaching English imposed American ideologies in Native students. Then she closely examines the primary writings of Indian students and teachers who had learned English in the boarding school system. The result is a fine linguistic and cultural analysis of the complicated transitions from Native languages to the second language of the book's title, English.
Much has been written about the assimilative mission of boarding schools. Their purpose, as stated by Richard H. Pratt, was to "Kill the Indian; save the man." Spack considers how language played a role in that process of conquest: "Given that English functioned as a conduit of American institutions and laws, Americanization through English-language teaching was designed to end tribal sovereignty. Given that tribal sovereignty was tied to the land, Americanization signified a loss of territory."
Spack is sensitive to tribal identities and tribal voices. After discussing the pedagogy of English, she turns to the experiences ofIndian teachers Lilah Denton Lindsey (Creek), Thomas Wildcat Alford (Absentee Shawnee), Sarah Winnemucca (Northern Paiute), and Luther Standing Bear (Lakota). She then draws on narratives from students Don Talayesva (Hopi), Charles Eastman (Dakota), and others. Her most intense scrutiny is reserved for the writings of Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, Zitkala-Sa (Yankton Sioux), as both a student and a teacher. Spack has excavated previously unpublished details about Bonnin's life, placing many of these details in tribal contexts. Spack's suggestion that Zitkala-Sa's memoir essays are more fictive than autobiographical, however, needs further consideration in regard to the construction of self in autobiography and the nature of tribal storytelling.
The brief epilogue looks beyond the limits set out in this study to discuss contemporary education and language issues. Students of the Great Plains, boarding schools, and American Indian literatures will find this volume engaging and persuasive through its lucid arguments, cogent writing, and new assessments.
Comments
Copyright 2003 by the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln