Abstract
In a speech about Indian customs before the student body at the University of Hawaii in the fall of 1937, Cleo Caudell, Choctaw, stated, “Indians nowadays dress and act much the same as other folks do.” Caudell was in Hawaii completing a year of post-graduate work funded by a scholarship from the Hawaiian Civic Association and Ataloa, an “Indian woman singer.” Just several years prior to her speech most American Indian women did not have access to formal educational opportunities that were available to Caudell. Before the 1930s, many Native American students were not qualified to attend schools providing formal education beyond the primary or secondary levels. By 1937 though, there was a confluence of changing ideologies for the education for American Indians, a rise in the number of Indian students qualified for college attendance, and increased attention by the American public to socially constructed concepts of American Indians. The culmination of these factors resulted in an increase in the number of Indian students eligible to attend higher education institutions. As a Choctaw student during the time of this convergence, Caudell had the means to take a higher education journey that many American Indian women would not previously have had. Although the opportunity for Caudell to obtain higher education may have appeared to be advantageous, in actuality the enduring goal of solving the Indian Problem may have provided only limited the post educational pathways for her and most Indians. From its inception, formal education for Native Americans was seen as the principal method of assimilation and conversion. With these objectives unchanged during Caudell’s educational tenure, advanced education for Indians often did not equal advanced opportunities.
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Notes
- 1.
“Finds People Same,” Lawrence Journal World, November 13, 1937, 3.
- 2.
Ibid.
- 3.
“Indian Student in Hawaii Finds Peoples Similar,” San Bernardino Daily Sun, November 14 1937, 14.
- 4.
Ibid.
- 5.
For the purposes of this chapter, the terms American Indian, Indian, Indigenous, Native American, and Native are used interchangeably throughout, the practice common among contemporary U.S. scholars. The terms female, woman, and girl are also used synonymously, not an indicator of age or status, but to indicate a person who identifies as or is identified by others as female.
- 6.
For a discussion of the Indian Problem, see Francis Paul Prucha, The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995).
- 7.
For an example of a work that discusses these concepts, see: Robert F. Berkhofer, The White Man’s Indian: Images of the American Indian from Columbus to the Present (New York: Vintage, 2011).
- 8.
K. Tsianina Lomawaima, “The Unnatural History of American Indian Education,” in Next Steps: Research and Practice To Advance Indian Education, ed. K. C. Swisher, et al. (Charleston: Eric/Cress, 1999), 6.
- 9.
David Wallace Adams, Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875–1928 (St. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995).
- 10.
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Meeting, Annual Report of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (The Board, 1882), xliii.
- 11.
“A Brief History of the Choctaw Nation,” Cherokee Nation, accessed April 20, 2016, http://www.fivecivilizedtribes.org/FiveTribes/Choctaw/ChoctawHistory.aspx.
- 12.
James W. Fraser, Between Church and State: Religion and Public Education in a Multicultural America (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000), 92.
- 13.
Steven Crum, “The Choctaw Nation: Changing the Appearance of American Higher Education, 1830–1907,” History of Education Quarterly 47, no. 1 (2007): 50. The Five Civilized Tribes was a term given to the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole nations in the mid-nineteenth century, as they appeared to be readily assimilating into white culture.
- 14.
“Choctaw Indians,” Indians.org, accessed April 20, 2016, http://www.indians.org/articles/choctaw-indians.html.
- 15.
“Indian Affairs: Laws And Treaties, Vol. II, Treaties,” Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler (Washington: Government Printing Office) 1904.
- 16.
Clyde Ellis, American Indians and Education, Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, accessed April 11, 2016, www.okhistory.org.
- 17.
“Report of the Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes,” 1911, 425.
- 18.
David Wallace Adams, Education for Extinction, 89.
- 19.
K. Tsianina Lomawaima, “Estelle Reel, Superintendent of Indian schools, 1898–1910: Politics, Curriculum, and Land,” Journal of American Indian Education 35, no. 3 (1996): 5.
- 20.
Indian Rights Association, The Annual Report, 540.
- 21.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was established in 1824. The name was formally adopted in 1947. Both prior to and after this date, it was variously referred to as the Indian Office, the Indian Bureau, the Indian Department, the Indian Service, and the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA).
- 22.
Sarah H. Hill, “Marketing Traditions: Cherokee Basketry and Tourist Economies,” in Selling the Indian: Commercializing & Appropriating American Indian Cultures, ed. Carter Jones and Diana Royer (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2001), 220.
- 23.
Nancy J. Parezo and John W. Troutman, “The ‘Shy’ Cocopa Go to the Fair,” in Selling the Indian, 11.
- 24.
Carter Jones Meyer, “Saving the Pueblos: Commercialism and Indian Reform,” in Selling the Indian, 205–6.
- 25.
Ibid., 206.
- 26.
Erik Trump, “‘The Idea of Help:’ White Women Reformers and the Commercialization of Native American Women’s Arts,” in Selling the Indian, 169.
- 27.
Carter Jones Meyer, “Saving the Pueblos,” 206.
- 28.
Ibid., 204.
- 29.
Department of Commerce-Bureau of the Census, “Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920-Population,” State: Oklahoma, County: Le Flore, Sheet 19.
- 30.
“Thomas B. Caudell,” Find a Grave, accessed February 01, 2016, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=57879109&ref=acom.
- 31.
Acts of Fifty-Third Congress- Session 11 Ch. 290. 1894. Circe Dawn Sturm, Blood Politics: Race, Culture, and Identity in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002). In an effort to expedite assimilation and secure land for white settlers, the General Allotment Act (Dawes Act) was made law in 1887. This act broke down community tribal units and created an individual allotment system for land ownership on reservations. Designation of blood quantum became important to the allotment process as persons who were “whole or in part of Indian blood or descent” were entitled to an allocation. By 1908, the blood quantum measure became a tool for the federal government to determine competency. For example, if the designation was one-half Indian or greater, the person was considered incapable of understanding the complexity of land ownership and their allotment would be held in trust by the federal government. The quantum method of designation also served to delineate the Indian population from one another and reinforce ideas of racial purity.
- 32.
Department of Commerce-Bureau of the Census, “Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930-Population,” State: Oklahoma, County: Latimer, Choctaw-Chickasaw Hospital, Sheet 11.
- 33.
“Baldwin News,” Lawrence Daily Journal World, November 28, 1930, 9.
- 34.
“School History,” Haskell Indian Nations University, accessed February 01, 2016, http://www.haskell.edu/about/history.php.
- 35.
Donald F. Nelson, To the Stars over Rough Roads: The Life of Andrew Atchison, Teacher and Missionary (TidePool Press, 2008).
- 36.
“School History.”
- 37.
“Finds People Same.”
- 38.
“Programs: Girl Reserves & Clubs,” Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600–2000, accessed February 01, 2016, http://womhist.alexanderstreet.com/portywca/programs/reserves.htm.
- 39.
“Talihina Students off to Colleges,” Paris News, September 19, 1934, 8.
- 40.
John L. Williams, “Bacone College,” Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, accessed February 01, 2016, www.okhistory.org.
- 41.
In 1865, Indian work under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABFM) was transferred to the American Baptist Home Mission Society.
- 42.
Ibid.,112.
- 43.
Reyhner and Eder, American Indian Education. During the 1880s various religious groups jockeyed to be providers of missionary education to the Indians. Incentives included both theological justifications and the financial support the religious organizations would receive from the government. By 1889, the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions (BCIM) had received almost seventy-five percent of all school contract funds through their drive to establish mission schools. As a result of an anti-Catholic movement, the relationship between the BCIM and funding for Indian schools came under considerable criticism. The parent societies of most Protestant mission schools stopped applying for government funding in an effort to eliminate government funding for Catholic mission schools. As a result, direct government funding of mission schools was phased out and many mission schools were either closed or reduced in size.
- 44.
Russell M. Lawson, Marking the Jesus Road: Bacone College Through the Years (Muskogee, OK: Indian University Press, 2015), 117.
- 45.
Department of Commerce-Bureau of the Census, “Thirteenth Census of the United States: 1910 – Indian Population,” State: Oklahoma, County: Stephens, Duncan Ward 2, Sheet 20.
- 46.
“Mary Stone McClendon ‘Ataloa,’” Chickasaw History and Culture, accessed February 01, 2016, http://www.chickasaw.tv/history/document/mary-stone-mcclendon-ataloa-profile.
- 47.
Richard Green, Te Ata: Chickasaw Storyteller, American Treasure (Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006), 87.
- 48.
Marion E. Gridley, ed. Indians of Today (Crawfordsville, IN: The Lakeside Press, 1936), 13.
- 49.
Richard Green, Te Ata, 87.
- 50.
Prior to contact, women’s clothing was primarily constructed from woven bark or deerskin with shells used as ornamentation.
- 51.
“Princess Will Give Program,” San Bernardino County Sun: Redlands News, August 3, 1926, 12.
- 52.
Ibid.
- 53.
Lawson, Marking the Jesus Road, 131–32.
- 54.
“Lecture Work Raises Scholarships for 100 American Indians at Bacone College,” San Bernardino Daily Sun, June 27, 1930, 17.
- 55.
“Who is Ataloa?,” Ataloa Lodge: Bacone College, accessed February 01, 2016, http://www.bacone.edu/ataloa-lodge/ataloa/.
- 56.
“Editor Attends Annual Meeting at Stillwater,” Bacone Indian, November 22, 1933, 1.
- 57.
Cleo Caudell, “How Do We Start?,” The Bacone Indian, September 26, 1934, 2.
- 58.
“Staff Members Are Announced by Miss Owen,” Bacone Indian, October 31, 1934, 1. “Stillwater, Oct. 12,” Ada Evening News, October 12, 1934, 1.
- 59.
“About Us: History,” American Baptist Women’s Ministries, accessed February 01, 2016, http://www.abwministries.org/page.aspx/contentId/29/History/. Cleo Caudell, “Are We Girls to Fail?,” Bacone Indian, November 14, 1934, 2.
- 60.
For an example, see Cleo Caudell, “Indifference,” Bacone Indian, January 16, 1934, 2.
- 61.
“B.Y.P.U. Notes,” Bacone Indian, April 10, 1935, 3.
- 62.
“Ataloa Plans Year’s Leave of Absence,” Bacone Indian, May 15 1935, 2.
- 63.
“Commencement Exercises will be held May 27,” and “Meetings at Redlands,” Bacone Indian, May 15 1935, 1–2.
- 64.
Larry E. Burgess, With Unbounded Confidence: A History of the University of Redlands (Redlands, CA: University of Redlands, 2006), 90.
- 65.
“History,” University of Redlands, accessed February 01, 2016, www.redlands.edu.
- 66.
Larry E. Burgess, With Unbounded Confidence, 62.
- 67.
Ibid., 77.
- 68.
University of Redlands, La Letra 1936 (Redlands: 1936), 109.
- 69.
“Student Life: Alpha Sigma Pi,” University of Redlands, accessed February 01, 2016, http://www.redlands.edu/student-life/19907.aspx.
- 70.
“Officers Named by Clubs of La Rueda,” San Bernardino Daily Sun, October 21, 1936, 15.
- 71.
“Beth Stenger Chosen La Rueda President,” San Bernardino Daily Sun, October 13 1936, 13.
- 72.
“Seven Former Bacone Students Attend Redlands,” Bacone Indian, April 17, 1936, 1.
- 73.
Ibid.
- 74.
“Sorority Reunion at Santa Monica,” San Bernardino Daily Sun, August 21, 1937, 13.
- 75.
“Indian Tribal Arts will be Investigated,” San Bernardino Daily Sun, October 4, 1936, 15.
- 76.
“Indian Tribal Art Expert is Home to Visit,” San Bernardino Daily Sun, September 15, 1937, 13.
- 77.
“Finds People Same.” Traditionally, the Choctaw wore headdresses adorned with feathers for various special occasions and ceremonies. By the early nineteenth century, the Choctaw had adopted a primarily European style of dress with little traditional elements remaining after their removal to Indian Territory.
- 78.
List or Manifest of Outward-Bound Passengers (Aliens and Citizens) for Immigration Officials at Port of Departure, S.S. Lurline, Passengers Sailing from Honolulu, Hawaii (August 26, 1938) Bound for Port of: Los Angeles Harbor, California.
- 79.
John Fahey, Saving the Reservation: Joe Garry and the Battle to Be Indian (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2012), 13.
- 80.
“Mission & History,” National Congress of American Indians, accessed February 01, 2016, http://www.ncai.org/about-ncai/mission-history.
- 81.
Ibid.
- 82.
“Caudell, Cleo D.,” Sacramento City Directory, 1949, 151.
- 83.
“Wood, Walter J. (Cleo D.),” Sacramento City Directory, 1961.
- 84.
“Meeting for Indians of two Counties,” Times-Standard, November 8, 1968, 10. The settlement was a result of a lawsuit between several California tribes who argued that they had not been compensated for land that had been taken by the United States government. As the 1964 settlement did not have payout provisions, a Distribution Act was passed in 1968 requiring a roll of all eligible Indians to be created.
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Talerico-Brown, J. (2018). From Haskell to Hawaii: One American Indian Woman’s Educational Journey. In: Nash, M.A. (eds) Women’s Higher Education in the United States. Historical Studies in Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59084-8_9
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