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Hearing
History
by Julie Johnson
The history department brought in affiliate scholar
Susan Dominguez last Tuesday for a lecture entitled Casting
Word Arrows: Learning Literacy at Carlisle Industrial School, 1879-1914.
Dominguez is currently a graduate assistant in American Indian Studies
at Michigan State University and is one of the leading scholars researching
the history of the Carlisle Indian School, one of the original boarding
schools for Native Americans. Focused on one specific school within
a larger system of boarding schools, the talk magnified the absence
of Native American studies in Oberlin curriculum. Many attending the
lecture felt a lack of a more critical sense of the larger cultural
impacts of the boarding school system on the Native American community.
Dominguezs talk focused on the institutional aspects of the
Carlisle Indian School, established in 1879 by Col. Richard Pratt.
During the Civil War, Pratt had been in command of a troop of buffalo
soldiers, which marked the beginning of his life-long interest in
educating Native Americans. His philosophy of education, indicative
of the larger trend in educational facilities for Native Americans
can be synopsized in his famous quote: Kill the Indian to save
the man.
Most of her talk was dealing around this figure Pratt, the paternal
white male
and [Carlisles curriculum] was portrayed as
this great educational practice that now they could write their stories,
but write their stories for who? sophomore Ilana Turoff said.
The school, which was in operation until 1918, was, according to Dominguez,
one of the most progressive boarding schools of its kind. The curriculum
emphasized the importance of academics incorporated with music, the
arts and sports. One of the most famous graduates was notable football
player and Olympic champion, Jim Thorpe. Carlisle was one of the first
Native American schools to emphasize literacy as an essential component
of education, opening more doors for communication.
What I didnt like about the history lecture, and a lot
of the lectures that Ive heard, is that when conveying ethnic
studies, they dont convey the pain of individual stories which
is so much a part of ethnic studies and part of history, sophomore
Ilana Turoff said.
There are really two purposes to the talk. One was the talk
itself, which is of course a very interesting topic, Steven
Volk, History Department Chair, Latin American studies Committee Chair
and member of the Educational Plans and Policies Committee, (EPPC)
said. And the second was were trying to see ways in which
to build a little more sort of camaraderie among the history majors.
Theyre a big group of people who dont get together as
much as in smaller departments.
The talk left many wanting a more critical examination of the effects
of the cultural assimilation forced upon Native Americans on a larger
scale, and the growing need for critical Native American studies,
above and beyond the information that can be gleaned from a lecture
or an occasional course. The creation of a Comparative American Studies
department, currently under consideration by the EPPC, is a step in
building support for a more comprehensive, inter-disciplinary approach
to American history, could also be an essential step in incorporating
Native American Studies into Oberlins curriculum. However, at
present, such studies are not built into the proposal. As it stands,
without a place for Native American studies within CAS, there are,
as of yet, no definitive plans to create a more permanent place for
or consistent coursework in Native American Studies at Oberlin.
It would be useful to add to the curriculum, but whenever youre
thinking about these things you think about what seems to have a greater
demand, what seems to make greater coherence to the curriculum,
Volk said. The last addition to staff that we got that were
working on right now is history of Africa and we have nobody who is
really doing African history, so we felt that was important
We
do offer some courses in Native American history
but the point
is, no, we dont have anyone in the curriculum that specializes
and has studied Native American history so we do try to take make
use of opportunities to bring in other people.
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