I believe this is Gertrude Bowen with her class of students in Arizona. This was most likely taken in the mid-to-late 1930s.
Click on image to see it larger.
I don't know how many tribes are represented in this shot, but believe the boy on the far right is Diné/Navajo. I hope it was a school that allowed each child's culture to flourish, especially their language. I'd hate to think of it as one of the schools where Native children were forced to conform to white culture.
It's interesting to think back on how rural Arizona was. No freeways. No tall buildings. At the same time this shot was taken Arizona was advertising their "dude ranches" in magazines to tourists all over the country.
Imagine what these children thought when tourists showed up with cameras wanting to take their photo. There had to be moments when they felt like animals stuck in a zoo.
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I was married to a Choctaw for 30 years. Believe me; her description of what she called "Indian Schools" was not good.
ReplyDeleteI think of them as little more than concentration camps. The destruction of culture, including their language. The same thing was done in Hawaii. I'd like to say it's hard to believe how stupid our ancestors were, but I see some of the same nonsense going on today.
ReplyDeleteI like the look of these kids, a great class photo. I've just started research on the bands in Indian Schools. They were indeed very misguided by our modern standards.
ReplyDeleteMike, that sounds like a fascinating subject for a book!
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