Assimilation's Agent

L. Chalcraft Edwin

Description

Assimilation’s Agent reveals the life and opinions of Edwin L. Chalcraft (1855–1943), a superintendent in the federal Indian boarding schools during the critical period of forced assimilation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Chalcraft was hired by the Office of Indian Affairs (now known as the Bureau of Indian Affairs) in 1883. During his nearly four decades of service, he worked at a number of Indian boarding schools and agencies, including the Chehalis Indian School in Oakville, Washington; Puyallup Indian School in Tacoma, Washington; Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon; Wind River Indian School in Wind River, Wyoming; Jones Male Academy in Hartshorne, Oklahoma; and Siletz Indian Agency in Oregon.

In this memoir Chalcraft discusses the Grant peace policy, the inspection system, allotment, the treatment of tuberculosis, corporal punishment, alcoholism, and patronage. Extensive coverage is also given to the Indian Shaker Church and the government’s response to this perceived threat to assimilation. Assimilation’s Agent illuminates the sometimes treacherous political maneuverings and difficult decisions faced by government officials at Indian boarding schools. It offers a rarely heard and today controversial "top-down" view of government policies to educate and assimilate Indians.

Drawing on a large collection of unpublished letters and documents, Cary C. Collins’s introduction and notes furnish important historical background and context. Assimilation’s Agent illustrates the government''s long-term program for dealing with Native peoples and the shortcomings of its approach during one of the most consequential eras in the long and often troubled history of American Indian and white relations.

Sujets

• Histoire
• USA
• América del Norte
• Indigenous peoples
• North America
• History of the Americas
• Education
• États-Unis
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Nebraska
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2004
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780803204355
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

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 Assimilation’s

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My Life as a Superintendent in the Indian Boarding School System

e d w i n l . c h a l c r a f t

Edited and with an introduction by Cary C. Collins

University of Nebraska Press Lincoln & London

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Parts of the editor’s introduction previously appeared as “Through the Lens of Assimilation: Edwin L. Chalcraft and Chemawa Indian School” inOregon Historical Quarterly98, no.4(Winter 1997–98):390–425. ©1998, Oregon Historical Society. Reprinted with permission.

Previously unpublished materials used with per- mission from Alice C. Martin and the University of Washington, Seattle, and Washington State University, Pullman.

©2004by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Chalcraft, Edwin L. Assimilation’s agent : my life as a superintendent in the Indian boarding school system / Edwin L. Chalcraft; edited and with an introduction by Cary C. Collins. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0-8032-1516-9(cloth : alk. paper) – isbn 0-8032-0435-3(electronic) 1. Chalcraft, Edwin L.2. Off-reservation boarding schools – Pacific, Northwest – History – 19th century.3. School superintendents – Pacific, Northwest – Biography.4. Indians of North America – Pacific, Northwest – Education. 5. Indians of North America – Cultural assimilation – Northwest, Pacific. I. Title.

e97.65.n4c43 2004 371.2'011'092—dc22

2004000623

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Contents

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Editor’s Introduction Chronology of Significant Events Note on Provenance of Manuscript and Methodology

Preface Foreword 1. Journey to the West 2Indian Reservation. Chehalis 3. Puyallup Agency and School 4Indian Training School. Salem 5Citizens. Private 6. Shoshone Indian Agency, Wyoming 7. Supervisor of Indian Schools 8. Salem Indian Training School, Second Appointment 9Male Academy. Jones 10. Siletz Indian Agency 11. At Home in Seattle

Editor’s Postscript Appendix Notes Bibliography Index

vi vii ix lxiii

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1 3 5 16 79 114 126 130 139

203 258 265 295

301 303 305 327 341

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Illustrations

following page132 Edwin and Abigail Eells Edwin L. Chalcraft, ca.1915 Chalcraft family, ca.1907 Ruthyn Turney, teacher, Chemawa Indian School George W. Mills, resident farmer, Chehalis Indian Reservation Edwin L. Chalcraft, Chehalis Indian Reservation, ca.1884 Teachers’ Institute, Chehalis Indian Reservation, September1886 Chehalis Indians fishing on Chehalis River, ca.1900 Indians farming on Chehalis Indian Reservation, ca.1900

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Acknowledgments

Institutions, faculty and family members, friends, and colleagues contributed immeasurably to the completion of my editing of this memoir. A huge debt is owed to the libraries at Washington State University and the University of Washington, where the bulk of the research was conducted. The Department of History at Washington State University, through the Pettyjohn Endowment, provided much appreciated — and needed — financial support. Sincere thanks are in order to the professors who assisted me in preparing this document as a dissertation: Orlan J. Svingen, LeRoy Ashby, and David Coon. Professor Svingen guided me through the Ph.D. program with the steady hand at the wheel and the unflinching support that his students have come to expect and rely on. His thoughtful suggestions helped shape and focus my analysis and writing. Professors Ashby and Coon, as all of their students know, are two of the really great guys. Their encouragement is unwavering, their teaching is masterful, and their commitment is total. Alice Martin of East Wenatchee, Washington, the granddaughter of Edwin and Alice Chalcraft, invited me into her home and granted ac- cess to a large repository of family documents, letters, and photographs, some of which are reproduced here. The Chalcraft grandsons, Walter and Richard, generously shared their memories as well. My mother, Shirley Rose Collins, lent a much needed hand at several key junctures as did Shirley Stephens, a fellow prisoner in the study of Indian-white relations. The late Chehalis tribal elder Hazel Pete and her family, with whom I lived as a small boy, have been beacons of inspiration. Former

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editor Rick Harmon and everyone at theOregon Historical Quarterly encouraged me immensely as did Aaron McCright, now of the Uni- versity of Chicago, one of the most dedicated and capable graduate students I have known and with whom I shared many a late Palouse night discussing the issues raised in this book. I am privileged to work with the best administration, faculty, and staff of any school anywhere. My heartfelt thanks to everyone at Tahoma Junior High School in Maple Valley for their comradeship and support. Four individuals stand apart. SuAnn M. Reddick, historian of Chemawa Indian School, read the manuscript, offering her usual sharp critique as well as invaluable insight into the formulation of American Indian policies. Charles V. Mutschler, archivist at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, helped in so many ways. Besides editing the man- uscript, he added substantially to my knowledge of railroad history (is there anyone with greater command of this subject?) and the culture of nineteenth-century America. Joyce Justice, recently retired archivist- extraordinaire at the National Archives and Records Administration– Pacific-Alaska Region in Seattle, has been a part of every historical project of mine as has Kent D. Richards, professor emeritus of history at Central Washington University in Ellensburg. On so many occasions, Joyce, in pointing me toward historical treasures untold, exhibited a boundless enthusiasm for Pacific Northwest history that I worry has rubbed off more than a little. Like SuAnn, Charlie, and Joyce, Dr. Richards has been such a great friend, role model, and inspiration. He gave me my start in the field, hired me as his research assistant, served as the chair of my master’s thesis committee, and suggested I continue in graduate school. Twice he read the manuscript, displaying a depth of knowledge and understanding that only a historian with some forty years immersed in the study of Indian-white relations could have. Finally, I acknowledge my family — my wife, Tina, and my two sons, James and Nick. Truly it is the spouses and the children of historians who bear the burdens and suffer the sacrifices of our profession. I extend my utmost and warmest appreciation to everyone. In the words of the late Puyallup tribal leader Henry C. Sicade, “I thank you all and may the Great Spirit guide and bless you.”

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Editor’s Introduction

Americans in Full Perfectly, the home reflected the man. Colorful dahlias and a lush garden of vegetables adorned an impeccably manicured backyard. Next to the two-story, brown-tinted, barn-style Sears, Roebuck, and Company “kit” house sat an attached garage wherein resided “Angie,” the owner’s1918Model T Ford. Throughout the immaculate little house, the walls and surfaces of the parlor, kitchen, and bedrooms exhibited exquisite displays of the finest Indian beadwork, basketry, and weaving. Dominating all was the ultimate symbol of conquest: an enormous mounted buffalo head, staring unseeing at his admirers from above the mantle of the fireplace in the living room. In the master bedroom next to a high double bed a handcrafted util- ity closet spilled over with countless specimens of Indian history and culture, each object tagged and carefully labeled. Tucked neatly against the wall just inside the doorway rested an old oak desk, a treasured family heirloom and a workingman’s jewel. Once shipped around the horn of South America to Washington Territory, the desk had afforded a lifetime of valuable service through interludes of the deepest crises. It was here, in this room, on a manual Underwood typewriter sitting atop that wonderful desk at Ninth and Cherry Streets on First Hill in Seattle, that octogenarian Edwin L. Chalcraft faithfully labored each day for eighteen months in the early1940s, reconstructing a career in 1 the Office of Indian Affairs (oia) that spanned thirty-seven years. The elaborate furnishings of Chalcraft’s modern home encom-

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