LITR 4332: American Minority Literature

Katie Raney

The Education of Native Americans and African Americans
 in the midst of hardship

Over the course of the semester, I have been struck with how the minority culture is so distinct and separate from the dominant culture.  Previously, I had not put much though into the matter and lived my life unaware of the other ethnic groups around me.  As I read the materials for class and listened to the class discussion, my understanding and awareness of the minority culture increased and I had a high interest in learning about the alternate dreams with regard to minorities.  I began my research to attempt to find how the minority alternative dream related to the American dream.  However, on the way, I noticed how one key difference between the minority cultures and the dominant culture has been education.  I knew that when America first began colleges, white, wealthy males were only admitted.  This incited my interest of the education of minorities in earlier times.  Due to the fact that this topic was so large, I confined my searching to the education of Native Americans and African Americans. 

I found some alarming setbacks in the education of these minority groups, but I have also found some hope within them.  According to Objective 3a. African American alternative narrative: “The Dream,” the African American dream, “factors in setbacks” and “the need to rise again.”  In regards to education, this is a very accurate point for African Americans.  Though they experienced extreme setbacks, through much of my research I found stories of triumph where slaves, against all odds, would learn to read and reap incredible benefits with their knowledge. Also, in Objective 3b. Native American Indian alternative narrative: "Loss and Survival,” Native Americans are a people who “choos[e] to ‘survive.’” Though they went through some horrible events in becoming educated by the white man, Native Americans do not have the same type of newfound freedom that African Americans will gain through education, but they will continue to survive. 

The bulk of my research involving Native American education dealt with the experiences of the Indian boarding schools that many Native Americans were forced to attend.  I found a speech by the man who helped found the boarding schools, Richard Pratt.  In his speech Pratt was quoted as saying: “A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one, and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man....” (Pratt).  Here, we seen not only the racism within Pratt’s speech, but the alarming idea that within these boarding schools, white people “intended to assimilate Native people into mainstream society and eradicate Native cultures” (Davis). 

I knew a little about the Native American culture already in regards to their former education before white people intervened.  I knew that they received an education from their family and tribe, which much oral tradition.  Yet, their traditions were in a sense thrown out the window with the enforcement of Indian boarding schools. According to Davis, “school administrators and teachers cut children's hair; changed their dress, their diets, and their names; introduced them to unfamiliar conceptions of space and time; and subjected them to militaristic regimentation and discipline” (Davis).  All of these changes obviously would have come to a huge culture shock for the Native Americans, and they were made with an immense price.  The price included, “confusion and alienation, homesickness and resentment” for the Indian children who were brought to these schools.

Even so, the thing that was probably most interesting to me about the boarding schools, was the fact that it ended up having some benefits for the people again, which I think shows their choice for “survival” (Objective 3b).  Though the Native Americans suffered in the boarding schools in extreme ways, “Adams insists that Indian students and parents were not passive victims of the government's assimilation campaign; rather, they helped define the terms of their educational experiences in unanticipated ways  (Davis).  Some of these ways did include their resistance, but they also include forming friendships with other children.  The boarding schools seemed to have had a way of bridging gaps between all of the tribes (Davis).  Although some Native Americans left boarding school feeling lost and alone, “some boarding school graduates used their education to become prominent tribal leaders who worked to reinvigorate Indian political sovereignty and strengthen traditional cultures, on both a local and a national level” (Davis).  Here, the Native Americans used their awful experiences within the boarding schools to pave new ways for their people and gain more rights. Ultimately, many of the boarding schools would begin to close and Native Americans would go to public school where “classroom lessons could now reflect the diversity of Indian cultures” (Marr).  

Though the setbacks for Native Americans were severe, the setbacks that African Americans found within their education, was harsh as well.  Unlike the Native Americans, who were forced to go to these schools in order to assimilate, in the early African American story, they were denied education altogether.  This I knew from the class readings that we did this semester in the Slave Narratives, but I did not realize before that there were “laws and custom in slave states prohibiting enslaved people from learning to read and write” (Williams, 7).  It was very alarming for me to read about how “Masters made every attempt to control their captives’ thoughts and imaginations, indeed their hearts and minds” which meant that they did not allow most slaves to learn how to read in order to control them (Williams, 8).  Harris also reported on this when she wrote, “African Americans viewed literacy as a component of emancipation and participation in societal institutions on an equal basis. In contrast, many European Americans viewed literacy for African Americans as a method for instilling subservience and maintaining social, political, and economic control” (Harris, 277). The control that slave owners wanted over their slaves is evident through their refusal to teach African Americans how to read. Though there were physical laws against literacy for slaves, “a small percentage managed, though ingenuity and will” to fight to learn how to read and write (Williams, 7).

These slaves who learned how to read, used their literacy as a means to freedom.  I found it so amazing how they were given this huge setback, yet some tried fervently to learn to read in attempts to get out of their situation and rise again. It was also amazing how literacy was so often linked with benefits and more freedom for African Americans. According to Cornelius, “Slaves who learned to read and write gained privacy, leisure time, and mobility. A few wrote their own passes and escaped from slavery. Literate slaves also taught others and served as conduits for information within a slave communication network” (Cornelius, 171).  I also saw literacy’s link with freedom when I read that “slaves were aware of the promise of literacy as a path to mobility and increased self-worth” (Cornelius, 181).  The stories of these slaves who taught themselves to read and write are amazing, and they not only empowered them during their slavery, but would also help empower the African American culture over time.  If I were to continue my research on this topic I would trace how literacy continued to impact African Americans, not only in the time of slavery, but through American history. 

For me, I think the African American story of education in particular has huge impacts.  Due to the fact that I am planning to become a teacher of literature, this is one of the key things that I would like to teach my students.  Literature is a way to learn and to empower you, like in the example of the African American people.  In many ways, literature is the key to learning.  I would like to show my students this and also show them the strength and survival of the African American people.  I would also like to show students how both the African American and Native American ethnic groups have gone on to produce incredible literature.  This literature is not just classic because of the way it was written, but it has become a voice for many of these minority groups.  Through their literature they are able to express their feelings, share their experiences, and hopefully, lead to change within our society. 

Works Cited

Asante, Molefi Kete.  “The Afrocentric Idea of Education.”  The Journal of Negro        Education.  Spring 1991: 170-180. JSTOR. Alfred Nuemann Library.  May 4,         2007.<  http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-            2984%28199121%2960%3A2%3C170%3ATAIIE%3E2.0.CO%3B2->

Cornelius, Janet. “‘We Slipped and Learned to Read’: Slave Accounts of the Literacy           Process, 1830-1865." Phylon. 1983: 171-186. JSTOR. Alfred Nuemann Library.          4 May 2007 <  http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-            8906%28198333%2944%3A3%3C171%3A%22SALTR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Q >

Davis, Julie.  “American Indian Boarding School Experiences: Recent Studies from Native Perspectives.” OAH Magazine of History.  Winter 2001: [no pagination].            Organization of American Historians. May 4, 2007.<http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/deseg/davis.html>

Harris, Violet.  “African-American Conceptions of Literacy: A Historical Perspective.”  Theory into Practice.  1992: 276-286. JSTOR. Alfred Nuemann Library, May 4, 2007.<http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0040-         5841%28199223%2931%3A4%3C276%3AACOLAH%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V\>

Marr, Carolyn.  “Assimilation Through Education: Indian Boarding Schools in the       Pacific Northwest.”  University of Washington Libraries Digital Collection.  May        4, 2007.<  http://content.lib.washington.edu/aipnw/marr.html>

Pratt, Richard.  “The Advantages of Mingling with Whites, Americanizing the American Indians: Writings by the ‘Friends of the Indian’ 1880-1900.”  Cambrige, Mass:           Harvard University Press, 1973.             <http://socrates.bmcc.cuny.edu/bfriedheim/pratt.htm.>

Willams, Andrea. “Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom." North Carolina: UNC Press. 2005