Indian Boarding Schools

the football field at sherman indian high school in riverside is filled with a couple hundred american indians attending the school's annual powwow about a third of them are students at sherman one of only four off reservation boarding schools still run by the federal government some other students are selling t shirts that celebrate the school's anniversary with the slogan one hundred years of native high but it's going in recent years that indian boarding schools have really promoted cultural pride seventeen year old natalie vega has just registered to dance and she's pining yoga from bishop in central california and knows the school's story well it away i speak the language next to the football field are dormitories and beyond them classrooms and the school's first administrative building which is now a museum the curator of sherman indian high school museum is lobbying sees walk seize clock as apache and core we're a tribe a native to riverside county her chest tattooed with dotted lines that are

traditional but not often worn by coup we had today she says like the more than a hundred boarding schools for american indians the federal government ran at the turn of the century for what was founded to uplift indian people by educating and assimilating them and a lot of the records that we that i have here show that that was the main focus was civilizing merchandising indian students say squats pulls out a program from the school's groundbreaking in nineteen oh one <unk> james schoolcraft sherman and dumb at the lane of the cornerstone he says the building to be erected here will stand for their redemption of a race its purpose will be to enable the engine who can no longer exist in the wild state to meet the requirements of modern progress most of the education was remedial and vocational emphasizing farm and domestic work especially in the early days children as young as five years old were removed from their homes and brought to the

school many of them only saw their parents in the summer when the school year ended the way miranda is a group of indian from the pollen reservation in northern san diego county he says in nineteen oh four government agents and his grandmother rescinded to sherman when she was just eleven years old when they came off this you're taking your kids to school they cried and cried and cried they're put on a train in rolla nobody sees it was clear you're picked up and taken and i was it the parents said no miranda says his grandmother's first days at the school were terrifying she didn't speak any english and was punished for speaking her own language they cannot talk the language they get in trouble they did said no tracy had to learn english but not she would eat to enter into and get listening just about every california indian family has a relative who attended sherman in the early days marine sees kwok says there

were indian parents who voluntarily sent their kids to sherman largely because there weren't any schools here most of the reservations that they seem to be the exception stories about children running away from the school or bound sees walking knowledge is that chairman students were served a heavy dose of discipline chairman was military style up until about the nineteen thirties maybe the early forties at as he conceived by all the pictures on our wall the students marching and the students were in regiments i think most of the schools where the military style as the i was part of the war department in the early days as students were military uniforms many of which were hand me downs from the us army and boys would march with army rifles slung over their shoulders the way miranda says the school became less direct in the late nineteen twenties after indians were made american citizens students were usually punished for speaking their language is that native culture wasn't encouraged stop by sherman recently to talk with students about california indian traditions he brought with him at emanuel probably by

levi intended to school as a teenager in the nineteen thirties when they had no one who knew our culture that instance we were sent a tremendous not so good and as we did with the sago the indians were the same so that is robert levi is a renowned goeas singer he studied music at sherman but western not indian music when he arrived in the classroom the students were making musical instruments called platters best expletive one end to produce a wacky town would slap against the hand levi and miranda far the couple of them to perform traditional cumbia song is robert reed the school's emphasis was still vocational but it had finally become an accredited high school this heroes approach up in the head weldon and

carpentry far more girls than nursing cost of college they can cook and i know a lot of my friends moore and their location where we're not and neither have their own shops are there good jobs time when jobs are scarce levi wishes the school had had college prep classes but he says the education he received was valuable boring sees clocks as alumni often have mixed emotions about their school days there's a lot of bittersweet memories from the students mainly the the friendships they made here with other students who were you know you you came here that was your family there was some really close bonds that remain from nineteen forty six until nineteen sixty three the school was closed to california indians and focused on a program for navajo children when it reopened to students from all federally recognized tribes it took only kids of high school age and attitudes towards indian cultures were

changing the curriculum was of having a native traditions that students were encouraged to participate in cultural clubs the way miranda attended sherman in the mid eighties he says more important than anything he learned in the classroom was how being around other indian students encouraged him to find himself so i came up here and the first singer singing lawyers call it in the people oh my god there's so many indians had in my whole entire life i never seen so many indians i sing every us is caught and didn't turn around without my own our coaches very unique and very special i want to know more today along with the standard curriculum the school offers classes in indian history and culture tribal government and traditional crafts like beadwork and basketry the students this year come from one hundred and five different tribes across the nation many came here because they want to be around the indian kids from other cultures some just wanted to get off the

reservation others like maryland's got a fifteen year old from paula say they were looking to escape the ethnic tensions and discrimination they encountered in public school a lot of users are praises to have just cause i speak my mind if they get it they don't like the rest of my mind i would get in trouble for it they always make up some reason to get me in trouble i like the school better because actually get along with other people and now the other neighbors that are around here it easier time doing me a more friends in your life to speak your mind me ya the help you why spas waiting back stage in the school auditorium she's a contestant in the miss sherman pageant has a theory about girls that were honorary co owner representing a school for some of it themselves and they're trying to an enormous ill people that they have courage and they have on a tv appearance was one of three california girls among the nine in the competition the contestant are introduced as they parade into wearing evening gowns start with a few words in an indian

language and stressed the importance of their cultures and their lives that may change in the costumes adorned with traditional designs natalie vega from bishop wears a dress of black velvet and white buckskin with a rainbow colored color for her performance she demonstrates how central california indians made soup from three mats and sings a traditional songs she learned from her and maryland's got dances too avert psalm one of a sequence of songs that other tribes for history of the end of the evening and none of the california girls of ground measurements of the vacationing second runner is a young woman from arizona who'd already won a patent on her reservation at first the girls was disappointed but they quickly revamp their fellow and in the end a pretty proud for kpcc news i'm elsa set sail in riverside