Download - Reservations, Boarding Schools, Railroads, and Environmental Damage John Gast, American Progress
Reservations, Boarding Schools, Railroads, and Environmental Damage
John Gast, American Progress
Economic Development, 1860-1890
Promontory Point, Utah, May 10, 1869
Southern Railroads in 1859
Southern Railroads in 1899
Transcontinental Railroad• May 10th, 1869• Union Pacific & Central Pacific• Pacific Railroad Act, 1862• Irish, Chinese, Mexican, Native,
Eastern European workers
Benefits• National & Cultural Exchange• 1872 = 57,300 miles• 1882 = 114,400 miles• 1900 = 200,000 miles• Western recruitment
Rabbit Drive, San Joaquin Valley, CA 1890s
Detroit, 1880
Fate of the Buffalo
• 1872 – 1874 = 4 million buffalo killed
• Mid-1880s = 5,000 buffalo survived
• Reservations
Kansas Pacific Railroad Advertisement, 1870
“Indian Crania” Studies
• Early to mid-1800s
• 1850s = American Phrenological Journal had 50,000 subscribers
• What could they reveal?
Reservation Policy
• Indian Removal Act, 1830• 370 treaties• 1850s = 8 reservations• Today = 286 reservations• 511 federally-recognized tribes• 950,000 Natives + 370,000 non-Natives on
reservations
Legal Background• Dawes Act of 1887• Bureau of Indian Affairs• 1934 = Indian Re-
organization Act• “Quasi-sovereign
domestic nations”
Boarding Schools
Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania, 1885
Why Boarding Schools?
• 19th century “Civilization”
• Global connections• The Indian Wars • Children as “hostages
for good behavior of their parents”
Types of Schools
• Off-reservation boarding schools vs. on-reservation days schools
• Christian missionaries, Office of Indian Affairs & federal government
• 1870 = Turning point in funding
1832 51 schools 1,865 students
1836 52 schools 1,381 students
1842 52 schools 2,873 students
1861 147 schools ?
1871 286 schools 6,061 students
1876 344 schools 11, 328 students
1879 356 schools 13,343 students
Characteristics• Differences in punishment• 5 – 18 years old & 3-year school term• Children “taught to despise every custom of their
forefathers, including religion, language, songs, dress, ideas, and method of living”
Lessons• Haircuts• Trouser & dresses• Soap, water, combs• English names• Sitting in chairs• Forks & spoons• Prayers• Flag raising• Household & farm chores• Tailoring• Shoemaking• Carpentry• Baking• Washing clothes • Making broomsticks
Students at Albuquerque Indian School
Laundry Classes at Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania
Albuquerque Indian School
Recent Activism
• Over 200 museums• 1978 = Native American Religious Freedom
Act • 1990 = Native American Graves Protection &
Repatriation Act
Rocky Mountain School of Painting
Albert Bierstadt, Merced River – Yosemite, 1866
Creation of National Parks• The Yosemite Act, 1864• Yellowstone, 1872