reservations, boarding schools, railroads, and environmental damage john gast, american progress
DESCRIPTION
Promontory Point, Utah, May 10, 1869TRANSCRIPT
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