Season'Greetings
Season Greetings: from Nova who got a new coat and all of us @ Star Coven, American council of witches,Wiccan Paranormal assoc, Norton/McGowan Clan, Reverend High Priestess Char Norton M.W.R., and my family
![Don't let your friends miss out! Take them to see @[123422907786627:128:Breaking Dawn - Part 2] today! http://bit.ly/BD2-tix](http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/s480x480/425675_10151240278515674_649117033_n.jpg)
(Written by RANDY SHORE, posted to The Vancouver Sun - http://
If your head really hurts on New Year's Day, you could point your finger at the Babylonians who started this new year revelry nonsense. Though the ancient Romans added the idea of alcoholic excess, or at least perfected it.
Julius Caesar fixed the start of the year on Jan. 1 by letting the previous year run to 445 days rather than the traditional 365. The Roman citizenry made their winter festival Saturnalia a celebration without rules. So, let's blame the Romans.
Any way you slice it, New Year's is among the very oldest and most persistent of human celebrations.
The western world celebrates the new year on Jan. 1 in the early weeks of winter, which is about as sensible as a wooden fireplace. For some thousands of years before Julie and the Roman Senate got involved, the new year was celebrated with the first edible crops of the season or the first new moon.
In much of India, Nava Varsha is celebrated in March or April, just as in the most ancient civilizations.
Sikhs celebrate Hola Mohalla in March; ditto for Persian Nowruz.
As celebrated in China and southeast Asia, Lunar New Year still has a floating date, the first day of the first lunar month.
That brand of rhythm with the earth and moon stuff is just a little too hocus pocus for the stiffs that run the western world. We like fixed dates, Gaia be damned.
The Babylonians celebrated with a feast and by returning borrowed farm equipment as it would soon be needed to work the fields.
In fact, feasting on lucky foods is the most ancient new year tradition and one that is mostly lost on young Canadians who mostly opt for the boozing and vomiting option.
(How many tuxedos and sequined party dresses have to die before we learn our lesson?)
The new year celebration is an observance of the earth's ability to renew itself and sustain us for another year. In agrarian societies — that used to be all societies — foods were the most potent of all new year's symbols. (See my attached list of lucky foods.)
'"It's as simple as new year equals more food equals party,'" said Toronto literary researcher Gordon Timmis. '"And that basic equation persisted from the most ancient times right through the middle ages to modern times, despite the best efforts of the Christian churches to snuff it out.'"
The Catholic church has at times banned revelry around the new year, ignored it through the middle ages and even tried to schedule its own holiday to replace it with the rather unappetizing Feast of Christ's Circumcision (I do not lie).
Some Anglican and Orthodox churches still observe the feast on Jan. 1. The Catholics finally gave up on it in the 60s.
No matter what the date, most cultures older than ours plan the party around food and not blue martinis.
In Norse tradition the month-long Yule celebration ended around the new year with a blow-out feast of Viking proportions.
Chinese New Year is marked with a large multi-course meal.
In Scotland Hogmanay is celebrated for at least two or three, even four days (Again, I do not lie. It's the Norse influence.) and guests are expected to bring whiskey or fruitcake to every person they visit.
Non-food related symbols come to us from the ancients.
Ancient Egyptian and Greek societies paraded a baby around to symbolize the new year, at the end of winter when the crops sprouted, not the beginning when we do it.
Baby New remains a popular symbol and turns up at celebrations even today. TV and print newsrooms still fall all over themselves to find the first baby of the new year and your local chamber of commerce probably showers the lucky infant with gifts.
Father Time, who symbolizes the passage of time and the death of the old year, is a much more complex creature.
His most ancient manifestations come from India. Yama the god of death and justice is described in the Vedas and the Upanishads, making him at least 3,500 years old and probably much older.
Yama maintains order in the afterworld and assigns people their reincarnations, sometimes as a richer and more powerful person, other times a cockroach.
As the ruler of death and new beginnings, Yama has profoundly influenced later precursors of Father Time such as Rome's Pluto, Chronos, the Greek god of time, and the Grim Reaper of English and northern European tradition.
He is a kindly looking old fellow these days, sometimes depicted holding Baby New Year, but few mothers in the ancient world would have willingly handed their infant to such a being.
At the stroke of Midnight, as the old year passes into the new, only one tradition is left: the kiss.
Thank the Romans. Again.
They loved kissing and incorporated it into their Solstice and Saturnalia celebrations. Thus kissing as a New Year's Eve tradition persists today in most of their empire and, as a result, it has spread throughout the new world.
The kiss is meant to set the tone for the new year, so be careful who you are standing near when the clock strikes 12. Pick a loved one.
Awkward is not the tone you want to set for a whole year.
Are you ready to face your deepest psychological wounds? The somnolence of Winter is the ideal time to probe your subconscious. The intensity of this challenge is, in a word, formidable. In mythology, Chiron is represented by the Centaur. The dark Centaur, split between the lower and higher half of its vibration, inspires us to express both halves, or polarities, of our human nature. With this expression of the embodiment of our complete selves, comes awareness. Through awareness, comes healing. Hence, Chiron is dubbed the wounded healer. Delving into the heart of your deepest wounds can come your most transformative convalescence.Chiron, now considered a “cometary body” (although some astrologers regard it as an asteroid), manifests itself in different ways depending on its sign or house placement in your birth chart. Your psychological pain, or subconscious wound, might be a result of your current life experience or of one from your past life. For example, if you have Chiron in Taurus, you might experience a deep-seated worry involving your security (which can comprise anything from love, money, or material items). Individuals with Chiron in Taurus spend their lives searching for affection, love, and stability, clinging to security at all costs, even to the detriment of their mental, psychic, and physical health. Ultimately, it is up to the individual to realize that safety cannot be found in the material world, but rather within their spiritual being and in the universal love that surrounds us and binds us. For those with Chiron in Pisces, yours was a past life or current life loss of trust in the universe. Perhaps a victim of betrayal, you may feel abandoned and cheated by life as whole. A loss of faith in love and the fear of living through emotional, physical, or spiritual pain again lead to suspicious distrust of relationships. This tendency only lends to the sabotage of your current relationships, so that your prophecy of fulfilled. For those with Chiron in Pisces, your healing path involves allowing yourself to show your true nature, with all your sensitivity. Your path to healing is a divine one, where you trust and faith are restored and completeness and balance are found between yourself and others. Your house placement of Chiron is just as, if not more, significant than sign location.
The house placement of Chiron gives the context within which your nature is expressed. For instance, Chiron in the first house signifies a crisis or life struggle involving a sense of self. Those with Chiron in the first house might have suffered physical or psychological abuse, causing damage to their self-worth. These individuals have an intense arsenal of spiritual power brewing below the surface; once they unblock their energy, they release their charisma and healing influence upon the world. For the person with Chiron in the third house, you will experience crises concerning communication and knowledge, the media, and siblings. You might feel immense insecurity involving your own intellectual power as compared to others. The love you receive from parents and siblings might be lacking in affection and compassion, and thus, you ultimately mistrust love you receive from others. Developing your already strong intellect along with your emotional strengths (such as compassion and empathy) will help you connect with others. Once your higher self is empowered through the love and confidence that resides within you, integration and communication with others will come naturally.
Focus on the potential gifts that can be derived from your trauma. If we surpass our pain, we can gain the benefits of wisdom and spiritual growth that comes from such a transformation. There are gifts within our wounds. Work with your dichotomous energies. Awaken to, and embrace your dark side. Within the depths of your darkness lies your brightest light.
*The Coven Avalon claims no rights to this artwork, or any on our page. If this work belongs to you and you would like for us to remove it, please contact us and we will certainly do so. Being a non-profit educational site, we operate under the Fair Use rule of the US Copyright Law - please refer to the page information for full details. Blessings!
!["I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?" words by John Lennon ...one love, unity... " @[131291716966065:274:Ashantara Gray ~ The Celtic Faery Seer]](http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/s480x480/554085_10150799218362537_1576066238_n.jpg)
![It's CAT food, not GRANDMOTHER food! Let's make sure it STAYS THAT WAY! Give @[137389882951546:274:Strengthen Social Security] a like to keep updated](http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/s480x480/312672_492276410816810_1306944115_n.png)
![✭ From the @[131609146980505:274:Stifyn Emrys] page. ✭](http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/s480x480/224820_182022141939205_2101027234_n.jpg)
![♥ ===> @[315857621811604:274:Body Positive] & @[162540213867109:274:Positive P's Page] <=== ♥](http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/s480x480/578830_462905350440163_1682233334_n.jpg)
Silver RavenWolf was tagged in Deanna Dawn's photo.
![Where oh where will we find the money?
Oh right. Tell your representative that cutting Social Security to give some rich folks more unsustainable tax cuts is UNACCEPTABLE: http://bit.ly/pledgetoprimary
(thanks to @[281168802721:274:Political Loudmouth] for this image)](http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/s480x480/540403_531464923531157_1525810868_n.jpg)
![、Angel Friends ☆
•☆＼•＼☆＼、＊
、•＼ SHARE & Inspire Others!
＼、＊•＼☆＼、 @[248549041834638:274:The Social Butterfly]](http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/s480x480/44709_494458673910339_484225302_n.jpg)
![If you have time to lean, you have time to clean.
#@[275140019234923:274:I'm Batman, Shhh.]](http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/s480x480/154938_10151386961090030_190642859_n.jpg)
![♥ ===> @[315857621811604:274:Body Positive] & @[162540213867109:274:Positive P's Page] <=== ♥](http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/s480x480/532609_463283500402348_1436381368_n.png)
![What a cute furbaby!
To see today's cats, come "follow" us at -> @[226839817327703:274:And My Cat]](http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/s480x480/383693_544254992252849_2068286163_n.jpg)
http://www.recipegirl.com/
![@[421273597929396:274:Slice of Life]~Eggnog Fudge
2 cups granulated white sugar
1/2 cup salted butter
3/4 cup dairy eggnog
10.5 ounces white chocolate bars, chopped into small pieces
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, plus a little more for the top of the fudge
One 7-ounce jar marshmallow creme
1 teaspoon rum extract
Directions:
1. Line an 8 or 9-inch square pan with foil and let it hang over the sides. Butter the foil.
2. In a heavy, 3-quart saucepan combine sugar, butter and eggnog. Bring to a rolling boil, stirring constantly. Continue boiling 8 to 10 minutes over medium heat or until a candy thermometer reaches 234°F, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Remove from heat.
3. Using a wooden spoon, work quickly to stir in chopped white chocolate and nutmeg until chocolate is melted and smooth. Stir in marshmallow creme and rum extract. Beat until well blended and then pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle a little freshly ground nutmeg on top. Let stand at room temperature until cooled. Refrigerate if you'd like to speed up the process.
4. When completely cool, cut into squares. Store in a covered container.
http://www.recipegirl.com/2007/11/30/eggnog-fudge/](http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/s480x480/34717_459279557462133_689049642_n.jpg)
I wish everyone would repost this one!! :)
![NOT RIGHT CHRISTMAS
[ pic and line submitted by Feaw Guita ]](http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/s480x480/416826_10152378368470377_484678372_n.jpg)
![THE BOARDING SCHOOLS
"You say there is but one way to worship the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it?"
Chief Red Jacket Seneca Indian Chieftain
"They came with a Bible and their religion— stole our land, crushed our spirit... and now tell us we should be thankful to the ‘Lord’ for being saved."
Chief Pontiac (d. 1769) American Indian Chieftain
"I heard that word, that it is a shame for Man to wear long hair, and that there was no such custom in the churches. At first I thought I loved not long hair ... but I did... and found it hard to cut it off. And I prayed to God to pardon that sin... also. When they said the Devil was my God, I was angry because I was proud. I loved to pray to many Gods, then go into your House and more desire to hear of God. Then I was angry with myself, and loathed myself - I thought, God will not forgive my sins. I see God is still angry with me for all my sins. He has afflicted me with the death of three of my children, and I fear God is still angry, because great are my sins. I fear not less because my children are gone to heaven."
- Quote by Unknown
(Document from the Native American conversions)
In the late 1800s, Native Americans were losing the U.S-Indian wars, particularly after the Civil War freed up troops to patrol the West. But there was still the "Indian problem."
Native Americans were still called savages living in the midst of civilized farmers. By the 1870s, Indian reform groups were becoming more powerful. The Indian Rights Association conducted their own investigations of conditions on the reservations and was one of the first organizations to hire a full time lobbyist in Washington. Like the slavery abolitionists before them, the Indian reform movement pointed out the flawed morality of taking the land of indigenous people simply because the Europeans "discovered" the land and wanted it.
The choices seemed simple and stark to the reformer movement — either kill all the Indians or assimilate them into white civilization through education. Popular press reports about events like Ponca Chief Standing Bear's desperate attempt to return from Oklahoma to his ancestral homelands in Nebraska to bury his dead son captured the sympathies of the nation.
So, even before the Civil War, reformers had pushed the federal government to begin an assimilation policy of educating Indians. By the 1860s, the federal government set up 48 "day schools" near some of the reservations. Indian students would travel off the reservations, attend school and return home. The reformers hoped that this system would allow the students to civilize their parents, as well, by sharing what they were learning.
Just the opposite happened — parents were perfectly capable of teaching their children tribal languages, cultures and belief systems, despite the efforts of the schools. The lessons of the day were obliterated at night by the realities of communal tribal living.
In the late 1870s, the reformers tried a new experiment — reservation boarding schools. The idea was that students would live all week in the boarding schools that were built a little farther away from the reservations. But as time went by, the families simply moved their tee pees closer to the schools.
By 1875, Army Lt. Richard Henry Pratt was ready for a bold new experiment. He was in charge of 72 Indian prisoners who had been fighting the Army in the southern plains. Pratt transported these Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche and Caddo prisoners halfway across the continent to St. Augustine, Florida. (Ironically, St. Augustine had been the first Spanish settlement in North America.) It was a terrifying experience for the transplanted Indians.
For Pratt, it was an opportunity to try out his new ideas about education. He began teaching the prisoners English and, after they learned English came European ideas, particularly the concepts of civilization and Christianity. Then came lessons in agriculture and the working trades.
This experiment seemed to work. By April, 1878, 62 of the younger, more easily educated Indians joined the Hampton Institute in Virginia — a "normal school" or teacher training institute founded by abolitionists for blacks. Pratt's savage warriors were on their way to becoming teachers. Pratt publicized the success of his experiment through a series of "then-and-now" photographs showing the "savage" versus the "civilized" Indians.
In 1879, Pratt was ready to extend the experiment to other reservations. He went to the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Sioux reservations in the Dakotas and convinced parents and tribal elders to allow him to take 60 young boys and 24 girls to a new boarding school. Where the previous boarding schools had been near the reservations, this one was in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1,500 miles away. He thought this long distance would surely break the hold that tribal life had on students closer to home.
In 1879, Pratt was ready to extend the experiment to other reservations. He went to the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Sioux reservations in the Dakotas and convinced parents and tribal elders to allow him to take 60 young boys and 24 girls to a new boarding school. Where the previous boarding schools had been near the reservations, this one was in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1,500 miles away. He thought this long distance would surely break the hold that tribal life had on students closer to home.
Follow the trail of these first Indian Boarding School Students on our Interactive Map.
When they got to Carlisle, the students were extremely homesick. Their long hair was cut. One boarding school student, Lone Wolf of the Blackfoot tribe, remembered:
"[Long hair] was the pride of all Indians. The boys, one by one, would break down and cry when they saw their braids thrown on the floor. All of the buckskin clothes had to go and we had to put on the clothes of the White Man. If we thought the days were bad, the nights were much worse. This is when the loneliness set in, for it was when we knew that we were all alone. Many boys ran away from the school because the treatment was so bad, but most of them were caught and brought back by the police."
The students were thrown into a military style regimentation of classes and activities. They were up at the call of a bugle at 5:45 a.m. with exercise and military drills following. Breakfast was at 6:45. Industrial work began at 8:00 and formal school at 9:00. After lunch there was more industrial work and school with lectures into the evening. There was less than an hour of free time during each day, and the students were in bed at 9:00 p.m.
Students were prohibited from speaking their native languages. Instead, they were supposed to converse and even think in English. If they were caught "speaking Indian" they were severely beaten with a leather belt.
Students were taught to hate who they were born to be. Ojibwe student Merta Bercier wrote:
"Did I want to be an Indian? After looking at the pictures of the Indians on the warpath — fighting, scalping women and children, and Oh! Such ugly faces. No! Indians were mean people — I'm glad I'm not an Indian, I thought."
Between 1880 and 1902, 25 off-reservation boarding schools were built and 20,000 to 30,000 Native American children went through the system. That was roughly 10 percent of the total Indian population in 1900.
By this time, 460 boarding and day schools had been built near the reservations, most run by religious organizations with government funds. All told, more than 100,000 Native Americans were forced by the U.S. government to attend Christian schools where tribal languages and cultures were replaced by English and Christianity.
Yet, despite the negative aspects of boarding schools, many students stubbornly held on to their tribal identities. Studies have shown that many students went back to their reservations and became leaders in tribal politics.
Others found that getting to know members of other tribes contributed to their sense of kinship and pan-Indian identity. That sense of identity with other tribes led directly to the American Indian Movement (AIM) activism of the late 20th Century over political and cultural self-determination.
For instance, Esther Burnett Horne was a student at the Haskell Institute boarding school. Later she became a teacher at several Indian schools. She remembers her schooling as largely positive. She gained leadership skills, experienced a sense of community, met her husband and discovered role models in Native teachers Ruth Muskrat Bronson and Ella Deloria, women who supported tribal identities. In her own teaching career, Esther worked with Ralph and Rita Erdrich, whose daughter Louise would become a major literary figure. Esther's students included Dennis Banks, George Mitchell and Leonard Peltier, all leaders of the 1960s-70s American Indian Movement.
http://www.pbs.org/indiancountry/history/boarding2.html](http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/s480x480/12195_317964724985781_821692194_n.jpg)
THE BOARDING SCHOOLS
"You say there is but one way to worship the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it?"
Chief Red Jacket Seneca Indian Chieftain
"They came with a Bible and their religion— stole our land, crushed our spirit... and now tell us we should be thankful to the ‘Lord’ for being saved."
Chief Pontiac (d. 1769) American Indian Chieftain
"I heard that word, that it is a shame for Man to wear long hair, and that there was no such custom in the churches. At first I thought I loved not long hair ... but I did... and found it hard to cut it off. And I prayed to God to pardon that sin... also. When they said the Devil was my God, I was angry because I was proud. I loved to pray to many Gods, then go into your House and more desire to hear of God. Then I was angry with myself, and loathed myself - I thought, God will not forgive my sins. I see God is still angry with me for all my sins. He has afflicted me with the death of three of my children, and I fear God is still angry, because great are my sins. I fear not less because my children are gone to heaven."
- Quote by Unknown
(Document from the Native American conversions)
In the late 1800s, Native Americans were losing the U.S-Indian wars, particularly after the Civil War freed up troops to patrol the West. But there was still the "Indian problem."
Native Americans were still called savages living in the midst of civilized farmers. By the 1870s, Indian reform groups were becoming more powerful. The Indian Rights Association conducted their own investigations of conditions on the reservations and was one of the first organizations to hire a full time lobbyist in Washington. Like the slavery abolitionists before them, the Indian reform movement pointed out the flawed morality of taking the land of indigenous people simply because the Europeans "discovered" the land and wanted it.
The choices seemed simple and stark to the reformer movement — either kill all the Indians or assimilate them into white civilization through education. Popular press reports about events like Ponca Chief Standing Bear's desperate attempt to return from Oklahoma to his ancestral homelands in Nebraska to bury his dead son captured the sympathies of the nation.
So, even before the Civil War, reformers had pushed the federal government to begin an assimilation policy of educating Indians. By the 1860s, the federal government set up 48 "day schools" near some of the reservations. Indian students would travel off the reservations, attend school and return home. The reformers hoped that this system would allow the students to civilize their parents, as well, by sharing what they were learning.
Just the opposite happened — parents were perfectly capable of teaching their children tribal languages, cultures and belief systems, despite the efforts of the schools. The lessons of the day were obliterated at night by the realities of communal tribal living.
In the late 1870s, the reformers tried a new experiment — reservation boarding schools. The idea was that students would live all week in the boarding schools that were built a little farther away from the reservations. But as time went by, the families simply moved their tee pees closer to the schools.
By 1875, Army Lt. Richard Henry Pratt was ready for a bold new experiment. He was in charge of 72 Indian prisoners who had been fighting the Army in the southern plains. Pratt transported these Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche and Caddo prisoners halfway across the continent to St. Augustine, Florida. (Ironically, St. Augustine had been the first Spanish settlement in North America.) It was a terrifying experience for the transplanted Indians.
For Pratt, it was an opportunity to try out his new ideas about education. He began teaching the prisoners English and, after they learned English came European ideas, particularly the concepts of civilization and Christianity. Then came lessons in agriculture and the working trades.
This experiment seemed to work. By April, 1878, 62 of the younger, more easily educated Indians joined the Hampton Institute in Virginia — a "normal school" or teacher training institute founded by abolitionists for blacks. Pratt's savage warriors were on their way to becoming teachers. Pratt publicized the success of his experiment through a series of "then-and-now" photographs showing the "savage" versus the "civilized" Indians.
In 1879, Pratt was ready to extend the experiment to other reservations. He went to the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Sioux reservations in the Dakotas and convinced parents and tribal elders to allow him to take 60 young boys and 24 girls to a new boarding school. Where the previous boarding schools had been near the reservations, this one was in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1,500 miles away. He thought this long distance would surely break the hold that tribal life had on students closer to home.
In 1879, Pratt was ready to extend the experiment to other reservations. He went to the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Sioux reservations in the Dakotas and convinced parents and tribal elders to allow him to take 60 young boys and 24 girls to a new boarding school. Where the previous boarding schools had been near the reservations, this one was in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1,500 miles away. He thought this long distance would surely break the hold that tribal life had on students closer to home.
Follow the trail of these first Indian Boarding School Students on our Interactive Map.
When they got to Carlisle, the students were extremely homesick. Their long hair was cut. One boarding school student, Lone Wolf of the Blackfoot tribe, remembered:
"[Long hair] was the pride of all Indians. The boys, one by one, would break down and cry when they saw their braids thrown on the floor. All of the buckskin clothes had to go and we had to put on the clothes of the White Man. If we thought the days were bad, the nights were much worse. This is when the loneliness set in, for it was when we knew that we were all alone. Many boys ran away from the school because the treatment was so bad, but most of them were caught and brought back by the police."
The students were thrown into a military style regimentation of classes and activities. They were up at the call of a bugle at 5:45 a.m. with exercise and military drills following. Breakfast was at 6:45. Industrial work began at 8:00 and formal school at 9:00. After lunch there was more industrial work and school with lectures into the evening. There was less than an hour of free time during each day, and the students were in bed at 9:00 p.m.
Students were prohibited from speaking their native languages. Instead, they were supposed to converse and even think in English. If they were caught "speaking Indian" they were severely beaten with a leather belt.
Students were taught to hate who they were born to be. Ojibwe student Merta Bercier wrote:
"Did I want to be an Indian? After looking at the pictures of the Indians on the warpath — fighting, scalping women and children, and Oh! Such ugly faces. No! Indians were mean people — I'm glad I'm not an Indian, I thought."
Between 1880 and 1902, 25 off-reservation boarding schools were built and 20,000 to 30,000 Native American children went through the system. That was roughly 10 percent of the total Indian population in 1900.
By this time, 460 boarding and day schools had been built near the reservations, most run by religious organizations with government funds. All told, more than 100,000 Native Americans were forced by the U.S. government to attend Christian schools where tribal languages and cultures were replaced by English and Christianity.
Yet, despite the negative aspects of boarding schools, many students stubbornly held on to their tribal identities. Studies have shown that many students went back to their reservations and became leaders in tribal politics.
Others found that getting to know members of other tribes contributed to their sense of kinship and pan-Indian identity. That sense of identity with other tribes led directly to the American Indian Movement (AIM) activism of the late 20th Century over political and cultural self-determination.
For instance, Esther Burnett Horne was a student at the Haskell Institute boarding school. Later she became a teacher at several Indian schools. She remembers her schooling as largely positive. She gained leadership skills, experienced a sense of community, met her husband and discovered role models in Native teachers Ruth Muskrat Bronson and Ella Deloria, women who supported tribal identities. In her own teaching career, Esther worked with Ralph and Rita Erdrich, whose daughter Louise would become a major literary figure. Esther's students included Dennis Banks, George Mitchell and Leonard Peltier, all leaders of the 1960s-70s American Indian Movement.
"You say there is but one way to worship the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it?"
Chief Red Jacket Seneca Indian Chieftain
"They came with a Bible and their religion— stole our land, crushed our spirit... and now tell us we should be thankful to the ‘Lord’ for being saved."
Chief Pontiac (d. 1769) American Indian Chieftain
"I heard that word, that it is a shame for Man to wear long hair, and that there was no such custom in the churches. At first I thought I loved not long hair ... but I did... and found it hard to cut it off. And I prayed to God to pardon that sin... also. When they said the Devil was my God, I was angry because I was proud. I loved to pray to many Gods, then go into your House and more desire to hear of God. Then I was angry with myself, and loathed myself - I thought, God will not forgive my sins. I see God is still angry with me for all my sins. He has afflicted me with the death of three of my children, and I fear God is still angry, because great are my sins. I fear not less because my children are gone to heaven."
- Quote by Unknown
(Document from the Native American conversions)
In the late 1800s, Native Americans were losing the U.S-Indian wars, particularly after the Civil War freed up troops to patrol the West. But there was still the "Indian problem."
Native Americans were still called savages living in the midst of civilized farmers. By the 1870s, Indian reform groups were becoming more powerful. The Indian Rights Association conducted their own investigations of conditions on the reservations and was one of the first organizations to hire a full time lobbyist in Washington. Like the slavery abolitionists before them, the Indian reform movement pointed out the flawed morality of taking the land of indigenous people simply because the Europeans "discovered" the land and wanted it.
The choices seemed simple and stark to the reformer movement — either kill all the Indians or assimilate them into white civilization through education. Popular press reports about events like Ponca Chief Standing Bear's desperate attempt to return from Oklahoma to his ancestral homelands in Nebraska to bury his dead son captured the sympathies of the nation.
So, even before the Civil War, reformers had pushed the federal government to begin an assimilation policy of educating Indians. By the 1860s, the federal government set up 48 "day schools" near some of the reservations. Indian students would travel off the reservations, attend school and return home. The reformers hoped that this system would allow the students to civilize their parents, as well, by sharing what they were learning.
Just the opposite happened — parents were perfectly capable of teaching their children tribal languages, cultures and belief systems, despite the efforts of the schools. The lessons of the day were obliterated at night by the realities of communal tribal living.
In the late 1870s, the reformers tried a new experiment — reservation boarding schools. The idea was that students would live all week in the boarding schools that were built a little farther away from the reservations. But as time went by, the families simply moved their tee pees closer to the schools.
By 1875, Army Lt. Richard Henry Pratt was ready for a bold new experiment. He was in charge of 72 Indian prisoners who had been fighting the Army in the southern plains. Pratt transported these Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche and Caddo prisoners halfway across the continent to St. Augustine, Florida. (Ironically, St. Augustine had been the first Spanish settlement in North America.) It was a terrifying experience for the transplanted Indians.
For Pratt, it was an opportunity to try out his new ideas about education. He began teaching the prisoners English and, after they learned English came European ideas, particularly the concepts of civilization and Christianity. Then came lessons in agriculture and the working trades.
This experiment seemed to work. By April, 1878, 62 of the younger, more easily educated Indians joined the Hampton Institute in Virginia — a "normal school" or teacher training institute founded by abolitionists for blacks. Pratt's savage warriors were on their way to becoming teachers. Pratt publicized the success of his experiment through a series of "then-and-now" photographs showing the "savage" versus the "civilized" Indians.
In 1879, Pratt was ready to extend the experiment to other reservations. He went to the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Sioux reservations in the Dakotas and convinced parents and tribal elders to allow him to take 60 young boys and 24 girls to a new boarding school. Where the previous boarding schools had been near the reservations, this one was in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1,500 miles away. He thought this long distance would surely break the hold that tribal life had on students closer to home.
In 1879, Pratt was ready to extend the experiment to other reservations. He went to the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Sioux reservations in the Dakotas and convinced parents and tribal elders to allow him to take 60 young boys and 24 girls to a new boarding school. Where the previous boarding schools had been near the reservations, this one was in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1,500 miles away. He thought this long distance would surely break the hold that tribal life had on students closer to home.
Follow the trail of these first Indian Boarding School Students on our Interactive Map.
When they got to Carlisle, the students were extremely homesick. Their long hair was cut. One boarding school student, Lone Wolf of the Blackfoot tribe, remembered:
"[Long hair] was the pride of all Indians. The boys, one by one, would break down and cry when they saw their braids thrown on the floor. All of the buckskin clothes had to go and we had to put on the clothes of the White Man. If we thought the days were bad, the nights were much worse. This is when the loneliness set in, for it was when we knew that we were all alone. Many boys ran away from the school because the treatment was so bad, but most of them were caught and brought back by the police."
The students were thrown into a military style regimentation of classes and activities. They were up at the call of a bugle at 5:45 a.m. with exercise and military drills following. Breakfast was at 6:45. Industrial work began at 8:00 and formal school at 9:00. After lunch there was more industrial work and school with lectures into the evening. There was less than an hour of free time during each day, and the students were in bed at 9:00 p.m.
Students were prohibited from speaking their native languages. Instead, they were supposed to converse and even think in English. If they were caught "speaking Indian" they were severely beaten with a leather belt.
Students were taught to hate who they were born to be. Ojibwe student Merta Bercier wrote:
"Did I want to be an Indian? After looking at the pictures of the Indians on the warpath — fighting, scalping women and children, and Oh! Such ugly faces. No! Indians were mean people — I'm glad I'm not an Indian, I thought."
Between 1880 and 1902, 25 off-reservation boarding schools were built and 20,000 to 30,000 Native American children went through the system. That was roughly 10 percent of the total Indian population in 1900.
By this time, 460 boarding and day schools had been built near the reservations, most run by religious organizations with government funds. All told, more than 100,000 Native Americans were forced by the U.S. government to attend Christian schools where tribal languages and cultures were replaced by English and Christianity.
Yet, despite the negative aspects of boarding schools, many students stubbornly held on to their tribal identities. Studies have shown that many students went back to their reservations and became leaders in tribal politics.
Others found that getting to know members of other tribes contributed to their sense of kinship and pan-Indian identity. That sense of identity with other tribes led directly to the American Indian Movement (AIM) activism of the late 20th Century over political and cultural self-determination.
For instance, Esther Burnett Horne was a student at the Haskell Institute boarding school. Later she became a teacher at several Indian schools. She remembers her schooling as largely positive. She gained leadership skills, experienced a sense of community, met her husband and discovered role models in Native teachers Ruth Muskrat Bronson and Ella Deloria, women who supported tribal identities. In her own teaching career, Esther worked with Ralph and Rita Erdrich, whose daughter Louise would become a major literary figure. Esther's students included Dennis Banks, George Mitchell and Leonard Peltier, all leaders of the 1960s-70s American Indian Movement.
gun aren't the problem , nor is the mentally ill, it's our asshole government. They can't even agree on what to order for lunch, let alone how to stop the physical cliff. If we want them to protect us, god help us all, the what ever they want to call it (war on terror ) is not going all that well. We not so rich , normal people get crapped on all the time.Taxes and prices go up , while pay goes down. 5 peoples job, morphs in a one man job. and you all wounder why people go crazy an kill. the pressure, the stress, no heath care, no money, the talk of the end of the world. this gets to some, they snap, and family just laugh at them and say, oh its ok , take your meds. This world is full of anti- social, no a count, money grubbing, stupid people . We all need to wake up see the world how it is, try to fix it our selves. Everyone help someone sometime. maybe your friend has a new baby ,but hasn't go out with the hubbie in forever baby sit. help some when he is down with kind words, lend a dollar to the co-worker who never eats at lunch. walk a elder neighbors dog. if we lived as we are one , we all win
Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura on truTV
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Charlene Norton I like this room ,I have been dreaming of room almost like this but part of the house more. and the roof can open in the summer. I'd use it for my coven meetings!
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