"Kill The Indian And Save The Man."

In 1879, a man by the name of Richard H. Pratt decided to open a boarding school for Indian Children in Carlisle, Pennsylvani.  His goal was to use education to teach Indian children "the ways of the white man. That year, 50 Kiowa, Cheyenne and Pawnee children showed up on Pratt's door.  Pratt cut their hair, required them to only speak English, and it clear that there were to be no displays of tribal traditions, such as Indian apparel, dances, or religious performances.  "Kill the Indian and save the man," was Pratt's motto.  His school became a model for Indian education.  Soon, more schools were established.  The schools' goals were to teach Indian children the means required to make their way in the American Society.  In doing so, they ended up stripping the young Indian generation of their cultures, heritage and person legacies.

(Sioux Boys As They Were Dressed On Arrival at the Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania 10/5/187) -Source: Digital History, digitalhistory.uh.edu

The Battle Of Wounded Knee II

On December 29th, 1890 at the location Wounded Knee Creek, the Indians were ordered to give their arms.  Someone fired a gun, and this action led to the deaths of over 200 Indian men, women and children.  They were killed by machine guns, fired by the U.S. Army soldiers.  For their actions at Wounded Knee Creek, they received 22 Congressional Medals of Honor.  Among the dead bodies upon the bloody snow, was found a four month old Lakota infant named Zintkala Nuni, who lay under her dead and blood stained mother.  Zintkala Nuni and 47 other women and children were taken away alive, but mostly wounded.  A man by the name of General Leonard Colby and his wife Clara took the Lakota in and raised her as their own, renaming her Marguerite.  She later died at the age of 29.

A man named General Nelson Miles, who commanded military forces in that area, sought out a court martial for the office in charge of the soldiers at Wounded Knee.  He described what happened as a "Cruel and unjustified massacre," and I happen to agree with him.

"The whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are the masters of the American continent and the best safety of the frontier settlers will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians."  -L. Frank Baum, editor and publisher of the Saturday Pioneer, also the author of the popular and much beloved, The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz. 

"Gathering Up the Dead at the Battlefield of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, 1890."

THE GILDED AGE: The Homestead Act

Today I read about the Homestead act, which was "to encourage farmers to settle on the Great Plains." (Digital History, The Homestead Act.) 

I also read the biography of Grover Cleveland.