Education Beyond The Mesas: Hopi Students At Sherman Institute, 1902-1929 (indigenous Education)

Education beyond the Mesas is the fascinating story of how generations of Hopi schoolchildren from northeastern Arizona “turned the power” by using compulsory federal education to affirm their way of life and better their community. Sherman Institute in Riverside, California, one of the largest off-reservation boarding schools in the United States, followed other federally funded boarding schools of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in promoting the assimilation of indigenous people into mainstream America. Many Hopi schoolchildren, deeply conversant in Hopi values and traditional education before being sent to Sherman Institute, resisted this program of acculturation. Immersed in learning about another world, generations of Hopi children drew on their culture to skillfully navigate a system designed to change them irrevocably. In fact, not only did the Hopi children strengthen their commitment to their families and communities while away in the “land of oranges,” they used their new skills, fluency in English, and knowledge of politics and economics to help their people when they eventually returned home. Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert draws on interviews, archival records, and his own experiences growing up in the Hopi community to offer a powerful account of a quiet, enduring triumph. Education beyond the Mesas is the fascinating story of how generations of Hopi schoolchildren from northeastern Arizona “turned the power” by using compulsory federal education to affirm their way of life and better their community. Sherman Institute in Riverside, California, one of the largest off-reservation boarding schools in the United States, followed other federally funded boarding schools of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in promoting the assimilation of indigenous people into mainstream America. Many Hopi schoolchildren, deeply conversant in Hopi values and traditional education before being sent to Sherman Institute, resisted this program of acculturation. Immersed in learning about another world, generations of Hopi children drew on their culture to skillfully navigate a system designed to change them irrevocably. In fact, not only did the Hopi children strengthen their commitment to their families and communities while away in the “land of oranges,” they used their new skills, fluency in English, and knowledge of politics and economics to help their people when they eventually returned home. Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert draws on interviews, archival records, and his own experiences growing up in the Hopi community to offer a powerful account of a quiet, enduring triumph. Front Cover......Page 1 Title Page......Page 2 Copyright......Page 4 Dedication......Page 6 Contents......Page 8 Preface......Page 10 Acknowledgments......Page 14 Introduction......Page 18 1. Hopi Resistance......Page 36 2. Policies and Assimilation......Page 64 3. The Orayvi Split and Hopi Schooling......Page 86 4. Elder in Residence......Page 106 5. Taking Hopi Knowledge to School......Page 130 6. Learning to Preach......Page 150 7. Returning to Hopi......Page 172 Conclusion......Page 198 Appendix......Page 206 Introduction......Page 210 1. Hopi Resistance......Page 213 2. Policies and Assimilation......Page 218 3. The Orayvi Split......Page 222 4. Elder in Residence......Page 226 5. Taking Hopi Knowledge to School......Page 230 6. Learning to Preach......Page 233 7. Returning to Hopi......Page 236 8. Conclusion......Page 240 Published Sources......Page 242 Index......Page 254 In the Indigenous Education series......Page 273 Tells the fascinating story of how generations of Hopi schoolchildren from northeastern Arizona “turned the power” by using compulsory federal education to affirm their way of life and better their community. Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert draws on interviews, archival records, and his own experiences growing up in the Hopi community to offer a powerful account of a quiet, enduring triumph. Tells how generations of Hopi schoolchildren from northeastern Arizona, sent to Sherman Institute in Riverside, California, one of the largest off-reservation boarding schools in the United States, resisted the school's program of assimilation, skillfully navigating a system designed to erase their cultural identity A masterful account of the Hopi schoolchildren at the Sherman Institute who used the United States' boarding school system, which was designed to strip them of their tribal identity, to actually strengthen and maintain their ties to their families, tribe, and land. Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert draws on interviews, archival records, and his own experiences, growing up in the Hopi Community to Offer a powerful account of a quiet, enduring triumph. --Book Jacket