To Educate American Indians - (Indigenous Education) by Larry C Skogen (Hardcover)

About the Book

Larry C. Skogen presents the most complete versions of papers presented at the National Educational Association's Department of Indian Education meetings between 1905 and 1909, when the debate about how best to "civilize" Indigenous populations dominated discussions.

Book Synopsis

From 1900 to 1909, Indian school educators gathered at annual meetings of the National Educational Association's Department of Indian Education. The papers they delivered were later published in the Journal of Proceedings and Addresses of the National Educational Association, but strict guidelines often meant they were heavily edited before publication. In this second volume of Department of Indian Education papers, Larry C. Skogen presents selected complete papers from the years 1905 to 1909 and provides historical context.

During this period educators promoted the belief that Natives could never be fully integrated into white society and argued instead for vocational and practical education near or on reservations, a clear break from earlier years, when prominent Indian school administrators advocated education far removed from Native communities. Indian school educators at these annual meetings also shared their methods with other educational thinkers and practitioners, who were seeking alternative pedagogies as new immigrants arrived in U.S. cities and challenges arose from new island territories. These selected writings reveal how the NEA influenced Indian school educators and how those educators, in turn, affected mainstream educational thinking.

Review Quotes

"This volume investigates a short, but critical period, when efforts to Americanize 'Indians' were brought into alignment with the challenges of educating a massive, new, urban immigrant population, to render the latter fit to join the industrial work force. It engages with the ideas of social Darwinism that were current, and their impact on curricula. Previous scholars have touched on this topic, but the National Education Association has never before been the main focus of study. Carefully selected primary sources make up the bulk of this work. The different parts are linked by a clear and convincing argument that is progressively developed. The fact that these documents are assembled here will provide ready access to thinking and discussion about Indian education during these years, which will be a boom to all those grappling with primary source collections."--Jacqueline Fear-Seagal, coeditor of Carlisle Indian Industrial School: Indigenous Histories, Memories, and Reclamations


"I was left with a greater realization of the influence the Department of Indian Education, under the leadership of Superintendent of Indian Schools Estelle Reel, had on national educational policy of marginalized students during its short ten-year association with the National Educational Association. Not only does Larry Skogen make available the NEA articles, but he also locates contemporary publications or versions edited by Superintendent Reel to demonstrate how Reel controlled the message of educational theory in Indian schools, Skogen's extensive footnoting and addition of background documentation illuminates the characters and their philosophies."--David H. DeJong, author of Paternalism to Partnership: The Administration of Indian Affairs, 1786-2021

"Larry Skogen's important and seminal work is a timely adjunct to the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, which seeks to expand our nation's understanding and documentation of the federal Indian boarding schools. This collection of papers presented by Indian school employees at the annual meetings of the National Educational Association and Skogen's commentary with them provide another lens through which to see the motives of educators in the national effort to solve the 'Indian problem.' With this book we are drawn toward a better understanding of the challenges faced by the Native students subjected to the federally mandated curriculum designed to make these First Americans into white-defined American citizens."--Cynthia Lindquist (Spirit Lake Dakota), president emerita of Cankdeska Cikana Community College in Fort Totten, North Dakota

"Since the launching of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative in June 2021, our nation has learned much about the establishment of Indian schools, the conditions children experienced at those institutions, and the intergenerational consequences of the trauma suffered. These papers from the National Educational Association's Department of Indian Education and Larry Skogen's commentary with them provide clear evidence that along with the consequences of trauma, we must also acknowledge the intergenerational impacts of an educational curriculum designed to relegate Native students to the bottom rungs of society. Being denied a true academic education and prepared solely as laborers in white society has also negatively affected Native peoples and nations for generations. This is an important contribution to understanding the relationship between our Native nations and the federal government."--Ruth Anna Buffalo (Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation, Chiricahua Band of Apache descent), president of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

About the Author

Larry C. Skogen is president emeritus of Bismarck State College, an independent historian, and a retired member of the U.S. Air Force. He is the editor of To Educate American Indians: Selected Writings from the National Educational Association's Department of Indian Education, 1900-1904 and the author of Indian Depredation Claims, 1796-1920.