Education beyond the Mesas: Hopi Students at Sherman Institute, 1902-1929 (review)

This modest study of Hopi students' experiences with Anglo-American boarding schools joins the growing list of books that examine the U.S. program of forced Indian detribalization and acculturation through education. It traces tribal experiences with American actions from the 1882 creation of the Hopi Reservation in northern Arizona through the establishment and operation of the Sherman Institute in Riverside, California, a generation later. Although more isolated from most of late nineteenth-century American society than most tribal people, the mesa dwellers could not avoid the government's determination to bring them into the national mainstream. Their early confrontations with federal troops and the imprisonment of some village leaders at Alcatraz prison during the 1880s and 1890s persuaded them to end resistance to U.S. demands.

The author's central thesis is that by using the concept of "turning the power," the Hopi sought to use the knowledge and skills acquired at Anglo schools to strengthen and protect their tribal culture. In using this approach he makes clear that most, if not all, Hopi opposed sending their children to BIA schools. Yet the issue led to the Orayvi Split, which divided the villagers into two distinct groups: those willing to accommodate white demands and those adamantly opposed to them. Labeled as "friendlies" and "hostiles" by local officials, the author uses "accommodators" and "resistors" to place his analysis in a Hopi framework. This intra-tribal focus works well early in the narrative, but slips from view as the story develops. After the first chapter that presents tribal resistance to the new school program, the emphasis turns to the experiences of village families and their children with its operations.

The analysis of the accommodationists' role in accepting and using the California school places their early actions clearly within Hopi tradition. Their history included stories of repeated migrations during which they gathered knowledge and skills that they brought back to their desert home. Author Gilbert states that they expected similar benefits from education at Sherman Institute. To gain that, Tawaquaptewa, one of the village leaders, and his family accompanied the first large contingent of Hopi students to Sherman. There, acting in a traditional leadership role, he encouraged the students to learn, helped them practice traditional songs and dances, and led them in using their tribal language. While some Indian adults may have attended other boarding schools with children from their villages, his actions appear to have been distinct. The rest of the narrative follows a topical-chronological path as it presents students' experiences with academics, homesickness, physical ailments, personal accomplishments and feelings about their time at Sherman. These echo similar treatment and responses to Indian boarding schools across the country.

The author's research is thorough. He relates this analysis to existing studies of federal acculturative programs, individual tribal experiences and other Indian boarding schools. His thesis suggests that he will show how Hopi students returning from Sherman used their new-found knowledge to strengthen tribal culture, but the narrative gives little evidence to support his claim. Careful readers might look for some more data about how many Hopi students attended at any one time, or about the differences in how children from accommodating or resisting families responded to time at Sherman. They would be more impressed had it offered any examples of what made Sherman unique, or even substantially different from other similar schools. One hopes that the author will examine these issues in his forthcoming work.