Indian School on Magnolia Avenue: Voices and Images from Sherman Institute

Chapter 8: Images of Sherman Institute

173 chapter 8 Images of Sherman Institute Clifford E. Trafzer, Michelle Lorimer, and Shaina Wright The vault at the Sherman Indian School Museum contains over ten thousand images, a treasure trove of photographs that offer snapshots of life at the school from 1902 to 2012. The historic school in Riverside, California, existed to transform Native people of different ages, and school officials took many photographs to document the ways officials at Sherman attempted to assimilate students and to prove by means of a permanent photographic record that the school had and would fulfill its goal. The photographs provided evidence to administrators, teachers, and legislative officials that the Office of Indian Affairs had spent federal funds wisely in the advancement of Native children. In addition, the photographs offered proof to non-Indians that Native people had accepted American education, values, and civilization. Photographs can be deceiving, however, offering an image of what the photographer wishes the viewer to see, which may or may not be the reality of the subject depicted in the photograph. The positive effects of the assimilation programs and curriculum of Sherman became the major object of many photographers of the school, its teachers, and its students. To some viewers of Sherman photographs, the images depicted the positive educational system of the school and the remarkable difference the school had made to the lives of Indian students. The photographs strongly suggested that American Indian students had made substantial progress toward American civilization. Harwood Hall, Sherman Institute’s first superintendent, followed many of the programs first established in 1879 by Captain Richard Henry Pratt. At Carlisle, Pratt established a military education model for Native boys and girls, and his programs focused on assimilation, forcing Indians to give up their indigenous ways of living, thinking, speaking, praying, dressing, eating, and so on. Both Pratt and Hall wanted American Indian students to use their formal education at an off-reservation boarding school to break with their traditional pattern of life, so they could become useful laborers within the larger American society. 174 The Indian School on Magnolia Avenue At Indian boarding schools, officials took photographs of each child when they entered the school. These entry photographs depicted Native students as primitive and savage individuals, usually with long hair and in traditional dress. The photograph of Tom Torlino, a Navajo student at Carlisle, is the best known example: Tom’s initial photograph, from about 1880, presents the image of an uncivilized Indian with long black hair held back in a headband, large earrings, and wearing a blanket or animal robe. After three years at Carlisle, Tom’s second photograph offered a stark contrast. Tom appeared in his second photograph with his hair cut short, tailored suit jacket, white collar, and tie. Carlisle officials had redressed Tom so he appeared as a smart, handsome young Native American with keen eyes and a slight smile. For admirers of assimilation, the second photograph confirmed his transformation from savagery to civilization, or so it seemed. At Sherman, officials did not take before and after photographs of entering students. However, cameras captured the images of some students, including John Nick, a handsome young member of the class of 1926. Nick proudly posed for a photograph with his hair short and wearing a Plains Indian headdress. The photograph shows Nick wrapped in a Pendleton blanket, the kind often worn Sherman student John Nick dons a Plains Indian headdress and Pendleton Blanket, portraying the image of a handsome young Native scholar at Sherman Institute. Images of Sherman Institute 175 by men and women on Indian reservations during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Plains Indian headdress and the notion of Indians riding horses while fighting the United States became part of the stereotypical image of the Indian, as if all Native Americans enjoyed this tradition. Plains Indians attended offreservation boarding schools throughout the United States, including Sherman Institute. They brought their rich cultures to the schools and sometimes had the opportunity to share their life ways with their fellow students and other audiences. Administrators at Sherman Institute allowed students to share certain aspects of their cultures. Students also performed traditional dances for other students, and a photographer captured an image of one young man dancing in a Plains headdress but wearing moccasins more common among Navajos and Apaches. Students performed songs and dance before non-Indians visiting the school or attending student concerts. Pearl Eddy...