Listening to our Grandmother's Stories: Chapter 1

After having a difficult time deciding on which book to read, I would like to share my first chapter of Listening To Our Grandmothers' Stories, The Bloomfield Academy for Chickasaw Females. The photo that I have posted along with this blog was retrieved from Google Image.

The very beginning of the chapter explains the history as far as the government and how lands and the children were taken away from families to attend boarding schools and introductions to several changes that had affected the children culturally. Christianity, values, dress, and livelihood was one of the few hurdles that our elders had to overcome.

A gentleman by the name of Reverend John Harpole Carr had envisioned a schoolhouse built for Chickasaw girls, a boarding school where the boys were not allowed. His hopes for the school an ideology of literacy which included salvation, civilization, nationalism, individualism, properity and imagination was one of the few expectation that he had as a Superintendant and for is wife Angelina to teach. In the Fall of 1852, The Bloomfield Academy for Chickasaw females opened to 25 students located in what is now called Achelle, Oklahoma. Remarkable for many reasons, the school was known to be different from other boarding schools. First, the school was founded by the Chickasaw Nation. Not only because the government demanded it, but because they understood how important literacy was equally part of survival. Second, at the end of the nineteenth century was recognized at it's best as an academy for females. It was far superior toa any schooling provided for whites in Indian Territory and that it lasted long after common schools were put in place.

It continues to mention the history of other Indian Boarding Schools, Chilocco being one. Similar to other boarding schools, Bloomfield's student instructions consisted of Academic Literacy Curriculum, which entailed the common standard school curriculum of reading, writing, arithmetic, and history. Social Literacy, was considered more of an "extracurricular" activity such as art, dancing, etiquette skills, and mannerisms. Religious Literacy, included training in rituals, devotions, prayers, singing hyms and attending bible school and study. Domestic Literacy, consisted of teaching cooking, sewing, gardening, child care, animal care, and personal hygiene. Teaching by these four literacy skills were to believe the lives that the Chickasaw women would lead. At the end of this chapter, it lists a few of the women whom shared their stories, the years they attended Bloomfield, thier tribal affliation and their current residence.

I am eager to read more information on just how different Bloomfield Academy was compared to Chilocco Indian Boarding School or any other schools located off the reservations.