Reservations, Boarding Schools, Railroads, and Environmental Damage John Gast, American Progress.

Reservations, Boarding Schools, Railroads, and Environmental Damage

John Gast, American Progress

Economic Development, 1860-1890

Promontory Point, Utah, May 10, 1869

Southern Railroads in 1859

Southern Railroads in 1899

Transcontinental Railroad• May 10th, 1869• Union Pacific & Central Pacific• Pacific Railroad Act, 1862• Irish, Chinese, Mexican, Native,

Eastern European workers

Benefits• National & Cultural Exchange• 1872 = 57,300 miles• 1882 = 114,400 miles• 1900 = 200,000 miles• Western recruitment

Rabbit Drive, San Joaquin Valley, CA 1890s

Detroit, 1880

Fate of the Buffalo

• 1872 – 1874 = 4 million buffalo killed

• Mid-1880s = 5,000 buffalo survived

• Reservations

Kansas Pacific Railroad Advertisement, 1870

“Indian Crania” Studies

• Early to mid-1800s

• 1850s = American Phrenological Journal had 50,000 subscribers

• What could they reveal?

Reservation Policy

• Indian Removal Act, 1830• 370 treaties• 1850s = 8 reservations• Today = 286 reservations• 511 federally-recognized tribes• 950,000 Natives + 370,000 non-Natives on

reservations

Legal Background• Dawes Act of 1887• Bureau of Indian Affairs• 1934 = Indian Re-

organization Act• “Quasi-sovereign

domestic nations”

Boarding Schools

Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania, 1885

Why Boarding Schools?

• 19th century “Civilization”

• Global connections• The Indian Wars • Children as “hostages

for good behavior of their parents”

Types of Schools

• Off-reservation boarding schools vs. on-reservation days schools

• Christian missionaries, Office of Indian Affairs & federal government

• 1870 = Turning point in funding

1832 51 schools 1,865 students



1861 147 schools ?


1876 344 schools 11, 328 students


Characteristics• Differences in punishment• 5 – 18 years old & 3-year school term• Children “taught to despise every custom of their

forefathers, including religion, language, songs, dress, ideas, and method of living”

Lessons• Haircuts• Trouser & dresses• Soap, water, combs• English names• Sitting in chairs• Forks & spoons• Prayers• Flag raising• Household & farm chores• Tailoring• Shoemaking• Carpentry• Baking• Washing clothes • Making broomsticks

Students at Albuquerque Indian School

Laundry Classes at Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania

Albuquerque Indian School

Recent Activism

• Over 200 museums• 1978 = Native American Religious Freedom

Act • 1990 = Native American Graves Protection &

Repatriation Act

Rocky Mountain School of Painting

Albert Bierstadt, Merced River – Yosemite, 1866

Creation of National Parks• The Yosemite Act, 1864• Yellowstone, 1872

Reservations, Boarding Schools, Railroads, and Environmental Damage John Gast, American Progress.

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