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K. TSIANINA LOMAWAIMA. THEY CALLED IT PRAIRIE LIGHT: THE STORY OF CHILOCCO INDIAN SCHOOL. LINCOLN: UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS, 1994. XVIII + 205 PP. ILLUSTRATIONS, APPENDICES, NOTES, BIBLIOGRAPHY, INDEX. $25 CLOTH.
For decades scholars have been critically examining the efforts of nineteenth and early twentieth century missionary societies and the United States government to "uplift" Indians into Christian civilization. The school was a major tool in this crusade of cultural transformation. But, with a few major exceptions such as Sally McBeth and Robert A. Trennert, scholars have paid little attention to an important group on the receiving end: Indian school pupils. Recently Sally Hyer, Devon A. Mihesuah, the present reviewer, and now K. Tsianina Lomawaima have focused greater attention on pupil experiences. Although Lomawaima, an anthropologist, does not present radically new interpretations, she has produced a valuable case study and an important contribution to American Indian and educational history. They Called it Prairie Light won the 1993 North American Indian Prose Award.
As part of the trend to educate Indian children in large, off-reservation boarding schools, the U. S. government established Chilocco Indian Agricultural School in northern Oklahoma in 1884. The school grew in ambition and size, until by the early decades of the twentieth century around one thousand pupils from sixty or so tribes were enrolled. It finally closed in 1980. Lomawaima focuses on the 1920s and 1930s, during which (1927-35) her father attended Chilocco.
To seek the experiences of Indian pupils, Lomawaima employs an oral history approach. She grounds her study in government and school reports and in...