Categories
1910s Life and Death Native American Poem Rivers Water

Song of the Oktahutchee

Song of the Oktahutchee

By Alexander Posey (Muskogee Creek)
Annotations by Karen Kilcup
Untitled, pastoral river scene. Oil, 1874, by William Rickarby Miller. Public Domain.
Courtesy Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Far, far, far are my silver waters drawn;[1]
	The hills embrace me loth to let me go;
The maidens think me fair to look upon,
	And trees lean over, glad to hear me flow.
Thro’ field and valley, green because of me,
	I wander, wander to the distant sea.
Tho’ I sing my song in a minor key,
	Broad lands and fair attest to the good I do;
Tho’ I carry no white sails to the sea,
	Towns nestle in the vales I wander thro’;
And quails are whistling in the waving grain,
	And herds are scattered o’er the verdant plain.
Posey, Alexander. “Song of the Oktahutchee.” Indian School Journal 6, no. 10 (April 1910): 30

[1] The poem speaks in the river’s voice.

Contexts

The Indian School Journal was the official publication for the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School (also known as the Haworth Institute, the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, and the Chilocco Indian School). Located in north-central Oklahoma near the Kansas border, it began taking students in 1884, enrolling 150 from seventeen tribes that first year. Enrollment had more than doubled by 1895, with students coming from various tribes, including the Cherokee, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Pawnee tribes. The Oklahoma Historical Society notes that “significant enrollment from the so-called ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ did not occur until after 1910 but by 1925, Cherokee constituted the largest single tribal affiliation at the school (26 percent of approximately nine hundred students).” Following World War II and the expansion of public education, the school enrolled mostly students who lacked access to such education.

Like most federally funded Indian schools, Chilocco sought to assimilate Native children into white society. Also like other schools, it stressed “industrial” education—manual and domestic labor—over academic pursuits, aiming to train them as workers for white families. Education at Chilocco was notably militaristic; students attended weekly Christian religious services, also intended to weaken their ties to family and tribe. In the 1950s, student numbers peaked at around 1300, and the school closed in 1980.

Muskogee Creek poet, journalist, and humorist Alexander Posey was a nationally known writer whose appearance in the school’s magazine suggests his powerful influence on young Native American readers. Following his tragic death by drowning in the Oktahutchee River, this poem’s subject, when he was only 34 years old—and only a few months after The Indian School Journal published several poems—his wife Minnie collected his work in The Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey. His evocative poetry is also available through the Academy of American Poets (poets.org) and The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation. The Posey poems appear in The Envious Lobster as versions he published in the school’s magazine.

This poem celebrating the Oktahutchee is especially poignant, given the poet’s close connection to the river.

Resources for Further Study
Contemporary Connections

At Length with K. Tsianina Lomawaima.” At Length with Steve Scher. February 10, 2016.

Chilocco Through the Years.” Firethief Productions. Chilocco History Project, August 2, 2019.

Douglas, Crystal. “A Look at the Chilocco Indian School.” The Kaw Nation: People of the Southwind.

Fife, Ari. “At one former Native American School in Oklahoma, honoring the dead now falls to alumni.” The Frontier, July 21, 2021.

Canadian River near Oklahoma City, Indian Territory. Photo, May 21, 1889,
by J. C. Chrisney.
The Oktahutchee River was known to white settlers as the North Canadian.
Categories
1910s Native American Poem Stars, Moon, Sky

Nightfall

Nightfall

By Alexander Posey (Muskogee Creek)
Annotations by Karen Kilcup
Crescent moon and Venus. Courtesy NASA.
As evening splendors fade
	From yonder sky afar,
The Night pins on her dark
	Robe with a large bright star,[1]
And the moon hangs like
	A high-thrown scimitar.
Vague in the mystic room
	This side the paling West,
The Tulledegas[2] loom 
	In an eternal rest,
And one by one the lamps are lit
	In the dome of the Infinite.
Posey, Alexander. “Nightfall.” Indian School Journal 6, no. 10 (April 1910): 30.

[1] The planet Venus.

[2] Posey probably references an area somewhere near the multicultural town of Oktaha, Oklahoma, as his poem “Tulledega” suggests. The name echoes Talladega, a county in Alabama that was the traditional homeland of the Muskogee/Creek nation.

Contexts

The Indian School Journal was the official publication for the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School (also known as the Haworth Institute, the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, and the Chilocco Indian School). Located in north-central Oklahoma near the Kansas border, it began taking students in 1884, enrolling 150 from seventeen tribes that first year. Enrollment had more than doubled by 1895, with students coming from various tribes, including the Cherokee, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Pawnee tribes. The Oklahoma Historical Society notes that “significant enrollment from the so-called ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ did not occur until after 1910 but by 1925, Cherokee constituted the largest single tribal affiliation at the school (26 percent of approximately nine hundred students).” Following World War II and the expansion of public education, the school enrolled mostly students who lacked access to such education.

Like most federally funded Indian schools, Chilocco sought to assimilate Native children into white society. Also like other schools, it stressed “industrial” education—manual and domestic labor—over academic pursuits, aiming to train them as workers for white families. Education at Chilocco was notably militaristic; students attended weekly Christian religious services, also intended to weaken their ties to family and tribe. In the 1950s, student numbers peaked at around 1300, and the school closed in 1980.

Muskogee Creek poet, journalist, and humorist Alexander Posey was a nationally known writer whose appearance in the school’s magazine suggests his powerful influence on young Native American readers. Following his tragic death by drowning in the Oktahutchee River when he was only 34 years old—and only a few months after The Indian School Journal published several poems—his wife Minnie collected his work in The Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey. His evocative poetry is also available through the Academy of American Poets (poets.org) and The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation. The Envious Lobster uses the versions Posey published in the school’s magazine.

Resources for Further Study
  • Archuleta, Margaret L., Brenda J. Child, and K. Tsianina Lomawaima (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled), eds. Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences, 1879-2000.
  • Connelley, William Elsey. “Memoir or Alexander Lawrence Posey.” In The Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey. Ed. Mrs. Minnie H. Posey. Topeka, KS: Crane and Company, 1910. Pp. 5-65.
  • Higgs, Richard. “The Oktahutchee Claims One of Its Own.” This Land, April 10, 2013.
  • Littlefield, Daniel F. Jr. Alexander Posey: Creek Poet, Journalist, and Humorist. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
  • Lomawaima, K. Tsianina (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). “Chilocco Indian Agricultural School.” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.
  • Lomawaima, K. Tsianina. (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). They Called It Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School (1995).
  • Wilson, Linda D. “Posey, Alexander Lawrence (1873-1908).” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.
Contemporary Connections

At Length with K. Tsianina Lomawaima.” At Length with Steve Scher. February 10, 2016.

Chilocco Through the Years.” Firethief Productions. Chilocco History Project, August 2, 2019.

Douglas, Crystal. “A Look at the Chilocco Indian School.” The Kaw Nation: People of the Southwind.

Fife, Ari. “At one former Native American School in Oklahoma, honoring the dead now falls to alumni.” The Frontier, July 21, 2021.

Categories
1910s Flowers Life and Death Native American Poem

To a Daffodil

To a Daffodil

By Alexander Posey (Muskogee Creek)
Annotations by Karen Kilcup
Daffodils in Winter. Pastel, c1902, by Sarah Wyman Whitman. Public Domain.
When Death has shut the blue skies out from me, sweet Daffodil,[1]
	And Years roll on without my memory,
Thou’lt reach thy tender fingers down to mine of clay,
	A true friend still,
Although I’ll never know thee till the judgment day.
Posey, Alexander. “To a Daffodil.” Indian School Journal 6, no. 10 (April 1910): 30.

[1] Popular in the United States and around the world, daffodils are a type of narcissus that flower in early spring. Mentioned in gardening books and journals as early as the 1600s, they encompass 32,000 cultivars today, though many fewer are commercially available.books and journals as early as the 1600s, they encompass 32,000 cultivars today.

Contexts

The Indian School Journal was the official publication for the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School (also known as the Haworth Institute, the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, and the Chilocco Indian School). Located in north-central Oklahoma near the Kansas border, it began taking students in 1884, enrolling 150 from seventeen tribes that first year. Enrollment had more than doubled by 1895, with students coming from various tribes, including the Cherokee, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Pawnee tribes. The Oklahoma Historical Society notes that “significant enrollment from the so-called ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ did not occur until after 1910 but by 1925, Cherokee constituted the largest single tribal affiliation at the school (26 percent of approximately nine hundred students).” Following World War II and the expansion of public education, the school enrolled mostly students who lacked access to such education.

Like most federally funded Indian schools, Chilocco sought to assimilate Native children into white society. Also like other schools, it stressed “industrial” education—manual and domestic labor—over academic pursuits, aiming to train them as workers for white families. Education at Chilocco was notably militaristic; students attended weekly Christian religious services, also intended to weaken their ties to family and tribe. In the 1950s, student numbers peaked at around 1300, and the school closed in 1980.

Muskogee Creek poet, journalist, and humorist Alexander Posey was a nationally known writer whose appearance in the school’s magazine suggests his powerful influence on young Native American readers. Following his tragic death by drowning in the Oktahutchee River when he was only 34 years old—and only a few months after The Indian School Journal published several poems—his wife Minnie collected his work in The Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey. His evocative poetry is also available through the Academy of American Poets (poets.org) and The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation. The Envious Lobster uses the versions Posey published in the school’s magazine.

Resources for Further Study
  • Archuleta, Margaret L., Brenda J. Child, and K. Tsianina Lomawaima (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled), eds. Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences, 1879-2000.
  • Connelley, William Elsey. “Memoir or Alexander Lawrence Posey.” In The Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey. Ed. Mrs. Minnie H. Posey. Topeka, KS: Crane and Company, 1910. Pp. 5-65.
  • Higgs, Richard. “The Oktahutchee Claims One of Its Own.” This Land, April 10, 2013.
  • Littlefield, Daniel F. Jr. Alexander Posey: Creek Poet, Journalist, and Humorist. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
  • Lomawaima, K. Tsianina (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). “Chilocco Indian Agricultural School.” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.
  • Lomawaima, K. Tsianina. (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). They Called It Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School (1995).
  • Wilson, Linda D. “Posey, Alexander Lawrence (1873-1908).” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.
Contemporary Connections

At Length with K. Tsianina Lomawaima.” At Length with Steve Scher. February 10, 2016.

Chilocco Through the Years.” Firethief Productions. Chilocco History Project, August 2, 2019.

Douglas, Crystal. “A Look at the Chilocco Indian School.” The Kaw Nation: People of the Southwind. Fife, Ari. “At one former Native American School in Oklahoma, honoring the dead now falls to alumni.” The Frontier, July 21, 2021.

Daffodils in Cornwall, England. Photo courtesy the National Trust.

Categories
1910s Birds Native American Poem

The Mocking Bird

The Mocking Bird

By Alexander Posey (Muskogee Creek)
Annotations by Karen Kilcup
Mockingbird and Dogwood. Colored illustration, 1771, by Mark Catesby.
The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands.
Courtesy Wilson Library, UNC Chapel Hill.
Whether spread in flight,
	Or perched upon the swinging bough,
Whether day or night,
	He sings as he is singing now—
Till ev’ry leaf upon the tree
Seems dripping with his melody![1]
Posey, Alexander. “The Mocking Bird.” Indian School Journal 6, no. 10 (April 1910): 30.

[1] The Northern Mockingbird inhabits most of United States and Mexico year-round. Known for its personality, the bird is famous for its singing ability, which enables it to mimic many other birds. They defend their nests boldly.

Contexts

The Indian School Journal was the official publication for the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School (also known as the Haworth Institute, the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, and the Chilocco Indian School). Located in north-central Oklahoma near the Kansas border, it began taking students in 1884, enrolling 150 from seventeen tribes that first year. Enrollment had more than doubled by 1895, with students coming from various tribes, including the Cherokee, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Pawnee tribes. The Oklahoma Historical Society notes that “significant enrollment from the so-called ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ did not occur until after 1910 but by 1925, Cherokee constituted the largest single tribal affiliation at the school (26 percent of approximately nine hundred students).” Following World War II and the expansion of public education, the school enrolled mostly students who lacked access to such education.

Like most federally funded Indian schools, Chilocco sought to assimilate Native children into white society. Also like other schools, it stressed “industrial” education—manual and domestic labor—over academic pursuits, aiming to train them as workers for white families. Education at Chilocco was notably militaristic; students attended weekly Christian religious services, also intended to weaken their ties to family and tribe. In the 1950s, student numbers peaked at around 1300, and the school closed in 1980. Muskogee Creek poet, journalist, and humorist Alexander Posey was a nationally known writer whose appearance in the school’s magazine suggests his powerful influence on young Native American readers. Following his tragic death by drowning in the Oktahutchee River when he was only 34 years old—and only a few months after The Indian School Journal published several poems—his wife Minnie collected his work in The Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey. His evocative poetry is also available through the Academy of American Poets (poets.org) and The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation. The Envious Lobster uses the versions Posey published in the school’s magazine.

Resources for Further Study
  • Archuleta, Margaret L., Brenda J. Child, and K. Tsianina Lomawaima (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled), eds. Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences, 1879-2000.
  • Connelley, William Elsey. “Memoir or Alexander Lawrence Posey.” In The Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey. Ed. Mrs. Minnie H. Posey. Topeka, KS: Crane and Company, 1910. Pp. 5-65.
  • Higgs, Richard. “The Oktahutchee Claims One of Its Own.” This Land, April 10, 2013.
  • Littlefield, Daniel F. Jr. Alexander Posey: Creek Poet, Journalist, and Humorist. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
  • Lomawaima, K. Tsianina (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). “Chilocco Indian Agricultural School.” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.
  • Lomawaima, K. Tsianina. (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). They Called It Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School (1995).
  • Wilson, Linda D. “Posey, Alexander Lawrence (1873-1908).” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.
Contemporary Connections

At Length with K. Tsianina Lomawaima.” At Length with Steve Scher. February 10, 2016.

Chilocco Through the Years.” Firethief Productions. Chilocco History Project, August 2, 2019.

Douglas, Crystal. “A Look at the Chilocco Indian School.” The Kaw Nation: People of the Southwind. Fife, Ari. “At one former Native American School in Oklahoma, honoring the dead now falls to alumni.” The Frontier, July 21, 2021.

Categories
1910s Birds Native American Poem Seasons

To the Indian Meadow Lark

To the Indian Meadow Lark

By Alexander Posey (Muskogee Creek)
Annotations by Karen Kilcup
Eastern Meadow Lark. Colored lithograph, 1919, by Louis Agassiz. Public Domain.
When other birds despairing southward fly
	In early autumn time away,
When all the green leaves of the forest die,
	How merry still art thou and gay.[1]

O golden breasted bird of dawn,
Through all the bleak days singing on,
Till winter, woo a captive by thy strain,
Breaks into smiles and spring is come again.
Posey, Alexander. “To the Indian Meadow Lark.” Indian School Journal 6, no. 10 (April 1910): 30.

[1] The Indian meadow lark is likely the Western Meadowlark, a year-round resident of Posey’s Oklahoma home. The Eastern Meadow Lark is similar in appearance, but its songs differ.

Contexts

The Indian School Journal was the official publication for the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School (also known as the Haworth Institute, the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, and the Chilocco Indian School). Located in north-central Oklahoma near the Kansas border, it began taking students in 1884, enrolling 150 from seventeen tribes that first year. Enrollment had more than doubled by 1895, with students coming from various tribes, including the Cherokee, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Pawnee tribes. The Oklahoma Historical Society notes that “significant enrollment from the so-called ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ did not occur until after 1910 but by 1925, Cherokee constituted the largest single tribal affiliation at the school (26 percent of approximately nine hundred students).” Following World War II and the expansion of public education, the school enrolled mostly students who lacked access to such education.

Like most federally funded Indian schools, Chilocco sought to assimilate Native children into white society. Also like other schools, it stressed “industrial” education—manual and domestic labor—over academic pursuits, aiming to train them as workers for white families. Education at Chilocco was notably militaristic; students attended weekly Christian religious services, also intended to weaken their ties to family and tribe. In the 1950s, student numbers peaked at around 1300, and the school closed in 1980. Muskogee Creek poet, journalist, and humorist Alexander Posey was a nationally known writer whose appearance in the school’s magazine suggests his powerful influence on young Native American readers. Following his tragic death by drowning in the Oktahutchee River when he was only 34 years old—and only a few months after The Indian School Journal published several poems—his wife Minnie collected his work in The Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey. His evocative poetry is also available through the Academy of American Poets (poets.org) and The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation. The Envious Lobster uses the versions Posey published in the school’s magazine.

Resources for Further Study
  • Archuleta, Margaret L., Brenda J. Child, and K. Tsianina Lomawaima (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled), eds. Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences, 1879-2000.
  • Connelley, William Elsey. “Memoir or Alexander Lawrence Posey.” In The Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey. Ed. Mrs. Minnie H. Posey. Topeka, KS: Crane and Company, 1910. Pp. 5-65.
  • Higgs, Richard. “The Oktahutchee Claims One of Its Own.” This Land, April 10, 2013.
  • Littlefield, Daniel F. Jr. Alexander Posey: Creek Poet, Journalist, and Humorist. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
  • Lomawaima, K. Tsianina (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). “Chilocco Indian Agricultural School.” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.
  • Lomawaima, K. Tsianina. (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). They Called It Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School (1995).
  • Wilson, Linda D. “Posey, Alexander Lawrence (1873-1908).” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.
Contemporary Connections

At Length with K. Tsianina Lomawaima.” At Length with Steve Scher. February 10, 2016.

Chilocco Through the Years.” Firethief Productions. Chilocco History Project, August 2, 2019.

Douglas, Crystal. “A Look at the Chilocco Indian School.” The Kaw Nation: People of the Southwind. Fife, Ari. “At one former Native American School in Oklahoma, honoring the dead now falls to alumni.” The Frontier, July 21, 2021.

Categories
1910s Essay Horses Native American Sketch Wild animals

How Wolves Catch Wild Horses

How Wolves Catch Wild Horses

By Anonymous
Annotations by Karen Kilcup
Students at Chilocco Indian School. Date unknown. Courtesy Oklahoma Historical Society.

Travelers tell us that the wolves of Mexico have a strange way of catching the wild horses. These horses have a great speed. It is almost impossible for a single cowboy to catch one. The cowboys, when they wish to run them down, have relays of pursuers. First one set of cowboys will chase the horses, then another, and another, until at last the horses are caught by the lasso. But it is only when they are completely tired that they are caught; therefore it would be impossible for the wolves to catch them unless they used strategy, for the flight of the wolves is no so swift as that of the horses.

This is the way the wolves kill the wild horses of the Mexican plains. First, two wolves come out of the woods and begin to play together like two kittens. They gambol about each other and run backward and forward. Then the herd of horses lift their startled heads and gets ready to stampede. But the wolves seem to be so playful that the horses, after watching them for awhile, forget their fears, and continue to graze. Then the wolves in their play come nearer and nearer while other wolves slowly and stealthily creep after them. Then suddenly the enemies surround the herd and make one plunge, and the horses are struggling with the fangs of the relentless foes gripped in their throats.

Anonymous. “How Wolves Catch Wild Horses.” Indian School Journal 6, no. 10 (April 1910): 30.

[1] Here is some commentary. Turn this text red in the color settings if it isn’t already. You will need to name your anchor blocks in the block settings by clicking on it and assigning an ID. I like using the format note-x where x is the number of the note you’re on. Then, add the note number in brackets to your text where you want it to go, highlight the number, and link to #note-x.

[2] Here is some commentary. Turn this text red in the color settings if it isn’t already. You will need to name your anchor blocks in the block settings by clicking on it and assigning an ID. I like using the format note-# where # is the number of the note you’re on.

Contexts

Located in north-central Oklahoma near the Kansas border, the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School (also known as the Haworth Institute, the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, and the Chilocco Indian School) began taking students in 1884, enrolling 150 from seventeen tribes that first year. Enrollment had more than doubled by 1895, with students coming from various tribes, including the Cherokee, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Pawnee tribes. The Oklahoma Historical Society notes that “significant enrollment from the so-called ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ did not occur until after 1910 but by 1925, Cherokee constituted the largest single tribal affiliation at the school (26 percent of approximately nine hundred students).” Following World War II and the expansion of public education, the school enrolled mostly students who lacked access to such education.

Like most federally funded Indian schools, Chilocco sought to assimilate Native children into white society. Also like other schools, it stressed “industrial” education—manual and domestic labor—over academic pursuits, aiming to train them as workers for white families. Education at Chilocco was notably militaristic; students attended weekly Christian religious services, also intended to weaken their ties to family and tribe. In the 1950s, student numbers peaked at around 1300, and the school closed in 1980. This sketch highlights animals’ intelligence, a popular topic for American writers of all ages and ethnicities throughout the time period The Envious Lobster encompasses.

Resources for Further Study
  • Archuleta, Margaret L., Brenda J. Child, and K. Tsianina Lomawaima (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled), eds. Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences, 1879-2000.
  • Lomawaima, K. Tsianina (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). “Chilocco Indian Agricultural School.” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.
  • Lomawaima, K. Tsianina. (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). They Called It Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School (1995).
Contemporary Connections

At Length with K. Tsianina Lomawaima.” At Length with Steve Scher. February 10, 2016.

Chilocco Through the Years.” Firethief Productions. Chilocco History Project, August 2, 2019.

Douglas, Crystal. “A Look at the Chilocco Indian School.” The Kaw Nation: People of the Southwind. Fife, Ari. “At one former Native American School in Oklahoma, honoring the dead now falls to alumni.” The Frontier, July 21, 2021.

Categories
1880s Cats Dialogue Education Native American Poem

The Kittens’ Lessons

The Kittens’ Lessons

By Anonymous
Annotations by Karen Kilcup
Cat and Kittens, by Clementine Nielssen. Oil, late nineteenth or early twentieth century.
Public domain.
“Now children,” said puss as she shook her head,
	“It is time your morning lesson was said,”
So her kittens drew near with footsteps slow,
	And sat down before her, all in a row.

“Attention, class!” said the cat mamma,
	“And tell me quick where your noses are.”
At this all the kittens sniffed the air
	As though it were filled with a perfume rare.

“Now, what do you say when you want a drink?”
	The kittens waited a moment to think;
And then the answer came clear and loud—
	You ought to have heard how the kittens meow’d!

“Very well. ’Tis the same with a sharper tone,
	When you want a fish, or a bit of a bone.
“Now what do you say when the children are good?”
	And the kittens purred as soft as they could.

“And what do you do when the children are bad?
	When they tease and pull? Each kitten looked sad.
“Pooh! said the mother, “that isn’t enough;
	You must use your claws when the children are rough.”

“Now sptiss as hard as you can,” she said;
	But every kitten hung down its head.
“Sptiss! I say,” cried the mother cat;
	But they said: “O mammy! we can’t do that.”

“Then go and play,” said the fond mamma;
	“What sweet little idiots kittens are!
Ah, well! I was once the same I suppose,”
	And she looked very wise and rubbed her nose.
Anonymous. “The Kittens’ Lessons.” The Youth’s Companion 16, no. 2 (September 1882): 104.

Contexts

Begun in 1881, The Youth’s Companion—a name that many nineteenth-century publications shared—was a monthly student magazine that published articles written by pupils of the Catholic-run boarding school located on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. A federally recognized tribe located in the mid-Puget Sound area, the Tulalip Tribes received reservation lands—22,000 acres—in 1855, with its legal boundaries established by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1873. According to the Tulalip Tribes website, “it was created to provide a permanent home for the Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Skagit, Suiattle, Samish, and Stillaguamish Tribes and allied bands living in the region.”

Nineteenth-century Indian boarding schools aimed to assimilate Native Americans into white culture. They separated children from their families, required students to dress like white Americans, and prohibited them from speaking their language. They also emphasized so-called “industrial” training: boys learned agricultural and industrial skills, while girls learned how to cook, sew, and clean a household. Students were often expected to become servants or to provide manual labor help for whites.

Like many contributions to Native American student periodicals, this poem was published anonymously. Students living on reservations during this time often received educations governed by white religious authorities who emphasized moral training. The poem provides some basic natural history lessons about cats. It may also offer advice to students that as they get older, they should reject ill treatment by others.

Resources for Further Study
Contemporary Connections

Tulalip History Minute 04—The Tulalip Indian School presented by Mary Jane Topash,” the Tulalip History Project. Provides Tulalip-sponsored background on the tribe.

Editorial: Getting to the truth of Tulalip boarding school,” September 26, 2021, HeraldNet (Everett, Washington). Caution: includes information about abuses at the school.

Categories
1880s Education Farm life Humor Native American Poem

Mary’s Goat

Mary’s Goat

By Anonymous
Annotations by Karen Kilcup
The Goat. Colored engraving. Compte de Buffon, Histoire Naturelle, c. 1749.
Mary had a William goat,[1]
	And he was black as jet;
He followed Mary round all day,
	And liked her? you just bet!

He went with her to school one day;
	The teacher kicked him out;
It made the children grin, you know,
	To have that goat about.

But though old Whack’em kicked him out,
	Yet still he lingered near;
He waited just outside the door
	Till Whack’em did appear.

Then William ran to meet the man—
	He ran his level best;
He met him just behind, you know—
	Down just below the vest.

Old Whack’em turned a summersault;[2]
	The goat stood on his head,
And Mary laughed herself so sick
	She had to go to bed. 
Anonymous. “Mary’s Goat.” The Youth’s Companion 19, no. 2 (December 1882): 196.

[1] A male goat. The author plays with the common term “billy goat.”

[2] A somersault.

Contexts

Begun in 1881, The Youth’s Companion—a name that many nineteenth-century publications shared—was a monthly student magazine that published articles written by pupils of the Catholic-run boarding school located on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. A federally recognized tribe located in the mid-Puget Sound area, the Tulalip Tribes received reservation lands—22,000 acres—in 1855, with its legal boundaries established by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1873. According to the Tulalip Tribes website, “it was created to provide a permanent home for the Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Skagit, Suiattle, Samish, and Stillaguamish Tribes and allied bands living in the region.”

Nineteenth-century Indian boarding schools aimed to assimilate Native Americans into white culture. They separated children from their families, required students to dress like white Americans, and prohibited them from speaking their language. They also emphasized so-called “industrial” training: boys learned agricultural and industrial skills, while girls learned how to cook, sew, and clean a household. Students were often expected to become servants or to provide manual labor help for whites.

Like many contributions to Native American student periodicals, this poem was published anonymously. Students living on reservations during this time often received educations governed by white religious authorities who emphasized moral training. Here the author eludes a moral by parodying “Mary’s Lamb,” which was a popular nineteenth-century endeavor. This form also enables the author to indirectly criticize—and imaginatively injure—someone who punished students regularly and without cause: “old Whack’em.”

Resources for Further Study
Contemporary Connections

Tulalip History Minute 04—The Tulalip Indian School presented by Mary Jane Topash,” the Tulalip History Project. Provides Tulalip-sponsored background on the tribe.

Editorial: Getting to the truth of Tulalip boarding school,” September 26, 2021, HeraldNet (Everett, Washington). Caution: includes information about abuses at the school.

Categories
1880s Birds Dialogue Native American Poem Seasons

The Seasons

The Seasons

By Anonymous
Annotations by Karen Kilcup
Indian Canoe Parade in Tulalip Bay, c.1912. Photo. Ferdinand Brady. Courtesy University of Washington Libraries.
	MARY.
How I love the blooming Spring,
When the birds so gayly sing!

	JOHN.
More the Summer me delights,
With its lovely days and nights.

	EMELY.
Autumn is the best of all,
With its fruits for great and small.

	RICHARD.
Nay! old Winter is the time!
Jolly then the sleigh-bells’ chime!

	GRANDMOTHER.
Every season will be bright,
Children, if you’ll live aright.
Anonymous. “The Seasons.” The Youth’s Companion 14, no. 2 (July 1882): n.p.

Contexts

Begun in 1881, The Youth’s Companion—a name that many nineteenth-century publications shared—was a monthly student magazine that published articles written by pupils of the Catholic-run boarding school located on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. A federally recognized tribe located in the mid-Puget Sound area, the Tulalip Tribes received reservation lands—22,000 acres—in 1855, with its legal boundaries established by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1873. According to the Tulalip Tribes website, “it was created to provide a permanent home for the Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Skagit, Suiattle, Samish, and Stillaguamish Tribes and allied bands living in the region.”

Nineteenth-century Indian boarding schools aimed to assimilate Native Americans into white culture. They separated children from their families, required students to dress like white Americans, and prohibited them from speaking their language. They also emphasized so-called “industrial” training: boys learned agricultural and industrial skills, while girls learned how to cook, sew, and clean a household. Students were often expected to become servants or to provide manual labor help for whites.

Like many contributions to Native American student periodicals, this poem was published anonymously. Students living on reservations during this time often received educations governed by white religious authorities who emphasized moral training. Student newspapers frequently published work by students, but it’s often difficult to identify authorship even if contributions included the author’s name. The moral that ends the sketch may be an addition by one of the school’s teachers.

Resources for Further Study
Contemporary Connections

Tulalip History Minute 04—The Tulalip Indian School presented by Mary Jane Topash,” the Tulalip History Project. Provides Tulalip-sponsored background on the tribe.

Editorial: Getting to the truth of Tulalip boarding school,” September 26, 2021, HeraldNet (Everett, Washington). Caution: includes information about abuses at the school.

Categories
1880s Dogs Education Native American Short Story Sketch

The Dog and the Shadow

The Dog and the Shadow

By Anonymous
Annotations by Karen Kilcup
The Old Dog Looks like a Picture. Engraving, 1853, by Thomas Landseer. Courtesy New York Public Library.

A dog, with a piece of meat in his mouth, was crossing a stream on a plank, and saw in the water what he took to be another dog, with a piece of meat twice as large as his own. Letting go what he had, he jumped at the other dog to get the larger piece from him. He thus lost both,–the one he grasped at in the water, because it was a shadow; and his own, because the swift current swept it away.

Moral. Greediness is a bad fault, especially in children. Always avoid it, dear little friends. Be satisfied with the little you have, and never envy or covet the greater possessions of others.

Anonymous. “The Dog and the Shadow.” In “Our Little ONes’ Corner.” The Youth’s Companion 12, no. 1 (May 1882): 304.

Contexts

Begun in 1881, The Youth’s Companion—a name that many nineteenth-century publications shared—was a monthly student magazine that published articles written by pupils of the Catholic-run boarding school located on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. A federally recognized tribe located in the mid-Puget Sound area, the Tulalip Tribes received reservation lands—22,000 acres—in 1855, with its legal boundaries established by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1873. According to the Tulalip Tribes website, “it was created to provide a permanent home for the Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Skagit, Suiattle, Samish, and Stillaguamish Tribes and allied bands living in the region.”

Nineteenth-century Indian boarding schools aimed to assimilate Native Americans into white culture. They separated children from their families, required students to dress like white Americans, and prohibited them from speaking their language. They also emphasized so-called “industrial” training: boys learned agricultural and industrial skills, while girls learned how to cook, sew, and clean a household. Students were often expected to become servants or to provide manual labor help for whites.

Like many contributions to Native American student periodicals, this sketch was published anonymously. Students living on reservations during this time often received educations governed by white religious authorities who emphasized moral training. Student newspapers frequently published work by students, but it’s often difficult to identify authorship even if contributions included the author’s name. The moral that ends the sketch may be an addition by one of the school’s teachers. If an older student wrote the sketch and added the moral, the advice to avoid coveting others’ possessions carries heavy irony, given that settlers appropriated Native lands and belongings from the beginning of the settlement era.

Resources for Further Study
Contemporary Connections

Tulalip History Minute 04—The Tulalip Indian School presented by Mary Jane Topash,” the Tulalip History Project. Provides Tulalip-sponsored background on the tribe.

Editorial: Getting to the truth of Tulalip boarding school,” September 26, 2021, HeraldNet (Everett, Washington). Caution: includes information about abuses at the school.

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