IBS Individual Accounts — Learning Right Relations

Individual Accounts from Students

The National Park Service has created : a Historic “Person” Link to more information about Zitkála-Šá (excerpt above), and page about the Places in the US Where she spent her time, and has prepared an article for teachers and discussion leaders: Learning from Zitkála-Šá

Portrait of Zitkála-Šá, 1898
Zitkála-Šá was born in 1876 on the Yankton Indian Reservation. She became a teacher (at the Carlisle IBS and elsewhere), a musician, authored several books and many papers, a Co-Founder of the National Council of American Indians, and writer of the first American Indian opera. She traveled extensively across the United States speaking on many topics supporting Native sovereignty and promoting indigenous peoples’ rights.
Chapters from her books can be found on the internet, including (below) at Lumenlearning.com: **The School Days of an Indian Girl” by Zitkála-Šá**
I. THE LAND OF RED APPLES. II. THE CUTTING OF MY LONG HAIR. III. THE SNOW EPISODE IV. THE DEVIL. V. IRON ROUTINE. VI. FOUR STRANGE SUMMERS. VII. INCURRING MY MOTHER’S DISPLEASURE.
Learning Right Relations has the following books by Zitkála-Šá in our loaning Library: *American Indian Stories, Legends, and Other Writings* (Penguin Classics), *American Indian Stories and Old Indian Legends* (Dover Thrift Editions: Short Stories), *Dreams and Thunder: Stories, Poems, and The Sun Dance Opera* (Bison Books), and Red Bird, Red Power: *The Life and Legacy of Zitkala-Ša (Volume 67)* (American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series). You may request a loan via our email: **learningrightrelations@gmail.com**.

Chief Standing Bear is pictured with his son, Luther Standing Bear.

Luther Standing Bear became the first male student at the Carlisle Indian School, and recounts it in his writing:

“After a journey of several days, the train finally arrived at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. A two-mile walk brought the travel-weary recruits to the great gate that served as the entrance to the Carlisle barracks. Plenty Kill would later lay claim to a very special distinction: "I was the first Indian boy to step inside the Carlisle Indian school grounds."

In the book Education for Extinction (2nd Edition, 2020) Author David Adams shares,

'“Luther Standing Bear recalled his father telling him that the Long Knives (whites) ‘keep coming like flies.’ His conclusion: ‘So we will have to learn their ways, in order that we may be able to live with them. You will have to learn all you can, and I will see that your brothers and sisters follow in the path that you are making for them.’"

The young Standing Bear was both suspicious about, and interested in experiencing, the boarding school in Carlisle. PA. As for his reasons, he later recalled:

"When I had reached young manhood the warpath for the Lakota was a thing of the past. The hunter had disappeared with the buffalo, the war scout had lost his calling, and the warrior had taken his shield to the mountain-top and given it back to the elements. The victory songs were sung only in the memory of the braves. So I could not prove that I was a brave and would fight to protect my home and land. I could only meet the challenge as life's events came to me.”

“When I went East to Carlisle School, I thought I was going there to die; ... I could think of white people wanting little Lakota children for no other reason than to kill them, but I thought here is my chance to prove that I can die bravely. So I went East to show my father and my people that I was brave and willing to die for them."

Author Adams referenced Luther Standing Bear in many sections of the book; when talking about performing arts, “Virtually all such schools, moreover, turned out uniformed, quick-stepping marching bands that performed in multiple venues, including state fairs and holiday celebrations.

“Whether it was Carlisle's band playing at the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge celebration in 1883 (led by the cornet-playing Luther Standing Bear), or, …”