Wabanaki Education and Schooling

Wabanaki Education​

​I can learn the history of a people by analyzing primary and secondary sources

​Group Discussion:

• ​What is the difference between a primary source and a secondary source?

• ​What are biases?

Wabanaki Education​

​Imagine that you are the principal of a school and you just found out that there was a fight in the lunchroom during lunch. You've asked many students and teachers who witnessed the fight to write down what they saw and who they think started the fight. Unfortunately, you've received many conflicting accounts that disagree not only as to who started the fight, but also as to who was involved and when the fight even started. It's important to remember that NO ONE is just plain lying.

​Historiography

Wabanaki Education | Native American Studies

• ​Historiography is the history of history!

• We can look at how historians interpret events over time

• The field of history is ALWAYS changing and we keep learning new things!

• ​We'll get to this part later!

(What do you know?)​

(What did you learn?)​

(What are you still wondering about?)​

Wabanaki Education​

• https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/search?q=dawnland​

• What did you learn from this film?

• ​What did it tell us about Native American education and their experiences in schools?​

​Day Schools in Our Area

• There were 4 day schools between the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes located on these reservations:

  • Indian Island ​

  • Lincoln

  • Pleasant Point

  • Peter Dana Point

Wabanaki Education

• There was one school on Indian Island

• Put under the authority of the Indian Agent

• ​The Sisters of Mercy taught classes beginning in 1878

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​Wabanaki Education

​Indian Island

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• Sisters of Mercy were a group of Catholic nuns

• ​Dormitory as of 1910

• ​Teachers in the schools

  • Taught math, geography, reading, and writing

• Also went into the community

  • ​Visiting the sick, visiting homes, and instructing about domestic duties

​Wabanaki Education

​Sisters of Mercy

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• ​Indian agents worked for the state of Maine

• Disbursed money to the tribe from the "Indian Fund"

  • Indian Fund - ​money owned by the Maine Native tribes but held by the state

  • Money came from treaty negotiations, land sales, and selling resources

• Agents were required to submit reports to the Governor ​annually

• System in place until the ​Maine Indian Land Claims Act in 1980

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​Wabanaki Education

​Indian Agent Reports

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• What do you think these reports can tell us about Native Americans?

• How do we read these?​

• Let's look at one!

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​Wabanaki Education

​Indian Agent Reports

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(Fill out the first APPARTS Sheet!)​

Wabanaki Education​

• ​Written about Paula MacDougall in ​2004

• Secondary source​

• Study of ethnohistory

  • Ethnohistory - ​discipline that combines the study of history and anthropology (study of humans)

• (Fill out the second APPARTS sheet!)​

​Wabanaki in Boarding Schools

• Some parents chose to send their children to a boarding school

• There are records of children from this area being sent to Carlisle Industrial School

• ​Carlisle was founded in 1879 by a former army officer

• ​Students had a regimented schedule of lessons, performed military drills, and did work details

Wabanaki Education

• Students in a math class at Carlisle in 1910 ​

• What do you notice about the students in this picture?​

​​Classroom

• Edith Ranco is pictured here, she was a young girl from Penobscot nation​

• These girls were dressed up for a performance of "The Captain of Plymouth"​

• ​What do you notice about the students in this picture?

​​Puritan Maiden's Chorus

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​This is part of the application for enrollment to Carlisle

This is Edith Ranco's application​

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(What do you know?)​

(What did you learn?)​

(What are you still wondering about?)​