FORT SILL, Okla., Oct. 28, 2016 -- "Whereas the Comanche people had once viewed the school with fear and suspicion, in time they came to look upon it with pride as an important cultural and social institution."
--The Fort Sill Indian School Experience, 1981
With the signing of the 1867 Treaty of Medicine Lodge Creek in southern Kansas, Comanches, Apaches and Kiowas agreed to settlement on a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma, and to allow their children ages 6 to 16 to attend government boarding schools intended to "Americanize" them.
This was the fate of Native American children all across America (and parts of Canada), and for decades there was no room whatsoever for any remnant of their native culture. In fact, they were punished for speaking their native language. But for many who graduated from the Fort Sill Indian School (FSIS) the good memories outweigh the bad.
A reunion of alumni was held at the Comanche Nation College in Lawton, Oct. 14-15, attended by around two dozen graduates mostly from the 1960s and 70s. Many of them were from distant tribes during an era when local Native children attended public schools, and Navajos and others were bused to FSIS.
Ruth Jim of the Yakima tribe in Yakima, Wash. was the only representative of the Class of 1966 for the 50th reunion, but she knew quite a few of the other attendees who had been in younger grades during that time. When a woman walked in from the Class of 1967, they hugged each other joyfully and Jim said, "Your hair is gray!"
"Yes, it's natural," said the woman, laughing.
Jim's last reunion was 25 years ago and she brought a poster of the 67 graduates, about half of them Navajo, with a handful of Oklahoma and Washington state tribal members, among others. She said the Navajos arrived at the beginning of the school year in four or five buses. Her surname was similar to that of some in the Navajo tribe, and other students would start taking to her in Navajo because they assumed she was one of them. "I'd just smile at them," she reminisced. "Finally I said, 'I'm not Navajo.'"
Hazel Paul, a Navajo from Crown Point, N. M. and a 1967 graduate, said the 1960s saw many Navajos being bused far from their reservation in Arizona because there weren't enough boarding schools close by. "My dad came home from a Chapter House meeting and told me I was going to Oklahoma," she said. "I was in the seventh grade."
Paul said, "They didn't mistreat us. They were teaching us to be responsible." They did details (chores) first thing in their dorms, then attended classes. Their performance both in and outside the classroom was charted with colored stickers. Red meant unsatisfactory, and yellow meant improvement was needed. "If you got five greens for the whole week they'd take you out to a restaurant," she said.
They talked about getting dressed up for church on Sunday mornings. "Buses for Catholic, Baptist, Methodist came from town," said Jim. "I used to go to the Indian Methodist Church. We sang hymns in Comanche. I didn't understand a word of it but it was peaceful," she said, her eyes twinkling.
During the visiting time a slide show of reunion photos played on the screen. "She could get him to jitterbug with her," Jim commented on the folks in the photos. "He could jitterbug good, too!" Another photo showed a huge poster of Elvis Presley. Music from a tape deck played songs from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, including the Jackson Five's "ABC" and "My Girl" by the Temptations. It was apparent by the girls' bouffant yearbook hairstyles, and by the music and cultural references, that they were, indeed, "Americanized." However, Native culture is still important to many of them.
Jim, who was Yakima tribal leader for several years, showed photos of intricate beadwork she did on handbags. She said that her years in FSIS gave her great memories and lifelong friends.
Paul agreed. She met the man she was to marry on the last day of her senior year at FSIS. Even though she went away to college, they kept up a long distance romance and eventually married. She worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs for 28 years in Albuquerque; her husband died in 2008.
Several of the women visited the old school, just off I-44 next to the Lawton Indian Hospital, after the Comanche Tribal Police unlocked the gate for them. All of the buildings are in ruins, evoking comments of dismay, but also memories of teachers, classmates and escapades. Out in the large yard they recalled games and subtle courtships with boyfriends. In front of the gate is a marker representing a now-gone sign, presented by Ruth Jim's class.
Kiowa member Irene Johnson, school cook from 1968-1980, kept the food table replenished at the reunion. "I saw several of my students here," she said. "They used to send the kids to the kitchen as punishment for misbehavior. We treated them real good and a lot of them wanted to work with us. The matrons said, 'You messed up our program (of punishment.)"
Johnson's great-grandmother Millie Durgan Goombi is represented at the Fort Sill National Historic Landmark and Museum by a beaded cradleboard made for Johnson's father. A white woman, Durgan was abducted by Kiowas at 18 months of age and grew up Indian, marrying a Kiowa named Goombi.
Johnson noted that the John Wayne movie "The Searchers" was based in part on Durgan's life. Her true identity was only discovered three years before her death in 1934, according to a historical sign in Mountain View, Okla.
Johnson said her fondest memories of her time at FSIS was "interacting with the kids. Most of us in the kitchen were Christians. We influenced them that way."
Paul said, "The best time of my life was here. The experience I had, the opportunity to explore, helped me be where I am now. I always tell my kids I would still be on the reservation and not married because I was so shy and afraid. I wouldn't talk to strangers. The school helped me with that."
Jim agreed. "When you're at boarding school you don't realize until years later what the best part is. You make lasting friendships being housed in the same building, doing the same activities. You learn who you can trust and who you can't. I learned how to be responsible and to watch out for the younger kids. And some of the staff went over and above the call of duty."
Paul added, "They took the place of our mothers, our parents."
Many tribes have now experienced a revival of their traditions, and even their languages. Just as the native peoples had to learn to adapt to the new world thrust upon them, many whites came to appreciate and respect the cultural gifts of the Native Americans. It has often been the latter who best learned the difficult way of walking in two worlds.
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