Shadow Catchers at the Indian School: photography, representation and reclamation
Lead Research Organisation:
University of East Anglia
Department Name: American Studies
Abstract
Utilising photographs of American Indian children as primary historical sources, my work will explore how photography became a medium through which the white population was invited to view the dramatic transformation of 'savage ' Indians into 'civilised ' students. This project focuses on the Carlisle Indian School, a 'living experiment' organised to prove to white Americans that Indian children could be 'civilized' and educated for citizenship. The school sought to obliterate native cultures and teach children to look, behave and think like white Americans. Carlisle's founder and superintendent, Captain Richard Henry Pratt, commissioned local Carlisle photographer, John Nicholas Choate, to document his project and supply visual evidence of its success. These photographs are as important to the official record as written records and letters, but surprisingly, they have received little attention from historians.
'Shadow Catchers at the Indian School: photography, representation and reclamation' will begin with an introductory chapter outlining for readers the theoretical frame of the book and explaining the multi-faceted nature of photographs generally and these photographs in particular. Created to perform a specific function, their meaning neverthless depends on the historical context of their viewing and this has shifted and changed over time. One of the underlying assumptions of my study is that no photograph can be fully understood at any single point in its existence. For example, a picture of an Indian boy, commissioned by white officials to demonstrate to a white audience that Indians were educable, was also sent home to his family to provide proof of his well-being and, more than a century later, that same photograph spanned the generations to supply the only surviving visual evidence of this boy's life at the school for his descentdants.
The main body of the book will be divided into three sections. The first will analyse the familiar before/after pairs of pictures taken at the Carlisle Indian School, as well as hundreds of other photographs of Carlisle students, to ascertain how the transformation process was presented. In particular, it will interrogate how 'savagery' and 'civilisation' were visually constructed through use of the camera, with a special focus on how racial issues were negotiated. The second section will scrutinise photographs of the built environment of the Carlisle Indian School campus --the carefully constructed space where this transformation was to be achieved --to determine how the place where this experiment was conducted was presented to the public (what was being shown and what concealed). The third section will explore firstly, how pupils and parents viewed and used these photographs at the time of their creation; the ways they claimed and adapted them to their own purposes. Secondly, the place Indian families and communities in the twenty-first century have created for these nineteenth century photographs .
'Shadow Catchers at the Indian School: photography, representation and reclamation' will begin with an introductory chapter outlining for readers the theoretical frame of the book and explaining the multi-faceted nature of photographs generally and these photographs in particular. Created to perform a specific function, their meaning neverthless depends on the historical context of their viewing and this has shifted and changed over time. One of the underlying assumptions of my study is that no photograph can be fully understood at any single point in its existence. For example, a picture of an Indian boy, commissioned by white officials to demonstrate to a white audience that Indians were educable, was also sent home to his family to provide proof of his well-being and, more than a century later, that same photograph spanned the generations to supply the only surviving visual evidence of this boy's life at the school for his descentdants.
The main body of the book will be divided into three sections. The first will analyse the familiar before/after pairs of pictures taken at the Carlisle Indian School, as well as hundreds of other photographs of Carlisle students, to ascertain how the transformation process was presented. In particular, it will interrogate how 'savagery' and 'civilisation' were visually constructed through use of the camera, with a special focus on how racial issues were negotiated. The second section will scrutinise photographs of the built environment of the Carlisle Indian School campus --the carefully constructed space where this transformation was to be achieved --to determine how the place where this experiment was conducted was presented to the public (what was being shown and what concealed). The third section will explore firstly, how pupils and parents viewed and used these photographs at the time of their creation; the ways they claimed and adapted them to their own purposes. Secondly, the place Indian families and communities in the twenty-first century have created for these nineteenth century photographs .
People |
ORCID iD |
Jacqueline Fear-Segal (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Fear-Segal J
(2010)
INSTITUTIONAL DEATH AND CEREMONIAL HEALING FAR FROM HOME: THE CARLISLE INDIAN SCHOOL CEMETERY institutional death and ceremonial healing far from home
in Museum Anthropology
Fear-Segal, J
(2013)
Indigenous Bodies: Reviewing, Relocating, Reclaiming
Title | Documentary: THE LOST ONES: THE LONG JOURNEY HOME |
Description | An historical documentary based on my research and in which I am the main interviewee. |
Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
Year Produced | 2011 |
Impact | The Lost Ones documentary, exploring issues of loss, cultural damage and indigenous boarding schools, is described by the Ndé Vice Chairman Gonzalez as "an extraordinary piece of work". Screenings, in Canada, New Zealand, Argentina, Czech Republic, UK, US, consistently provoke "powerful discussions about this history [of boarding schools], the current conditions of many indigenous peoples living both on and off reservations, and human rights." At a California screening, vociferous audience demand for an event on the site at Carlisle led Fear-Segal and Susan Rose (the film's director) to organise a public symposium, Carlisle PA: site of indigenous histories, memories, and reclamations (October 5-6, 2012). This brought over 290 delegates to Carlisle, including Pulitzer Prize winner N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa) and over 150 other Native Americans from 36 tribes. Events were covered in the press. |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I4jF22bXeA |
Description | Exploring how photography both reflected and shaped changing attitudes to American Indians in the USA, the prime focus of my workwas the Carlisle Indian School. Carlisle was a living experiment; a military boarding school organised to demonstrate to white Americans that Indian children could be civilized and educated for citizenship. The prototype for all subsequent Indian boarding schools, in both the USA and Canada, Carlisle sought to obliterate native cultures and teach children to look, behave and think like white Americans. Its founder and superintendent, Captain Richard Henry Pratt, commissioned local photographer, John Nicholas Choate, to document this project and supply visual evidence of its success; over 1,000 Choate prints and negatives have survived. These photographs are primary historical sources and a part of the official record, sharing status equal with written documents and letters. I show how photographs, focusing on student bodies and taken with a specific propagandistic goal, were reframed and reinterpreted by Native parents, by Carlisle students, and also more recently, by descendants of the students. Research: Smithsonian Institution -National Anthropological Archives Cumberland County Historical Society Library of Congress National Archives Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library |
Exploitation Route | My research findings have contributed to and shaped the fast developing field of Indigenous Studies, as well as trans-national discussions of Indigenous boarding schools. In a variety of ways, they have also expanded public understanding of the complex legacies of campaigns to re-educate and 'civilize' Indigenous youth. |
Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education |
Description | My research has been used in a wide variety of different ways. It provided both foundation and frame for the documentary: THE LOST ONES, which has been screened in six countries (see Artistic products section). My findings underpinned an international Symposium at the site of the Carlisle Indian School (2012), attended by 290 delegates, Native and non-Native, who openly discussed the sensitive topic of Indian Boarding Schools and their legacies at a time when, in Canada, Truth and Reconciliation Commissions were still collecting painful and controversial evidence (see Collaborations section). My work initiated on-going, productive, collaborative relationships between the School of American Studies at the University of East Anglia and both Dickinson College, Carlisle PA, and the Cumberland County Historical Society, Carlisle PA. These relationships have resulted in research collaborations, conferences and symposia (see Collaborations section). My knowledge of the Carlisle Indian School archives has provided expertise to support Dickinson College's Andrew W Mellon Carlisle Indian School Digitization Project. (see Further Funding section). |
First Year Of Impact | 2008 |
Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education |
Impact Types | Cultural |
Description | Digital Humanities Grant of $700,000 to Dickinson College (of which $100,000 is to digitise the Carlisle Indina School Archive) |
Amount | $100,000 (USD) |
Organisation | Andrew W. Mellon Foundation |
Sector | Private |
Country | United States |
Start | 12/2012 |
End | 12/2015 |
Description | School of American Studies and Community Studies Center, Dickinson College, |
Organisation | Dickinson College |
Department | Community Studies Center |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | The School of American Studies, UEA (Jacqueline Fear-Segal), and the Community Studies Center, Dickinson College (Susan Rose), co-sponsored and co-organised a multi-disciplinary symposium in the USA, to discuss and assess the history and legacy of Indian Boarding Schools, attended by 290 delegates. Carlisle PA: site of indigenous histories, memories, and reclamations, October 2012. |
Collaborator Contribution | Community Studies, Dickinson College, provided the location and hosted Carlisle Symposium (2012). |
Impact | Outcomes: Multi-disciplinary Symposium: Carlisle PA: site of indigenous histories, memories and reclamations Disciplines: history; sociology; literature; politics; religion; art. |
Start Year | 2010 |
Description | University of East Anglia and Cumberland County Historical Society |
Organisation | Cumberland County Historical Society |
Country | United States |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | The School of American Studies, UEA, co-sponsored the first of three planned conferences: CARLISLE JOURNEYS American Indians in Show Business: how the Carlisle Indian School Influenced the Entertainment World Yesterday and Today. (Oct 10-11, 2014). Jacqueline Fear-Segal gave the introductory Guest Lecture. |
Collaborator Contribution | Cumberland County Historical Society hosted the conference, provided the venue, and supplied practical organisation for the event. |
Impact | CARLISLE JOURNEYS initiates a series of three, biennial conferences for Native and non-Native academics and community members with research interests and expertise in this subject. October 2014: American Indians in Show Business: how the Carlisle Indian School Influenced the Entertainment World Yesterday and Today. October 2016: American Indians in Sport October 2018: Sovereignty and Indigeneity |
Start Year | 2013 |
Description | Public Lecture: NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY In Conversation: George Catlin's 'Vanishing Indians' and the politics of Indian agency |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Lecture sparked question and (heated) discussion among those attending. Three attendants signed up for the research network I co-run: NATIVE STUDIES RESEARCH NETWORK UK |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
URL | http://american-studies-uea.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/american-studies-at-national-portrait.html |