An Old Story Becomes New

Perhaps you’ve heard about the effort to westernize Native Americans that took place during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when Indian children were taken (sometimes forcibly) from their families and sent to boarding school to be taught English, Christianity, and European culture so they could assimilate. Probably the most famous of these schools was the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania which operated from 1879 until 1918. An estimated 10,000 Indian children attended the school during these years; many from the Lakota tribe. Spotted Tail sent some of his family to Carlisle to study.

Sadly, many died of the children died there, far from home, mostly from diseases like tuberculosis, pneumonia, and flu. About 200 were buried on the school grounds. When the Rosebud Sioux requested the return of the remains of ten tribal children some years ago, the Army initially refused, citing expense. However, when other tribes began asking for their children’s remains, the sentiment changed. Now the Army is working with representatives of several tribes to honor their requests.

Read the story in the Philadelphia Inquirer at

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-carlisle-indian-industrial-school-deaths-0515-20160515-story.html

“Those Kids Never Got to Go Home:” the Carlisle Indian School Cemetery

On March 20, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran it’s front-page Sunday story on the Indian children of Carlisle Indian School, in Carlisle, PA, who were taken from their families in the Dakotas and brought to Pennsylvania to be educated in the ways of white European culture. Many died, from disease, neglect, depression, or other reasons, and they were buried in a cemetery on the grounds. The title of the article is very poignant: “Those kids never got to go home.”

The article tells the story of the children who, from 1879 to 1918, lived (and about 200 died) at the Indian School. Many were sons and daughters of Lakota leaders, including Spotted Tail. The idea, thought progressive in its day, was to “save” the Indians (who were considered a vanishing race) by Westernizing their children.

Recently. members of the Rosebud reservation and descendants of the Maynadier family visited Carlisle Indian School and its cemetery and honor the dead children. The Lakota have requested that the graves be repatriated to their native soil. The Army, current owners of the Carlisle School grounds, initially refused. Some feel there is hope that the authorities will change their minds.

The photos here are a little over a year old, taken when representatives of the Lakotas and Maynadier family visited the cemetery. Pictured are Trudell Guerue, giving a prayer. He brought soil from the Rosebud Reservation and water from the Little White River in South Dakota for the graves, to bring “home” to the children who couldn’t come home. Charles Stehle and his red-headed grandson are pictured walking through the cemetery with smoldering sage to cleanse the area.

See lots more pictures here. 

Read the entire article from the Inquirer here.

Allen Cheston Starkey dies

On Feb. 15, Allen Starkey of Wayzata, Minnesota, an enthusiastic supporter of the Lakota Indians, passed away. Mr. Starkey was 80. His obituary mentioned his long-standing support for the Lakotas and the Henry Maynadier fund and asked that, in lieu of flowers, memorials be sent to the HEM Fund at Sinte Gleska University (Rosebud Reservation), PO Box 105, Mission, SD 57555.

Good News/Bad News: HEM Fund at Zero

The good news is that the Henry E. Maynadier Fund at Sinte Gleska University is out of money. This is good, because the money we’ve contributed has been distributed this past year to good use: mostly to help students pay for books, daycare, and tutoring. But the part I like best is the entrepreneur assistance, which has gone in the past to graduates trying to start up their own businesses. As we all know, a job is the key to a good future. One success story, Willie Longcrow, a commercial painter, received money to buy ladders; Mike Marshall, an artist, used his grant to pay for a website to sell his work. (See www.mikemarshalllakotaart.com–his work would make good Christmas gifts!)

The bad news is that the Henry E. Maynadier Fund at Sinte Gleska University is out of money. This is bad, because there are students and graduates who could really benefit from the help the Fund has provided in the past.

As you know, the HEM Fund was set up several years ago by Charles Stehle to honor our ancestor, Henry Maynadier, who was stationed at Fort Laramie and knew Sinte Gleska (Spotted Tail) and the Lakota Indians very well. He deplored the poor treatment they received from the governments and wrote to his wife that the only thing holding them back was their lack of formal education. We know he would be honored that his descendants are helping bridge that gap. Recent information from Sinte Gleska U: they have set up a committee of 7 that now meets twice a semester to decide which students/graduates qualify for assistance. Sometimes the school’s counselors refer names. Sometimes students apply when their professors tell them about the Fund. Fall semester classes end today, but in January, second semester starts and the committee will be meeting.

I am sending my annual contribution in today. Please consider making a contribution before 2015 has expired or early in 2016. Write a check to the Sinte Gleska University Foundation (mark it for the HEM Fund) and send it to Sinte Gleska University Foundation, PO Box 648, Mission, SD 57555.

Flag flown at half-staff at Fort Laramie in memory of Lakota woman

This was in the StarHerald on Jan. 31:

In respect for and remembrance of Mary Jane Spotted Tail, the flag flew at half-staff at Fort Laramie National Historic Site on an uncharacteristically calm morning at the Grand Old Fort on Friday. Mary Jane is the direct descendant of Lakota Sioux Chief Spotted Tail and his beloved daughter, Mni Akuwin, who he buried at Fort Laramie in 1866 per her last request.
Mary Jane Spotted Tail was instrumental in having Mni Akuwin re-interred at Fort Laramie NHS in June 2005, and in 2007, with adopting the descendants of Col. Henry Maynadier, commanding officer of the Fort at the time of the original burial, into the Spotted Tail family. A memorial to Mni Akuwin is located on the hill near the hospital ruins, and plans are being made to establish a memorial to Mary Jane at the site by descendents of both families. Friday’s actions were approved by the district director in the regional office of the U.S. Park Service.

Mary Jane Spotted Tail Dies

Mary Jane Spotted Tail passed to the Spirit World on Sunday, January 25. To honor her, Acting Regional Director Laura Joss approved a request from T.M. Baker, superintendent of Fort Laramie National Historic Site, to fly the flag on the parade grounds at half-staff on Friday, January 30, 2015, from sunrise to sunset.

Mary Jane was a direct descendant of Lakota Sioux Chief Spotted Tail and his beloved daughter, Mni Akuwin, who he buried at Fort Laramie in 1866 according to her last request. Mary Jane Spotted Tail was instrumental in having Mni Akuwin re-intered at Fort Laramie in June 2005 and with adopting the descendants of Col. Henry Maynadier, commanding officer of the Fort at the time of the original burial, into the Spotted Tail family. Mary Jane’s niece, Gale Spotted Tail, said the family was very moved at the respectful gesture.

 

 

Scholarship

A recent Maynadier grant went to a Lakota artist on the Rosebud reservation. Mike Marshall, who lives in Mission, SD, and graduated from Sinte Gleska University, does traditional art work, batiks, and jewelry. He started making prints and greeting cards from his original batiks and ledger art, working from a studio in his home. He’s at the point where he can phase out of other work and pursue the art full time, but he needed funds to design and start up a web site. Thanks to the Henry Maynadier Fund, he can now do that. As soon as I get word of his new website, I’ll post it so all can see. Meanwhile, click here to see some of his work on this fascinating 6-minute video by South Dakota Public Broadcasting at http://www.sdpb.sd.gov/tv/shows.aspx?MediaID=57595&Parmtype=TV&ParmAccessLevel=sdpb-all

Mike’s work has been exhibited at the Smithsonia, Sinte Gleska University, and the South Dakota Art Museum. Here is a U.S. Dept. of the Interior mention of Mike that dates back to 2009:

“Through my art I wish to continue the precedent set by those who have gone before me. Those unique artists who saw beauty in all of creation. They expressed this insight in all aspects of life, from the mundane to the sacred. Staying close to the traditional, still in the present and looking forward to the future. This is my philosophy.” – Mike Marshall

Drawing on his cultural heritage Mike Marshall incorporates natural materials in the objects he makes, materials much like his ancestors did. He utilizes hides, bone, beads and paints, creating work that is utilitarian as well as objects that are decorative; work that is sought after by collectors and cultural center facilities to enhance their exhibits. Among the many objects he creates are painted rawhide containers of various sizes and shapes, painted buffalo robes, silverwork, beaded jewelry, horn spoons, bags, beaded spoons, forks and tin cups, rawhide bowls used for pounding cherries, Lakota toys and games like the snow snake, deer toe game, and bone sleds. A collection of his Lakota games is on display at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Sioux City, Iowa.

Marshall learned the art of making traditional Lakota craft primarily through hands on experience and guidance from the treasures of the past from which he gets his inspiration. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1999 from the Sinte Gleska’s Art Institute, Mission, South Dakota. As a result of his formal education in the arts Marshall has expanded his artistry to include batiks, watercolors, stone sculptures. When asked to describe his work as contemporary or traditional, he says, “I jump around from strong traditional to modern abstraction,” and it represents “.bonds to the past but with my personal view of understanding our culture.”

Mike Marshall a full time artist was born in Rosebud, South Dakota and is an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota Tribe. He also serves as a hunting guide, and is willing to demonstrate and teach people about his culture and the work he creates.

Prices of work for sale can be obtained from The Journey Museum Store at 1-605-394-2201. After the exhibit closes contact Mike Marshall at PO Box 143, Mission, South Dakota 57555; email dcanyon@gwtc.net

Report on the Carlisle, PA, visit

Here’s a report from Charles Stehle on the visit to Carlisle Indian School in October.

Two weeks ago, I took my grandson and son in law to Carlisle where the Pa. Cumberland County Historical Society held a two day symposium called Carlisle Journeys.The subject was “American Indians in Show Business” which explained how. the Carlisle Indian School influenced the entertainment world yesterday and today.
I found out about this because the Lakota spokesman for the Spotted Tail tribe, Trudell Guerue, who lives in Minneapolis, MN, called me a month ago and told me that the Spotted Tail family in South Dakota would be making a trip from there to Carlisle Pa. to attend the Symposium, mainly to pay homage to Lakota children from the Spotted Tail tribe who were buried there. Unfortunately the tribal elders were not able to make the trip. However they appointed Trudell Guerue, a Lakota family member and Viet Nam army veteran and retired attorney from St. Paul, MN to represent them, and take dirt from the reservation, and water from a stream nearby to be sprinkled on the graves of their ancestral tribal children who were buried in a Carlisle cemetery.

These were Indian children who were taken from their homes in the 1880s on the pretext that they would be educated in the ways of the white man which Spotted Tail and other Sioux leaders thought was a wise thing to do. However, the army captain in charge of this Indian school had orders to force the savage character out of these children and convert them to Christianity. The initial results of this experiment was a disaster, since their hair was cut and they were beaten if they spoke Lakota, Later the children got better treatment, but many of these children died while at school, and then put in unmarked graves.

Many children graduated from this this school and went into movie business, cast in minor Hollywood movies. Some of the speakers at this symposium were descendants of these graduates who to their delight discovered their ancestors had interesting lives in the old western movies. One interesting speaker was a biographer of Jim Thorp the great Indian athlete who was from the Carlisle area. The tone of those stories were light and pleasant, however the opposite point of view came from Trudell and two other Indian speakers who reminded the audience of the sadness of what these Indian children faced, being taken away from their families for years and put in an environment hostile to their culture.

In a northern section of the city of Carlisle,is the Carlisle Army Barracks, where there is a small grave yard 100 ft. long by 30 ft. wide. It is located just inside the barracks where one can see grave stones of unknown Sioux Indians , as well as those of several other tribes, who had died at Carlisle sometime in the late 19th century. In all probability, many of the Sioux graves belonged to the children who attended the Carlisle Indian School.

Early Sunday morning, after the symposium was over I, my son in law, grandson, and Trudell, along with a handful of people who had attended the Symposium, all went to the Carlisle barracks grave yard with Trudell’s containers of the dirt, water, and sage that he had brought with him from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota.

To begin the Lakota ceremony I placed the dirt at the base of some twenty Sioux graves, while a friend of Trudell poured the water on the dirt I had spread. When that ended the sage that my grandson held in a skillet was lit and he walked around the people attending this service with smoke wafting from the sage which moved skyward toward the Great Spirit, Wakan Tanka which carried with it the spirit of those attending , and the souls of those Indians whose graves now held the soil and water from their homeland.

After that, Trudell looking toward the sky and moving clockwise, said prayers of thanks, facing North, East, South, and West, Emotionally shaken after the ceremonies were over I and others embraced him.

With that, the ceremonies were over; a fitting end to a wonderful weekend.

Carlisle Journeys

At the Carlisle Pennsylvania Indian school next month (Oct. 10-11) is a special conference and alumni reunion for those with connections to the famous Indian school. This year several members of the Spotted Tail family, including Mary Jane Spotted Tail, will be coming by car from South Dakota for their first ever visit. Charles Stehle and his grandson plan to attend and have reserved several hotel rooms nearby, in case any of the Maynadier descendants want to join him. He said that one of the reasons the Lakota are coming is to visit some ancestors’ graves. See www.carlislejourneys.org for more information.

 

Contact Charles if you are interested in attending and/or in having one of those hotel rooms at ccstehle@verizon.net. 

 

New (to us) information about Henry Maynadier

Noted historian William P. MacKinnon recently contacted Charles Stehle about a historical figure they had in common–Henry Maynadier.  Here’s what he wrote:

Dear Charles,

I’ve just been reading about your and Ms. Theobald’s work to honor the relationship of the U.S. Army’s Henry E. Maynadier and Lakota legend Spotted Tail. I am especially interested in the fact that you are working on a book about your great-great uncle. I know little about Col. Maynadier’s post-Civil War life, but for more than a half-century I have been researching and writing about one of the antebellum campaigns in which your great-great uncle served as a 1st lieutenant and regimental adjutant in the Tenth U.S. Infantry — the Utah War of 1857-1858. I am editing a documentary history of that campaign (“At Sword’s Point”) being published in two volumes by the University of Oklahoma Press’s Arthur H. Clark imprint.
Have any letters or diaries written by Lt. Maynadier during the Utah War survived? If so, I would like to exchange information with you about this phase of his long, distinguished career. By way of introduction, I am attaching to this message a copy of my biog. sketch.
Cordially,
William P. MacKinnon

The award-winning first volume of his study of the Utah War of 1857-1858, At Sword’s Point, was published in 2008 by the University of Oklahoma Press. The second volume is due out later this year. I’m going to get hold of a copy from our local library and see what it says about our ancestor.