Randall J Morris - Luther Standing Bear: Assimilation

Luther Standing Bear:Assimilation

By becoming indoctrinated in both the Siouxand American ways of life, Luther Standing Bear changed the mindsof a white dominated society that did not value Indian culture ortraditions. Luther was born into one of the last generations thatfully learned and appreciated the Sioux culture and beliefs. Helearned to fish, hunt, and worship the way the Sioux had forcenturies. The 1860s, however, forced changes upon the Indianslifestyle. The government set up reservations and sent as manyIndians as they could to boarding schools with the intent of fullyimmersing Indian children in white culture and encouragingassimilation and acculturation into white society. Lutherexperienced this first hand, as one of the initial groups ofstudents at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Learning toread, write, and speak English evolved into an effective toolemployed by Luther in his battle to preserve his heritage. Hepointed out many flaws and inconsistencies within white culture andshowed the superiority of the Sioux way of life. Standing Bearswritings also evoked the sympathy of his white readers and hegarnered support and pity from his audience at the gradual loss ofhis culture. Two of the works of Luther Standing Bear, My Peoplethe Sioux and Land of the Spotted Eagle, and hisarguments against assimilation were, in part, the foundation of theIndian New Deal and the Indian Reorganization Act advanced underJohn Collier.

Standing Bear initially began educatingAmerican society on the value of Indian traditions in hisautobiographical My People the Sioux. He points out valuedtraditions and cultural traits with no parallel in American societyand explains how they benefited his people. This type of thinkingeventually led to Americans agreeing that Indians did havesomething to offer and that their culture should have a chance tothrive. My People the Sioux led to a renewed interest inIndians and the potential they had to contribute to society inunique ways.

Standing Bears My People the Siouxbegins with how his father earned the name Standing Bear and histitle of chief. Among the Sioux, Indians are given a name but mustearn a new name through an act of bravery or by performing somegreat feat. Luthers father had been given the name Spotted Horse.The Sioux heard a rumor of Pawnees hunting on their lands and wentout to meet them. The Pawnees fled when they saw the Siouxattacking but a Pawnee was thrown from his horse and refused tostop fighting. The Pawnee challenged all Sioux approaching him andseemed to possess a strength and fierceness beyond that of a human.Spotted Horse claimed the honor of the first strike by being thefirst one capable of successfully touching the Pawnee with hislance. Three Sioux were then able to graze him with their lancesbut all four received arrows in retaliation from the Pawnee. TheSioux respected the mans bravery and let him go. Following thisevent, Spotted Horse received commendation from his tribe and wasawarded with the title of chief and the name of Standing Bear. Thestory of his fathers new name effectively introduces his agenda inthree main ways: he explains a Sioux tradition with a long history,he shows his proud heritage and why it is respectable, and he giveshis white readers a taste of an interesting cultural fragment withno parallel in white society. Standing Bear used these toolseffectively in getting the federal government to reconsider itsstance on Indians.

Frederick Hale argues that Standing BearsMy People the Sioux contains mostly his reminisces of hisearly life [which] are unabashedly romantic. Hale sees StandingBears works as an attempt to appease both whites and Indians byboth accepting and rejecting assimilation into white society. Forinstance, Standing Bear clearly states in My People theSioux that he was born in December of 1868 but later sides withthe Indian custom of not translating his birth year into a numberwhen he later claimed he was, born in the troublous days of the60s, the exact year is not known, when the Sioux were succumbing tothe trickery of the whites and the undermining of their ownmorale.

Hales argument that Standing Bear showedfavor to white culture hinges on his favorable review of theCarlisle Indian Industrial School and generally favorable attitudetoward white ideas and practices. He quotes Standing Bears reviewof Carlisle as if he was nothing but favorable to the boardingschool and process. Luther obviously did hold what he learned atCarlisle in high regard and he did go back to Pine Ridge to recruitothers to go there. It is also true that he was happy at theprospect of being compared to white children and speaking andwriting English with fluency. This does not mean, however, that byaccepting white culture Standing Bear had turned his back on histribe or their way of life. Writing and storytelling were toolsStanding Bear used to further advance his peoples claim to keeptheir culture alive. Hale ignores the fact that Standing Bear wasone of the first Indians competent enough to write English anddiscredit many of the false rumors about Indians and their way oflife. Hales point that Standing Bear changed based on his audiencedoes, generally, ring true. Standing Bear did not, however, allowhis early years at Carlisle to endanger his ultimate goal of thebetter treatment of his people.

Standing Bears Carlisle experience revealsthe positive and negative elements of the governments experimentin education for extinction. The first thing Standing Bearremembers about the school is that they had to sleep on the floorsand that he was extremely cold. This was the case for severalnights until they finally received mattresses. The Indians ate foodnot to their liking and Standing Bear remarks that in the beginningall we were given was bread and water. Standing Bear was one ofthe first to explain how lonely it was for an Indian to be at aboarding school and evoked sympathy from all when he wrote howlonesome I felt for my mother and father! Right then and there Ilearned that no matter how humble your home is, it is yet home.His chapter on his years at Carlisle contains a clear message--though he learned to read and write, he was lonely and did not wantto be there. Those who read Standing Bears account, including thegovernment officials in charge of Indian policy at the time of theIndian New Deal, realized that forced assimilation was generally afailure and even when it succeeded, it cost the Indians a lot ofloneliness and pain.

One of the greatest things Luther StandingBear did to bring Indian culture to white society was the way heportrayed Indians in Buffalo Bills Wild West show as an actor.Initially hired as an interpreter for the Lakotas, Luther soonfound his way into the show as an actor. He recounts withsatisfaction his successful entertainment of King Edward VII.Buffalo Bill gave Luther the task of performing an Indian dance infront of the kings box and Luther later recounted withsatisfaction that I saw that I had made a hit with him, and wasvery happy. Luther gave them the Indian that they wanted to see: awild, savage warrior who danced and yelled and played a villain.Ryan Burt argues effectively that Standing Bears books depictedthe exact opposite of the Indian he was required to play in theWild West Show. Buffalo Bills shows were represented as historicalaccounts that actually happened and he based this on the fact thatmany of his performers had been present for the events they weredepicting (thought they did not act anything like the way BuffaloBill had the battles reenacted). After a few decades of this kindof indoctrination, whites were familiar with a very different kindof Indian than the one that actually existed. Many whites would buyinto the stereotypical idea of Indians presented to them byHollywood and roaming western shows and lump them all togetherunder broad mannerisms that none of them actually practiced.Standing Bear offered mainstream society a different view ofIndians with his next book,