Domesticity in the federal Indian schools: the power of authority over mind and body
Abstract
This study of off‐reservation boarding schools for Native Americans illustrates how Indian students contested federal authority. Analyzing domesticity training and notions of proper dress for female students, it sheds light on the relations of power within the schools as the U.S. government tried to train Indians for subservience according to 19th‐century racist theories of their circumscribed physical and mental development. Archival records document federal practice; narratives by alumni of the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School in Oklahoma provide student perspectives. The bloomer story, an important shared narrative, symbolizes student cooperation within (and competition between) gender‐defined peer groups. [American Indians, education, women, boarding schools, power relations, resistance, ethnicity]
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Boys learned mechanical skills, carpentry, and farming.
“Boys learned mechanical skills, carpentry, and farming techniques.”
From To Show What an Indian Can Do: Sports at Native American Boarding Schools (2005) · cites this paper as Lomawaima 1993
For girls, this meant domestic or secretarial labor.
“For girls, this meant a form of domestic or secretarial labor, such as cooking, sewing, ironing, or typing.”
From To Show What an Indian Can Do: Sports at Native American Boarding Schools (2005) · cites this paper as Lomawaima 1993
The curriculum focused on vocational trade.
“The curriculum at most boarding schools focused mostly upon learning a vocational trade.”
From To Show What an Indian Can Do: Sports at Native American Boarding Schools (2005) · cites this paper as Lomawaima 1993
Cited by
Sorted by citations
When Tribal Sovereignty Challenges Democracy: American Indian Education and the Democratic Ideal
Lomawaima, K. T., & McCarty, T. L. (2002) · American Educational Research Journal · doi:10.3102/00028312039002279 · Cited by 183 · see citing works
Self-citationIndigenizing Sport Research: Analyzing Protective Factors of Exercising Sovereignty in North America
Ali-Joseph, A., Leonard, K., & Welch, N. (2023) · Sociology of Sport Journal · doi:10.1123/ssj.2023-0006 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- LOMAWAIMA, K. T.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- Corresponding author
- LOMAWAIMA, K. TSIANINA
- Venue
- American Ethnologist
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1993-05
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 227-240
- ISSN
- 0094-0496 (ISSN-L)
- 1548-1425
- OpenAlex
- W1997858659
- Cited by
- 162
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 16
- FWCI
- 9.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Ethnologist (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Indigenous Cultures and History
- Social Sciences › Education › Historical Education Studies Worldwide
- Social Sciences › Health › Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights
- Keywords
- Native American women, federal authority, resistance, racism, student narratives, 19th century
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