The Northern Cheyenne Boarding School Experience - An Oral History
Dartmouth College MALS 127: Independent Study by Cinnamon Spear
Completed under the leadership and guidance of Prof. Myrna Frommer
"Carry This For Me" is an oral history passed from mother to daughter.
Cinnamon Spear, using the te
stimonial of Gladys Limberhand, creates a film that documents a story of survival.
"At the tender age of five, Gladys was the resident of a military-style environment modeled after the ideals of the man who coined the term "Kill the Indian, save the man." Lt. Richard Henry Pratt founded the first of such institutions in Carlisle, Pennsylvania (1879). The Indian boarding school system was thereafter imposed across Indian Country by missionary forces and the federal government for the purpose of "education for extinction." This cultural genocide undoubtedly created harsh negative effects on Indian child development including the areas of cultural identity, psychosexual development, and expression of individualism. The isolation and dehumanization inherent in this system took a devastating toll on individuals, family relations, and entire tribal communities. Intergenerational trauma continues today in the forms of identity loss, substance abuse, sexual abuse, suicide, and pervasive depression. Recognizing this history, bringing forth these stories, and stepping forward together is what will heal and strengthen our communities.
So as you listen, I ask as my mother did, that you 'carry this for me.'"
"At the tender age of five, Gladys was the resident of a military-style environment modeled after the ideals of the man who coined the term "Kill the Indian, save the man." Lt. Richard Henry Pratt founded the first of such institutions in Carlisle, Pennsylvania (1879). The Indian boarding school system was thereafter imposed across Indian Country by missionary forces and the federal government for the purpose of "education for extinction." This cultural genocide undoubtedly created harsh negative effects on Indian child development including the areas of cultural identity, psychosexual development, and expression of individualism. The isolation and dehumanization inherent in this system took a devastating toll on individuals, family relations, and entire tribal communities. Intergenerational trauma continues today in the forms of identity loss, substance abuse, sexual abuse, suicide, and pervasive depression. Recognizing this history, bringing forth these stories, and stepping forward together is what will heal and strengthen our communities.
So as you listen, I ask as my mother did, that you 'carry this for me.'"
