Learning to Fly

"No I will not submit, I will struggle first." - Zitkala-Sa.

At the juvenile age of eight, Zitkala-Sa was off to a boarding school by the name of White's Manual Labor Institute, Quaker Mission School in Wabash, Indiana. This residential boarding school was founded by Quaker Josiah White for poor white, black and Indian children. This was Zitkala-Sa's first experience in education and it was extremely abhorrent for her. Her culture was stripped away and her heredity was seized. Her long braids of long, black beautiful thick hair was chopped off since it did not meet the standards of her new school. In her eyes, school was an expression of power and domination—all she wanted was to be educated and not overpowered. Zitkala-Sa wanted to preserve her culture and self but this was literally impossible if she desired to become educated.

After graduating from Quaker Mission School, Zitkala-Sa decided to expand her education after not being in school for three years in 1891. She went off to Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana which, was also her alma mater. Women receiving any form of higher education was very rare during this time so Zitkala-Sa was most certainly an exception. Zitkala-Sa received a scholarship from Earlham but sadly six weeks before graduating from Earlham, she had to take a leave of absence due to poor health.

In 1899, Zitkala-Sa decided to take the teaching position herself and became a music teacher for children at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. She also even went back to White’s school and taught violin and piano to the children there. During this time Zitkala-Sa also began her writing career and began writing articles on Native American life which, were published in such popular periodicals as Atlantic Monthly and Harper's Monthly.

In 1900, Zitkala-Sa was sent back to her reservation to collect students for the boarding school. She continued to teach and write after she went back to visit her old tribe and even gave a speech on women’s inequality which, was published in the local paper with high praises.

Zitkala-Sa’s courage and will power to learn and teach regardless of how miserable boarding school was for her is truly an inspiration to all current and future educators.

Charlisle School Website

Sources:

Fear-Segal, Jacqueline (1999). "Nineteenth-Century Indian Education: Universalism Versus Evolutionism." Journal of American Studies vol. 33, no. 2 (August 1999), pp. 323–341.

Laura L. Terrance (2011): Resisting colonial education: Zitkala-Sa ... Feminist archival refusal, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 24:5, 621-626