In a message dated 1/8/2006 2:43:17 PM Eastern Standard Time, shadowbear270@webtv.net writes: Brin==That school I will never foget ==First they cut your hair==take you clothes and then start beating on you till you know thier talk==then beat you for not saying sir or thank you on and on==the one thing you learn is hate==my father-in-law hated every one he blamed his mother and father for letting them take him==hated the school==hated everone at that place he made his family toe the mark with a razor strop==hated everything till he went across the river SHADOW BEAR =============================================================== This school sounds ugly. Did you have to go Shadow Bear. I have heard of these schools. Did they think if they took your physical identity you would no longer be Cherokee??? They didn't they know they cannot take a persons inner feeling of who they are??? Guess it is good I didn't come up then, I would have got beat to death. Sometimes I am pretty mouthy especially when it come to what I believe, and who I am. This is to bad your father in law was taught to hate so. Maybe, just before he crossed his heart changed back..... Barb SC

Barb, Here is what I know as told by those who lived it: They did not care who you were, or your feelings. They thought of our people as savages, dirt, slaves. Those that run those boarding schools treated native children worse than cur dogs. There were rare exceptions, but not many. The school cut their hair to change their 'look', took their clothes and burned them, would not allow them to speak their language, and changed their name. In some cases they were not allowed to visit or see their families, some never saw them again. Any resistance to the changes were met with beatings and punishment. Being mouthy might have got you killed at worst. Many tried to run away but most were caught and brought back and then treated worse than ever. If you wanted to live at all, you did as you were told. These accounts have been told to me by those who's families experienced these boarding schools. Some of these children were taken at the age of 5 yrs. old from their mother's arms, or older as they were away from their homes or village. They never made it back home to say goodbye. They lived in fear until they could finish the school or escape and many committed suicide. It was a bad time for a long time. The government still asserts control even today. We have to remember our heritage, our culture and preserve it as well as the environment we live in. We are all we have left and if we do not, we will end up as some bone in a cardboard box in a museum. That last sentence is my own personal opinion. Brin ----- Original Message ----- From: <EVERETTLATTIMORE@aol.com> To: <CHEROKEE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2006 1:51 PM Subject: Re: [Cherokee Circle] Hair Cut > =============================================================== > This school sounds ugly. Did you have to go Shadow Bear. > I have heard of these schools. Did they think if they took your > physical identity you would no longer be Cherokee??? They didn't they > know they > cannot take a persons inner feeling of who they are??? Guess it is good I > didn't come up then, I would have got beat to death. Sometimes I am pretty > mouthy especially when it come to what I believe, and who I am. This is > to bad > your father in law was taught to hate so. Maybe, just before he crossed > his heart > changed back..... > Barb SC >