I agree with you completely. However, I was speaking of the specific circumstances of my mother's education in the time period of 1928-1940 and certainly not suggesting that the schools were anything less than horrific in concept and all too often, in practice. I am bearing in mind the fact that by the 1930s our people were no longer able to move freely over their traditional lands to hunt and harvest for their living. Since reservations and allotments were not exactly huge and were usually on land unsuited for farming, it became necessary to purchase food and other items our ancestors had been able to produce for themselves. This means it became necessary to acquire money somehow. Becoming fluent and literate in English was a great help for that task, and let's face it, if you have to earn a living in the white man's world it helps to have some sort of job skills—and during the Great Depression jobs of any sort were darned hard to get. Most of my mother's teachers were earnest, well-intentioned people who tried to do their best to enable their graduates to survive under the conditions of the time. Far too many Indian school teachers had less laudable motives and much greater inclination to abuse their charges. Betty Jack