Epic Learning in an Indian Pueblo: A Framework for Studying Multigenerational Learning in the History of Education

Writing from her position as the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) Superintendent at the Potrero School on the Morongo (Malki) reservation in southern California in 1909, Clara D. True concluded an article on her experiences as an Anglo teacher working with American Indian populations in the United States: The more one knows of the Indian as he really is, not as he appears to the tourist, the teacher, or the preacher, the more one wonders. The remnant of knowledge that the Red Brother has is an inheritance from a people of higher thought than we have usually based our speculation upon. It is to be regretted that in dealing with the Indian we have not regarded him worthwhile until it is too late to enrich our literature and traditions with the contribution he could so easily have made. We have regarded him as a thing to be robbed and converted rather than as a being with intellect, sensibilities, and will, all highly developed, the development being one on different lines from our own as only necessity dictated. The continent was his college. The slothful student was expelled from it by President Nature. Physically, mentally, and morally, the North American Indian before the degradation at our hands was a man whom his descendants need not despise.