Third Posting - Orphans Among Us: Cherokee

In 1871 the Cherokee Orphan Asylum was funded with $4,000 appropriated by the National Council of the Cherokee. A building was provided but the materials and necessities of its inhabitants were few and of poor quality. The educational system was undeveloped and learning a second language (English) determined if you “graduated” from the institution – although it was not a boarding school.
The institution was headed by William Ross, principal chief, who pushed for the education of the orphanage’s children. The institution was overseen by the Cherokee Board of Education. The board handled established schools within the nation; day or neighborhood schools, boarding schools, and the orphan asylum. The board, in its duties, hired and fired teachers and administrators, organized the school districts, and evaluated the schools.

Image to the right was found at picasaweb.google.com/.../ARu_IwrP1dE_vEGHSNkmgw

The orphanage was the first of its kind in the Cherokee Nation. As one of the Five Civilized Tribes, the Cherokee realized that through their years of contact with whites, the removal from tribal homelands, rebuilding in a new geographical region, illnesses, and the American Civil War that orphanages were the best solution to ensure that their children were to be cared for by their people. Therefore, they adopted and implemented the educational, political, and religious ways of the white culture and brought these practices forth into the orphanage system.

Unique to other institutions of its kind during that time the children of Cherokee Orphan Asylum were able to retain their cultural identity. Only Cherokee children were permitted to reside within its walls and youngsters were not placed in white homes to work and live. In addition, the children were not indentured to white adults as laborers or apprentices. Their teachers and administrators for the most part where Cherokee. In fact, it may have been rare for a child to see a “white face” during a days’ time.
In the early 1900s tribal disbanding and the General Allotment Act (Dawes Act) meant that educational systems that were ran by the Five Civilized Tribes were being slowly taking apart. The federal government held the fate of how monies were to be spent to educate Native children. Doors began to permanently close. However; the Cherokee orphanage held strong and placed the institution under the jurisdiction of the Indian Bureau.

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