To win the Indian heart: Music at Chemawa Indian Schoo

From 1879 through the present day, Indian children from all regions of the United States have entered federal boarding schools, an institution created in hopes that by removing children from their homes, "civilization" could take hold. Enrolled by force, by their own free will, or at the request of their families, the students' experiences have been as diverse as the students themselves---some endured profound cultural loss, others acquired traditional indigenous knowledge and new understandings of their own Indian identities, and others experienced school simply as a time to get an education. This study presents a history of the different ways music has been used at one such residential school. Chemawa Indian School near Salem, Oregon remains the oldest continuously operating off-reservation boarding school in a system that has intimately impacted countless Indian lives, families, and communities.;I argue that music was a critical part of the assimilation campaign for its perceived ability to reach the hearts of Indian children, thereby enabling the total transformation sought by social reformers. This hegemonic imposition was never a one-sided victory for policymakers, and the students responded to the schools' music programs in ways unintended by the school administrators. By combining oral histories of Chemawa alumni with archival records of campus life, I explore the prominent forms of music-making at Chemawa---the school band, choirs, the private study of classical instruments, pageants, dance, garage bands, and powwows---and trace the trajectory of federal Indian policy, highlighting student responses.;A flurry of writings is now countering the silence in academia regarding the residential schools; these works establish the schools as vehicles for cultural genocide but comment little on the role of music. In addition to investigating music as a tool of cultural imperialism, I also flesh the ways that music in the residential schools has facilitated social bonding, cultural recovery, and increased resiliency on the part of the students. Because music-making involves intimate interactions between students, families, tribes, faculty, the off-campus community, and governmental policymakers, it can uniquely illuminate the complex ways that federal Indian policy is lived out in the lives of actual people.