Читать книгу Lost Worlds of 1863. Relocation and Removal of American Indians in the Central Rockies and the Greater Southwest онлайн

149 страница из 156

Credit: Cumberland County Historical Society, Carlisle, PA.

Part of the transformation included segregating the children by age and gender into companies for marching in close-order drill every morning. Music programs took the form of marching bands that accompanied the students as they drilled and marched in parades. School plays dramatized stories of the saga of Hiawatha or George Washington and the cherry tree in order to instill within them the new American mythology. Native dances were allowed, as long as they were performed on patriotic holidays or celebratory occasions—such as the Fourth of July or Thanksgiving.¹⁶

One poster at Carlisle encouraged male students to participate in sports, seemingly for purposes of exercise but more likely to instill military discipline. The sign urged them to “become a football player or boxer,” and “learn to play a sport and become controlled and civilized.” Appealing to the machismo of teen-agers, the poster instructed them to “develop manly aggressiveness so that you can win a trophy.” Being macho meant that you can “learn to be strong and not to cry or show emotion.” Finally, and this was the clincher, “learn to obey a stern fatherly authority—your coach!”¹⁷