文明化に対するインディアン部族の対応 : 1820年代におけるチカソー族文明化学校の事例

The idea of 'civilization' of the American Indian meant the promotion of education in the white men's way, especially in the areas of agriculture, domestic and mechanic arts, and spreading of Christianity among the 'savage' Indians in the hope that they might become adapted to Anglo-American culture. Such efforts were also based on the supposition that the Indians would cede their vast lands for hunting to land-hungry white men after the Indians were turned into farmers hoIding small private land and abandoned surplus lands.

In 1819, the US government enacted the Indian Civilization Law, which provided appropriation of funds for the benevolent societies which were to teach the Indians to be civilized. Protestant missionaries, who received an annual fund, founded mission schools among the Indian tribes in 1820s.

The object of this paper is to examine the impact of the Indian civilization mission schools on the tribes in the 1820s, with special emphasis on the case of the Chickasaw Indian tribe. It appears that civilization might have been possible if it was made in the interests of the tribe's sense of values, but not under a system based on the white men's self-satisfaction stemming from European values. This civilization was also made possible by the mixed-blood tribesmen's quest for tribal leadership by utilizing the Government's civilization fund.

Thus, if the Chickasaws looked civilized, it did not necessarily mean that civilization had the effect of assimilating Indians into American society.