Listening to Our Grandmothers' Stories: The Bloomfield Academy for Chickasaw Females, 1852-1949

Bloomfield Academy was founded in 1852 by the Chickasaw Nation in conjunction with missionaries. It remained open for nearly a century, offering Chickasaw girls one of the finest educations in the West. After being forcibly relocated to Indian Territory, the Chickasaws viewed education as instrumental to their survival in a rapidly changing world. Bloomfield became their way to prepare emerging generations of Chickasaw girls for new challenges and opportunities. Amanda J. Cobb became interested in Bloomfield Academy because of her grandmother, Ida Mae Pratt Cobb, an alumna from the 1920s. Drawing on letters, reports, interviews with students, and school programs, Cobb recounts the academy's success story. In stark contrast to the federally run off-reservation boarding schools in operation at the time, Bloomfield represents a rare instance of tribal control in education. For the Chickasaw Nation, Bloomfield-a tool of assimilation-became an important method of self-preservation Amanda J. Cobb is an associate professor of American studies at the University of New Mexico and is the editor of American Indian Quarterly. She is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Author: Amanda J. Cobb
Publisher: Bison
Published: 01/01/2007
Pages: 200
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.52lbs
Size: 8.40h x 6.22w x 0.41d
ISBN13: 9780803264670
ISBN10: 0803264674
BISAC Categories:
- History | Indigenous Peoples of the Americas
- Social Science | Ethnic Studies | American | Native American Studies
- Social Science | Women's Studies