This thesis is a study of missionary interaction with the Dakota language in the nineteenth century. Specifically, I look at missionaries from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) who arrived among the Dakotas of Minnesota Territory in the mid- to late-1830s. I also examine these missionaries children who became missionaries to the Dakotas by the 1870s. By studying the missionaries correspondence, memoirs, propaganda, scholarship, and religious tracts, I arrive at conclusions concerning how they viewed the Dakota language, how they planned to use it to their advantage, and the changes they imposed on the Dakota tongue as a result.
On the whole, I argue that national attitudes and federal Indian policy influenced how the missionaries viewed and interacted with the language. With each new national attitude or policy, new changes came to the Dakota language. Chapter 1 shows how an intense belief that Indians could be spiritually saved before becoming civilized convinced the missionaries they should turn the Dakota tongue into a written, Christian language.
Chapter 2 details how the missionaries used their knowledge of Dakota peoples and the Dakota language to become recognized scholars in the field of ethnology. In the mid-nineteenth century, the ABCFM missionaries started to accept the false idea that Indians were vanishing from the face of the continent. As a result, the missionaries believed that a preservation of Dakota customs and language could serve a beneficial academic purpose, as well as aggrandize their own careers.
Chapter 3 explores the careers of the missionary children. After growing up, these children established schools in Dakota Territory and Nebraska that used the Dakota language as a pedagogical tool of assimilation. This, of course, was not a popular choice. Thus, I examine the tension between the missionaries and Bureau of Indian Affairs officials who adamantly pushed an English-only policy in Indian schools.
Last, my conclusion offers some analysis of how modern day policies and attitudes toward Indian peoples may further influence changes in the Dakota language. Here, I look specifically at the trend of tribal self-determination and the federally mandated No Child Left Behind Act.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MONTANA/oai:etd.lib.umt.edu:etd-05162013-101552 |
| Date | 23 May 2013 |
| Creators | Huisken, Dylan Fredric |
| Contributors | Jeff Wiltse, Dan Flores, David R.M. Beck |
| Publisher | The University of Montana |
| Source Sets | University of Montana Missoula |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-05162013-101552/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Montana or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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