Battlefield and classroom is an important book that looks at a crucial era in American Indian history. Robert Utley\u27s notes have done an excellent job in making Richard Pratt and his motivations and impact on American Indian tribal life accessible to the average reader while retaining the book\u27s value as a scholarly work. It is a must read for those attempting to understand the importance of the boarding school era. With this book, Utley has successfully reopened the debate that has surrounded Richard Pratt and his motives

Shillinger, Sarah R.

English

VCU Scholars Compass

Ethnic Studies Review Volume 28: 1 she argues that there has always been a gender disparity across time and space and we talk about men and women and their roles in society. What makes Joane Nagel' s Race, Ethnicity, and Sexuality: Intimate Frontiers, Forbidden Frontiers an important contribution to the field of Ethnic Studies is her underlying message that regardless of the period, the group or the region, ethnic and sexual experiences that include rape, genocide and cleansing are experiences shared by many groups. These experiences are connected to attitudes pertaining to superiority as connected to skin color and sexuality, and a belief in one group's weakness and need for civilizing based upon notions of a world that is divided between the strong and the weak, between Us and Them and between Men and Women. Enrique Morales-Dfaz Hartwick College Robert Utley, Battlefield and Classroom: An Autobiography of Richard Henry Pratt (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964) 1964. $24.95 paper. Battlefield and classroom is an important book that looks at a crucial era in American Indian history. Robert Utley's notes have done an excellent job in making Richard Pratt and his motivations and impact on American Indian tribal life accessible to the average reader while retaining the book's value as a scholarly work. It is a must read for those attempting to understand the importance of the boarding school era. With this book, Utley has successfully reopened the debate that has surrounded Richard Pratt and his motives. Most of the book is a re-release of Pratt's autobiography. Pratt explains his methods, motives and most important his ideology regarding "The Indian Problem." Pratt's ideas are both enlightened and inhumane well-intentioned and destructive. It is these paradoxes which makes Pratt a central figure in American Indian History. The Pratt Plan, as his ideas were initially called, was introduced at a time when American Indians were deemed to be disappearing from the American landscape. Pratt believed and taught that American Indians were the intellectual and physical 84 Reviews equals of European-Americans. This was an incredibly enlightened belief for his time. Pratt was convinced that American Indian cultures created the perceived inferiority of American Indians not their racial identity. His solution to the "Indian Problem" was to destroy those cultures. This could be accomplished, he emphasized, by isolating children from all tribal influences and raising them in a strictly European-American environment. If this could be done American Indians would then be as productive citizens as the members of any European immigrant group. Pratt set up Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania as a model school. He chose Pennsylvania because it has no American Indian reservations. Battlefield and Classroom focuses on Pratt's retelling of his experiences at Carlisle and what he sees as his success in eliminating American Indian culture at the school. He goes into great detail about how no tribal influences were permitted. American Indian languages, clothes, religious expressions and even menstrual practices were forbidden. American Indians were to be completely immersed in Pratt's version of mainstream culture. The boarding school movement was most successful in destroying American Indian languages. Many tribes lost most of the native speakers of their language. Children were placed in these schools at the age when they were acquiring linguistic fluency. This meant that even those children whose first language was a tribal one did not become fluent in their tribal language. Also since many of these children were severely punished for speaking native languages, when they became adults, they protected their own children from similar punishments by preventing them from learning any native language. Battlefield and Classroom helps both scholars and casual readers to gain an understanding of these events and the motives of Richard Pratt. Reviewed by: Sarah R. Shillinger University of Wisconsin-La Crosse 85 

[Review of] Robert Utley, Battlefield and Classroom: An Autobiography of Richard Henry Pratt

Ethnic Studies Review Volume 28: 1 
she argues that there has always been a gender disparity across 
time and space and we talk about men and women and their roles 
in society. 
What makes Joane Nagel' s Race, Ethnicity, and Sexuality: Intimate 
Frontiers, Forbidden Frontiers an important contribution to the field 
of Ethnic Studies is her underlying message that regardless of the 
period, the group or the region, ethnic and sexual experiences 
that include rape, genocide and cleansing are experiences shared 
by many groups. These experiences are connected to attitudes 
pertaining to superiority as connected to skin color and sexuality, 
and a belief in one group's weakness and need for civilizing based 
upon notions of a world that is divided between the strong and the 
weak, between Us and Them and between Men and Women. 
Enrique Morales-Dfaz 
Hartwick College 
Robert Utley, Battlefield and Classroom: An Autobiography 
of Richard Henry Pratt (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma 
Press, 1964) 1964. $24.95 paper. 
Battlefield and classroom is an important book that looks at a 
crucial era in American Indian history. Robert Utley's notes have 
done an excellent job in making Richard Pratt and his motivations 
and impact on American Indian tribal life accessible to the average 
reader while retaining the book's value as a scholarly work. It is a 
must read for those attempting to understand the importance of 
the boarding school era. With this book, Utley has successfully 
reopened the debate that has surrounded Richard Pratt and his 
motives. 
Most of the book is a re-release of Pratt's autobiography. 
Pratt explains his methods, motives and most important his 
ideology regarding "The Indian Problem." Pratt's ideas are both 
enlightened and inhumane well-intentioned and destructive. It is 
these paradoxes which makes Pratt a central figure in American 
Indian History. The Pratt Plan, as his ideas were initially called, 
was introduced at a time when American Indians were deemed to 
be disappearing from the American landscape. Pratt believed and 
taught that American Indians were the intellectual and physical 
84 
Reviews 
equals of European-Americans. This was an incredibly enlightened 
belief for his time. Pratt was convinced that American Indian 
cultures created the perceived inferiority of American Indians 
not their racial identity. His solution to the "Indian Problem" 
was to destroy those cultures. This could be accomplished, he 
emphasized, by isolating children from all tribal influences and 
raising them in a strictly European-American environment. If this 
could be done American Indians would then be as productive 
citizens as the members of any European immigrant group. 
Pratt set up Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania as a 
model school. He chose Pennsylvania because it has no American 
Indian reservations. Battlefield and Classroom focuses on Pratt's 
retelling of his experiences at Carlisle and what he sees as his 
success in eliminating American Indian culture at the school. He 
goes into great detail about how no tribal influences were permitted. 
American Indian languages, clothes, religious expressions and even 
menstrual practices were forbidden. American Indians were to be 
completely immersed in Pratt's version of mainstream culture. 
The boarding school movement was most successful in 
destroying American Indian languages. Many tribes lost most 
of the native speakers of their language. Children were placed 
in these schools at the age when they were acquiring linguistic 
fluency. This meant that even those children whose first language 
was a tribal one did not become fluent in their tribal language. Also 
since many of these children were severely punished for speaking 
native languages, when they became adults, they protected their 
own children from similar punishments by preventing them from 
learning any native language. Battlefield and Classroom helps both 
scholars and casual readers to gain an understanding of these 
events and the motives of Richard Pratt. 
Reviewed by: Sarah R. Shillinger 
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse 
85 


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[Review of] Robert Utley, Battlefield and Classroom: An Autobiography of Richard Henry Pratt

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