To (L)Earn Their Place in Society

Student Scrip and a Capitalist Education at Sherman Institute
dc.bibliographicCitation.firstPage33en_US
dc.bibliographicCitation.lastPage53en_US
dc.bibliographicCitation.volume14en_US
dc.contributor.authorVeerbeek, Vincent
dc.contributor.editorArnold, Vanessa
dc.contributor.editorBenthin, Pia
dc.contributor.editorErnst, Ella
dc.contributor.editorHintz, Peter
dc.contributor.editorHirschmann, Leonie
dc.contributor.editorJean-Louis, Solina
dc.contributor.editorKloss, Solveig
dc.contributor.editorMarsh, Josette
dc.contributor.editorNostitz, Christoph
dc.contributor.editorPröger, Laura Michelle
dc.contributor.editorRainov, George
dc.contributor.editorTaubmann, Nino
dc.contributor.editorWolfe, John Danson
dc.date.accessioned2022-12-08T14:44:54Z
dc.date.available2022-12-08T14:44:54Z
dc.date.issued2021en_US
dc.description.abstractIn the late nineteenth century, off-reservation boarding schools became the instrument of choice for the United States federal government to assimilate Indigenous communities. By separating Native American children from their families and placing them in government-operated schools, white officials hoped to transform them culturally, politically, and economically. Although the system was reformed in the early 1930s, boarding schools continued to promote assimilation for several more decades. In fact, white officials even developed new methods to assimilate young Native Americans, including the use of substitute currency, or scrip, as a form of economic training. One of the first off-reservation schools to adopt a scrip system was Sherman Institute in Riverside, California. In November of 1933, school administrators introduced a system of paper money to teach the school’s Native American pupils about life in a capitalist society. Through an analysis of scrip, this essay explores what Indigenous students at Sherman Institute learned about capitalism during the 1930s. Specifically, the article analyzes how the scrip system replicated the US economy with individual consumption at its center in an effort to communicate specific values, and how Indigenous students navigated said system. Thus, this essay argues that administrators at Sherman Institute used scrip to transform school life in a flawed attempt to present an idealized form of consumption-based capitalism to young Native Americans.en_US
dc.identifier.doi10.54465/aspeers.14-04
dc.identifier.urihttp://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?fidaac-11858/2753
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.relation.issn18658768en_US
dc.relation.journalaspeersen_US
dc.relation.journalaltemerging voices in american studiesen_US
dc.rightsL::CC BY 3.0en_US
dc.subject.ddcddc:370en_US
dc.subject.ddcddc:900en_US
dc.subject.fieldamericanstudiesen_US
dc.subject.fieldhistoryen_US
dc.subject.fieldscienceresearchen_US
dc.titleTo (L)Earn Their Place in Societyen_US
dc.title.alternativeStudent Scrip and a Capitalist Education at Sherman Instituteen_US
dc.typearticleen_US
dc.type.versionpublishedVersionen_US
dspace.entity.typePublication
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