My Encounter with Bigfoot

 

My month of solitude to write my novel at a cabin in the woods forced me to face many of my fears. Fear of the dark, strange sounds and large scary animals that walk on two feet to name a few. Unknown sounds bellowing in the darkness. Loss of electricity when the area I was staying at was hit with a thunder storm during the evening hours. Several situations led me down a dark path of trepidation. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine developing a bizarre friendship with a being twice my size.

    The cabin I rented, nestled in the hills between Munising and Marquette, had state of the art appliances, three large bedrooms and a wraparound deck. I often sat outside when weather permitted to conduct my research and work on my book. Laptops travel anywhere especially on a nice table facing a river. The inside walls consisted of large logs varnished to a nice shine. The fire in the fireplace crackled with the burning of birch logs.

    I smile watching bits of birch bounce off the fire. Sitting on a leather sofa, eating popcorn and shifting through my notes. My feet toasty with bunny slippers and a plush robe covers me from my neck to toe. This is the life. My heart quickens when I read over a part of my notes where a woman was mysteriously murdered. The crime solving duo of Macey and her golden retriever, Lucy, are at it again. Lucy found a piece of the woman’s clothing and the plan was for Lucy to lead the detectives and Macey to the dead body. April, the missing woman, has been missing for three days. Her friends have been searching high and low for her. I plan on adding a lot of twists and turns to the plot, so my readers won’t know who killed her untill almost the end of the story. No one would expect her mailman who loved her from afar. Some of my books have made it to the national best seller list and hopefully this book does as well.

    I am going to bed so I can get up early and hike on some of the trails around the cabin. I was told that lumbering businesses constructed many of the dirt roads back in the day. Where I am staying the forest is thick with pine, oak and maple trees. It does not look like lumber jacks have been here for quite a long time. The weather is supposed to be dry and sunny tomorrow.  A fall day in September in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (U.P.). I am glad I discovered this location. My busy life in Petoskey leaves me little time to explore nature. It’s my time to recuperate and get in touch with the great outdoors. Hopefully, I see a few deer and possibly some bunnies and the bears stay away from me.

    My sleep was unhindered. I slept like a log. The smell of coffee brewing and biscuits cooking in the oven welcomed the morning with a warm cozy feeling. I scrambled a couple of eggs to go with my meal and cleaned some grapes. Every morning I journal and count my blessings.

    I dressed warmly in a red flannel shirt and jeans with hiking boots. I took a flashlight, some water and a sandwich for later. I did not know how long I would be in the woods. My friends back home worry about my adventures and think I take too many risks. I tell them I only hike in safe places. Never hiked here before. I hope I am right. Hiking happens to be one of my favorite things to do. I love being outdoors.

    Many different types of birds flew above me. Happy to see an eagle. Lots of hawks of many sizes and colors. I saw two sandhill cranes off in a meadow. Haven’t seen any deer yet.

    Large rocks peppered the edge of the river. I sat on one and looked out at the water. Slight ripples cascaded over the water. A trout jumped out of the water. An eagle dove and caught the fish. I was amazed at how fast that happened. The fish did not stand a chance.

    My sandwich was delicious. I have always loved a good peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The water quenched my thirst. My watch indicated that it was almost noon.

    My walk onto another trail revealed a vast amount of pine trees. I love the smell of those trees.

  The woods were thick and when I rounded a corner, I met the scariest animal I ever imagined seeing. It was a bigfoot. We were both startled at the meeting. I backed up and so did the creature. I stared at him, and he appeared to be crying. A bigfoot crying. He covered his face with his hands and sat on the ground. I did not know what to make of the scene. My fear slowly left me as I stared at him. I almost wanted to hug the being. My mind started churning about the story I could conjure regarding this situation. I am always thinking of a new story line for future books.

    I did something I never thought I would end up doing. I sat next to the creature and asked why he was crying. I had a soft spot for anyone who was sad and now I discovered my empathy extended to animals as well. He stopped crying and looked at me for a while and took a stick and drew something in the dirt. It looked like he drew something that looked like him.

    “Did you lose someone?” I asked.

    The bigfoot nodded yes.

     He stood up and motioned for me to follow. I followed him and we stopped on top of this really big hill. He pointed down and I could see something white like him laying at the bottom. I could tell from my vantage point that the being was not moving. It was laying still, no movement what so ever.

    I really did not know what to do but say I was sorry.

    He tilted his head back and made this loud sound that made the hair on my body stand at attention. He made the sound again. It sounded like a cross between a bear’s growl and the sound of a wolf howling. Strange and eerie.

   I remember when I met with some native women in Canada. They told me when you hear a bigfoot howl, it is a good omen. I was hoping they were right.

   He stopped making the noise and tears were streaming down his face again.

   I read books about animals reacting to painful situations like losses and they grieve like humans do. Am I witnessing it first-hand?

   Before I realized what was happening, my arms encircled him for a reassuring hug. He hugged me back. He smelled musty and of fresh dirt but not bad. I was surprised that he was not more repugnant. My friends would never understand this transaction. Perhaps, I should not tell them. It will be my secret.

    He followed me to the river and we sat for a while watching the water. Is this animal more human than I thought? He feels the pain of loss. I do not fear him even though he is twice my size. I was getting hungry. It’s been hours since I ate my sandwich. So, I made motions like I was eating something and asked him if he was hungry. He nodded yes. Am I going to take a bigfoot back to my cabin and feed him? Will wonders never cease?

    We started walking back to my cabin. It took us almost an hour before we arrived at my cabin. I motioned for him to sit on one of the chairs on the deck. He sat down, looking as if he was at a child’s table.

    I wonder what a bigfoot likes to eat. I peered in my refrigerator and found some left-over hamburger patties I cooked the other night and nuked one. An apple was cut up and I added some raw baby carrots to the plate. The same plate of food was prepared for me to eat. I decided  not to add a bun to the meat. Not sure if bigfoots eat bread. It almost looked like he smiled when he saw the food. The food was eaten post haste, so I prepared more for him. Not sure how much a bigfoot eats. He rubbed his belly.

   We sat for a while. I thought perhaps he may like to watch television. I motioned for him to come inside and he followed me. I found a show about wild animals and decided that was a safe choice. He frowned at the television and curled up on the sofa and fell fast asleep.

    I had a conundrum on my hands and did not want to be attacked in my sleep by this stranger. Perhaps a locked door would be my safe option. Retiring to bed with a furry interloper on my sofa was perhaps the least of my worries. A storm was brewing. The windows rattled with the high winds. The lights flickered. I ended up climbing the stairs in the dark and prepared for bed. I lit a candle on my nightstand. Thankful for the flashlight I found on my dresser after the candle illuminated the room. Huddled under my covers, sleep evaded me for quite a while. I could hear wolves howling in the distance. At least I thought it was wolves. Perhaps coyotes or more bigfoot creatures. Did I lock my front door? Can’t worry about that now.

    When I woke the next morning, my light on my nightstand was on. That meant the electricity was on again. No noises came from the downstairs. I wonder if he is still sleeping. The clothes I wore the day before were strewn on the floor. I donned those, brushed my teeth and washed my face and decided to check on my enormous furry guest.

    He was sitting on my sofa looking around. Again, he looked like he smiled at me as I descended the stairs. I sat on the easy chair and decided I needed to come up with a name for my furry interloper.

    “Do you want a name?”

    He frowned and stared back at me.

    “How about Fred?”

    “How about Sam?”

    He appeared to smile at that name.

    “Sam it is.”

    “Sam would you like something to eat.” I made the eating movements by moving my hand to my mouth and pretended to chew something.

    He nodded.

    I prepared toast with peanut butter on it. Not too many options until I visit the country store again. I served him a glass of milk with his toast which he readily drank and held up his glass for more.

   The news station was on for a while. I watched intently and then turned to the weather channel. Some of my normal rituals I partake in each morning. It looked like another nice day and no storms in the near future.

    Sam was led outside and I waved goodbye to him. He didn’t know what I wanted. I walked towards a trail and walked for a little while turned around and said goodbye to him and waved. He tried to mimic my wave. I started walking back to my cabin. He looked confused. I kept walking and did not turn around to look at him. I did not want to encourage him.

    When I returned to my cabin, it appeared he did not follow me.

    I thought about my visit with my new furry friend and thought he must be lonely since he lost his friend. Animals can probably get lonely and want companionship. Giving him food didn’t hurt. Thoughts of the movie “The Ice Age” came to mind and all the animals that hung out together like the Saber Tooth Tiger, Sloth and the Mastodon. They appeared to be very unlikely companions.

    It’s been days since I last saw Sam. I was content with the progress I made on my book. The plot thickened when Lucy led the detectives and Macey to the dead body of the missing woman at an old abandoned warehouse. Decay progressed quickly in the heat. The detectives and Macey had to hold their noses to prevent from getting sick. The killer had her dressed in winter attire: a winter coat, snow pants, winter hat and mittens. Odd for a July day.

    The dialogue flowed nicely between the characters. Lucy sat watching them talk when she wasn’t working on the case. Macey had more leads than the detectives and started solving the case. She had a reputation of solving mysteries in the little village of Gardenville in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The police department appreciated her help.

    I was getting tired, so I decided to turn in. I made sure all the windows and doors were locked before heading up to bed.

   The next morning Sam was at my front door with a dead rabbit in his hand. Fortunately, I helped my father clean rabbits, duck and deer. He was an avid hunter and brought home a lot of wild game for our family. He thought the meat was better than what you could buy in a store.

   Sam was glad to come into the cabin and I graciously accepted the rabbit. He appeared surprised when I placed the rabbit on a cutting board and started cutting the rabbit. Pulling off the fur until I got down to the meat of the rabbit. I cut the meat into little pieces and placed the pieces of meat in a large frying pan along with oil. The meat was sizzling in the pan while I cut up carrots, celery and potatoes and added the vegetables to the meat. Afraid to add onion in case they could make Sam sick like they can concerning dogs. My plan involved making a stir fry and add rice. I eat a lot of stir fries so I usually have plenty of fresh vegetables on hand.

    I was getting close to the end of my stay at the cabin. Sam looked so content to be sitting on my sofa watching television while I cooked. What is he going to do when I return home? Should I be a little concerned about my new friend?

    We sat down at my dining room table to eat our strange breakfast of stir fry served on a bed of rice. Sam stared at the plate of food and the spoon and fork. I picked up my tablespoon and showed him how to hold it. He followed suit clumsily grasping the spoon. I showed him how to scoop up the food. He made several attempts until he finally got some food on the spoon and shakily brought the spoon to his mouth. I smiled to offer encouragement. It did not take long for him to grasp the concept of eating with a spoon. When he finished with most of the food on his plate, he licked the plate. I took that as a compliment that he really liked the food.

    It looked like it was going to be a nice day for a hike in the woods before settling down to writing. I dressed warmly in a flannel shirt, hoody and jeans. A little envious of Sam because he did not have to bother with clothing.

    We headed together into the woods to check out the trails and stopped by the river to watch the ducks and loons paddle around the water. Beautiful scene. Sam headed to the water and appeared to be washing himself and cupped his hands to drink the fresh cool water. He did smell a little like wet dog when he got out of the water. I smiled at the thought of him resembling a dog to a small degree. My busy schedule did not permit me to have a pet. On occasion I would visit the local animal shelter to pet cats and walk dogs to get my fix.

   We continued on our hike and came to a clearing. I noticed something large and white off in the distance. I pointed the creature out to Sam. Found out I didn’t need to. He noticed right away. His nostrils flared as he smelled the air.

    “Go Sam. He could be a friend.” It did not take much prompting, he headed towards what looked like another bigfoot. The creature ran towards him. The bigfoot looked like the one we saw at the bottom of the hill. I wonder if he or she recovered from the fall. They appeared to be hugging like long lost friends. I was elated to see the meeting or reunion. Sam looked at me and I waved him on. They both turned and headed in the opposite direction.

     I headed to the embankment where I saw the fallen bigfoot. I looked down the large hill and did not see any trace of the creature. This story does have a happy ending. I believe they are reunited. Feeling bad that perhaps we, meaning Sam and I, needed to find a way to get down to the bottom of the hill to check on the bigfoot.

    My last few days at the cabin went by very quickly as I ended up putting the finishing touches on my book. It definitely needs extensive editing since I finished some of it in such a hurry. I like the ending and how Macey is falling for one of the detectives. I am glad the Macey and Lucy series has taken off like a storm.

    I regretfully packed up my belongings and headed back to Petoskey. Hopefully, I can rent the same cabin next year and run into Sam again and perhaps his mate or friend.

     

     

   

   

    

Stalin's Deadly Reign

 

Stalin transformed the Soviet Union from an agricultural nation consisting of mostly peasants to a global industrial and military superpower at a high cost of many lives. He has been held responsible for varying number of deaths, up to 60,000,000 and used terror to run the country. The killings were the result of massive purging of anyone who he considered not loyal to him or a threat. He used gulags, unskilled and unprepared military tactics, and collectivization as intentional and unintentional means of genocide. He became the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1922. After Lenin’s death in 1924, he built alliances within the Party, targeted potential threats to his rule and launched his reputation for abolishing anyone who did not share his beliefs. Stalin’s rule proved to be more repressive and ruthless than Lenin’s. Stalin proved to be a heartless, homicidal psychopath who was driven by his need to satisfy his fragile ego. He portrayed Lenin as the father of the nation while he was a faithful servant who brought Lenin’s dreams to fruition.

    During the Russian revolution, the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, seized power and eliminated the tradition of czarist rule. The Bolsheviks became the ruling Communist Party of the Soviet Union.  During the early 1900s, Russia appeared to be one of the most impoverished countries in Europe with a vast number of farming peasants and a large population of poor industrial workers. Western Europe viewed Russia as an undeveloped and destitute country.

    The Industrial Revolution did not rear its head in Russia until the turn of the 20^th century. Western Europe and the United States took the lead concerning the revolution. When Russia met

the demands of the industrial revolution, St. Petersburg and Moscow became overcrowded. The living conditions for the newly created Russian industrial working class were destitute.

    The population expansion, a difficult growing season due Russia’s northern geography, and a variety of pricy wars which started with the Crimean War led to food shortages. The famine that occurred from 1891 to 1892 claimed the lives of approximately 400,000 people. From 1904 – 1905, Russia lost the Russian-Japanese War. This loss weakened Czar Nicholas II and Russia’s s world standing and Russia suffered substantial losses of soldiers, ships and capital. The educated Russians saw that the monarchical rule of the czars hampered Russia’s social progress and scientific advancement. Many Russians looked for answers for improving the economical and scientific status for Russia (History.com Editors, 2022). Probably not too surprising that at first Stalin appeared to be a hero until his actions were looked upon with scrutiny. 

Childhood and Early Years 

    The brutal dictator came into the world as Losif Vissarlonovich Dzhugashvili on December 18, 1878 at the small town of Gori, Georgia. He was born to a dysfunctional family with an abusive father. Later he took the name of Stalin which meant “man of steel.” He grew up poor and an only child. His father was a shoemaker and an alcoholic and his mother was a laundress. When he was a child, he contracted smallpox which left him with facial scars. During his teen years, he earned a scholarship to attend a seminary in Tblisi to study for the priesthood in the Georgian Orthodox Church. He began reading the work of Karl Marx and became interested in the revolutionary movement against the Russian monarchy. In 1899, Stalin was expelled for missing exams from the seminary. Stalin looked for ways to make a statement but the unrest of the country.

    He joined labor demonstrations and strikes and became a political agitator. He turned out to be a member of the Marxist Social Democratic movement, the Blosheviks, which was led by Vladimir Lenin. He became involved in a variety of criminal activities which included bank robberies, and the money taken was used to fund the Bolshevik Party. Stalin was arrested on multiple occasions from 1902 to 1913 and ended up imprisoned and exiled in Siberia.

    He married Ekaterina Svanidze (1885 to 1907) and they had one son, Yakov. Ekaterina died from Typhus when their son was an infant and Yakov died as a prisoner in Germany during WWII. Stalin married his second wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva in 1918 and she was a daughter of a Russian revolutionary. They had two children, a boy and a girl. She committed suicide in her early 30s. Stalin also fathered other children out of wedlock.

    Lenin found Stalin ill-mannered and offensive but valued his loyalty.  In 1912, Lenin appointed Stalin to serve on the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party. At the time, Lenin was exiled to Switzerland. In November 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia. Lenin and the Bolshevik Party founded the Soviet Union in 1922 and Lenin was its first leader. During the years of Lenin’s rule, Stalin continued to climb the party ladder. In 1922, Lenin appointed him as secretary general of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. This role enabled him to appoint his allies to government jobs and establish a base of political support (Service, 2004). 

Collectivization 

    After Lenin’s death in 1924, Stalin managed to outmaneuver his rival and won the struggle for power and control of the Communist Party. By the late 1920s he became the dictator of the Soviet Union. He begins his reign by launching a series of five-year plans designed to convert the Soviet Union from a peasant society to an industrial superpower. Part of his plans involved the implementation of government control over the economy which included taking over the country’s agriculture.

    Collectivization was the termed coined to describe what happened to many of the peasants who resided at the Soviet Union. The process of collectivization intended to increase agricultural production by large-scale mechanized farms established by combining small private farms. Stalin’s goal involved government control over the peasant population and create a system of collecting taxes from them. Soviet authorities confiscated grain and other food sources which led to a famine that lasted from 1932 to 1934. Millions died of starvation. Stalin eliminated most of the prosperous peasant class referred to as the “kulaks.”

    During the time of the famine in Ukraine and the Kuban region, not only the kulaks were murdered or imprisoned, all grain sources ended up being taken from areas that did not meet the government’s large-scale targets. The seizure also included the next year’s seed grain. The government forced the peasants to stay in the areas without food. Sales of train tickets ceased during that time. Barriers and obstacles were created to stop people from fleeing the starving areas. The famine also affected other parts of the USSR. The death toll as a result of the famine was estimated from five to ten million people. During this same time period, the Soviet Union exported grain.      

The Gulag Calamity 

    The location of Stalin’s gulags recorded the lowest temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere. Temperatures have been known to drop to minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit. The Kolyma area was vast and located at the most northeasterly portion of Siberia. The area happened to be cold, with notable wind, and barren with lots of ice and snow. The cold weather was fierce, unyielding, and deadly during the winter months and many lost their lives to exposure. The broad area of eastern Siberia gained notoriety during the 1850s due to the discovery of gold which led to the communist leaders’ determination to exploit the mineral wealth to build the socialist economy of the Soviet Union.

    The Soviet Union faced difficult decisions. If they allowed the west to mine the gold by selling mineral rights that would limit up front profits and undermine their moral position. If they employed large-scale mechanized mining, which would depend on the purchase of expensive equipment, the capital resources of the government, which were limited, could not afford such expenses.

    Earlier the Soviet government faced the same dilemma during the Baltic-White Sea canal. The solution ended up being a large number of prisoners operating as a slave labor force. The venture was met with success, so the Soviet government decided to use the same method at Kolyma to mine gold, forced labor.   

    The plan was put into action and by November 11 of 1931, the Central Committee of the Communist Party put forth instructions with Stalin’s signature to a variety of Soviet organizations to order the economic development of the Kolyma region. Shipping fleets had been contacted as a means of transporting prisoners. On November 13 the Soviet Union set forth a decree which initiated “Dal’stroi,” the organization placed in charge of the gulags and the transporting of prisoners. “Dal’stroi” loosely stood for “Far Northern Construction Trust.”

    On November 14, 1931, the Politburo appointed Eduard Petrovich Berzin as the head of the new organization. The Politburo was the highest policy making authority in Russia like Congress in the United States. He had a long record of accomplishments which predated Stalin’s rise to power. Berzin had been considered an intellectual, studied art in Berlin and often made appearances at Bolshevik intellectual circles.  Berzin thwarted an attempt by British Intelligence to overthrow Lenin by working as a double agent for the Cheka, Lenin’s secret police. Berzin also had substantial experience running industrial enterprises within the Gulag system. His reputation and skills made him the perfect choice for the important position. Berzin began his work to create an industrial foundation for the Kolyma Gulag.

    Russia devised the Northeastern Corrective Labor Camp system also known as the Sevvostlag. The main goal of this organization involved managing the dozens of labor camps and providing workers for Dal’stroi which allowed it to remain an industrial enterprise without a link to forced labor.  Berzin directly reported directly to the Soviet Union’s Security Force and the head of the Sevvostlag organization reported to Berzin.

   Once the organizations were established, Berzin began to set up the industrial infrastructure of the Kolyma Gulag. He arrived at the Kolyma Gulag in February 1932 by traveling on the Okhotsk Sea by way of the Arctic transport ship Sakhalin. A small number of prisoners traveled with him, primarily trained engineers. They have been accused of ruining some Soviet industrial activities. The charges may have been drummed up or they may have been framed concerning the charges in order to fill the Dal’stroi quotas for trained engineers (Bollinger, 2003).

    By 1937 Berzin managed to create a massive industrial company. Transporting efforts supported a strong connection between Magadan and the major gold mining sites farther north along the Kolyma River. Approximately 80,000 forced laborers worked for the Dal’strois empire. The moral of the prisoners during the earlier years along with the large number of laborers increased the rate of production.

    The prisoners look upon the years prior to 1937 more fondly. While the conditions happened to be difficult, the mass cruelty and murders of later years did not surface. Few prisoners died during the years of 1932 to 1937. Their ten-year sentences often reduced to two to three years. Their work days consisted of four to six hours during the winter months and ten hours during the summer months and they were provided good food and clothing. The good pay they were given allowed them to help their families when they returned home with their money.

    Everything changed drastically at the Kolyma camps after 1937, a prominent year of the Great Terror. During the mid-year of 1937 Stalin ordered Berzin’s organization ended. Berzin found himself arrested and ordered to Moscow for sentencing. He did not make it to Moscow before facing execution, blamed for seditious behavior linked to Japan. The Russians were quick to remember Russia’s embarrassing defeat to Japan. Claims of sedition held true for many even if they were not associated with the truth. Stalin’s purges led to the deaths of many people he felt they lacked loyalty and many became political prisoners.

    New recruits changed Berzin’s organization. Karp Aleksandrovich Pavlov replaced Berzin as the head of Dal’stroi and Major Stepan N. Garanin took over the Sevvostlag camp. Garanin created a cruel and more deadly environment at the Kolyma camps. The death toll raised substantially. At least a third of all prisoners died or were executed each year. The Kolyma camp became a punishment camp for traitors and other undesirables. A death camp was created at Serpantinka for the soul purpose of prisoner elimination. The Kolyma camp became well-known as a camp comprised of dread and death. It was a camp that people did not leave and were sent to die. They faced exposure to extreme weather conditions, overwork, starvation and other forms of cruel treatment (Bollinger, 2003).

    The extreme hardships dealt on the prisoners at the Kolyma camps negatively impacted industrial production. Trained engineers reduced to hard labor led to the destruction of heavy equipment, ruined by untrained operators. Serious disorganization reigned while production sunk to new levels. The actions perpetrated by the Great Terror brought more awareness concerning the conditions at Kolyma. The literary class ended up spending time at the Dal’stroi camps. During the early times at the labor camps, Stalin focused mainly on purging kulaks (affluent peasants and rural merchants). In 1940, foreign prisoners from eastern Poland, prisoners of war, became part of the unfortunate inmates.

    The Nazi Germany invasion in June 1941 led to the deterioration of the Kolyma camps. Many prisoners faced starvation and others were hauled off to fight on the front lines during WWII. After WWII ended, Kolyma ended up at its original level of activity. The Russian POWs taken by Germany were released back to Russia. For some strange reason, Stalin considered the Russian soldiers traitors and they ended up at gulags. A continued inflow of political prisoners mainly from eastern Europe caused the population to rise at the Kolyma camps during the 1940s and peaking before Stalin’s death. Soon after Stalin’s death, the Dal’stroi system began the process of being disassembled and large numbers of prisoners were released.

    The Dal’stroi camps greatly contributed to the economy of Russia during the 1930s and 1940s. The prisoners produced agricultural goods, timber and coal but more importantly they mined gold and other minerals from the frozen earth. The main reason for existence of Kolyma involved gold. By the early 1940s, the prisoners mined almost two hundred metric tons of gold each year which amounted to approximately 15 percent of the world’s annual production. One million prisoners were transported to the camps and about 373,000 ended up at Kolyma from 1932 to 1941 (Bollinger, 2003).  

    The gulag camps ended up providing the Soviet Union with a serious boost concerning its economy. Predominantly kulaks (wealthier peasants) filled the camps from the early stages of operation. The early camps provided well for their inmates which included a proper diet, clothing and pay until the Great Terror. The time when Stalin decided to not coddle the prisoners. New leadership led to cruelty along with starvation, exposure and overwork. The population at the camps sunk to new levels during WWII and repopulated to its former level after the war. Soon after Stalin’s death, the Dal’stroi camps +became a distant memory.

 Shipping Tragedies 

    Prisoners faced a multitude of horrific conditions while traveling to the Dal’stroi camps from severe emotional and physical abuse, starvation and deadly shipwrecks. When the camps first opened, Berzin faced difficulties concerning the transportation of prisoners. The prisoners and supplies had to be transported over great distances. The rough terrain and brutal climate did not permit much land travel. Air transport was not readily available and as a result prisoners and supplies needed to arrive by sea predominantly departing from the ports of Vladivostok, Nakhodka and Vanino to Magadan. The Kolyma camps had to predominantly rely on sea-based transportation. The required ships, built in American, Dutch and British shipyards, moved a massive number of prisoners. Stalin’s slave ships became the mainstay of the Kolyma transport system. The annual prisoner transport shipments rose from forty thousand in 1937 to approximately double that number by 1939 (Bollinger, 2003).

    The reputation of the Kolyma camp involved cruelty, harsh conditions and death especially after 1937, the year the Great Terror began. A transfer to the Kolyma camp became equivalent to the German gas chambers. The horribleness of the camp was overshadowed by the terrors of the ships. Prisoners found the conditions aboard the ships unbearable and prayed to arrive at the death camp post haste. The cramped accommodations caused a variety of problems from death due to starvation and dehydration to a multitude of diseases. Political prisoners on the ships faced being terrorized by common criminals who were sent to the same destinations and the abuse may have been encouraged by Gulag officials. Often the abuse included mass rape of women prisoners. Men met beatings, often deadly. The transport ships served as vehicles for intentional carnages.

    “A typical slave ship was Dhzurma. Its internal structure illustrates best how the human cargo was transported northwards within its holds. A wooden structure had been erected around the wall of its cargo holds, and comprised of four tiered bunks, with the floor serving as the fifth. Each of the bunks was divided into sections to accommodate five men in lying position. To take their places the prisoners had to slide in legs first with their heads facing the passages to avoid suffocation. If there were not enough places to accommodate prisoners, men had to use passageway as they’re put up for a sea voyage lasting six to eleven days (Bollinger, 2003).

    “The sanitary arrangements consisted of two 50-gallon barrels, called ‘parashas,’ which were emptied periodically into the sea. It was quite common for these barrels to spill, over, causing the inside of the holds to smell with the odor of human waste. An outside latrine was also available, but only few prisoners at a time were allowed to use it. Therefore, the queues were always long and moved slowly. This outside arrangement was fenced with bared wire to prevent prisoners from jumping into the sea, especially when the ship was in Japanese territorial waters” (Bollinger, 2003, pgs. 47-48).

    “During the entire voyage, which lasted a week, no members of the guard or the ship’s crew ever entered the prisoners’ hold. They were afraid to, especially when a large number of murderers, and bandits were being transported… None of them took any account of what went on below decks. As a result, during all such voyages the criminals put across a reign of terror. If they want the clothing of any of the counterevolutionaries, they take it from him. If he offers any resistance, he is beaten up. The old and weak are robbed of their bread. On every transport ship a number of prisoners die as a result of such treatment…

    “In 1944 several hundred young girls came to Kolyma. They were so-called ikazniki, sent out here for unauthorized absences from a war factory, or for some similar minor offense.. The crimianls, who formed the greater part of the human freight aboard this ship, had an absolutely free hand in the hold. They broke through the wall into the room where the female prisoners were kept and raped all the women who took their fancy. A few male prisoners who tried to protect the women were stabbed to death… One of the criminals, who appropriated a woman whom the leader of the band had marked for his own, had his eyes put out with a needle. When the ship arrived in Magadan and the prisoners were driven out of the hold, fifteen were missing; they had been murdered by the criminals during the voyage and the guards had not lifted a finger,” Bollinger, 2003, pg. 50).

    The conditions on the ships were deplorable. The conditions the prisoners faced due to the hazards of dangerous seas added to their hardships. They had to travel through storm-tossed and ice-filled seas. The massive waves often buried the prisoners. The ice-filled seas crushed hulls, held ships hostage and caused collisions. The fire aboard ship happened often. They were often out in the middle of Okhotsk Sea and other desolated areas, the chance of rescue was slim.

    The most catastrophic event that happened to prisoners while aboard a ship occurred on the Dzhurma, where 12,000 prisoners did not make it to land. “One of the early – and the most tragic – of the sailings to the Kolyma estuary as that of the steamer Dzhurma, a large ocean liner especially equipped for shipment of Dalstroy prisoners, sailed from Vladivostok in the summer of 1933 on its maiden voyage to Ambar hik… and was caught in pack ice in the western part of the Sea of Chukotsk, near Wrangel Island. We are not likely ever to learn what went on in the ship during that terrible Artic winter, how the doomed prisoners in its hold struggled for life, and how they died. The fully authenticated fact is that the  Dzhurma, when it finally arrived in Ambarchik, in the summer of 1934, did not land a single prisoner. It is also further reported that on their return to Vladivostok nearly half of the crew of the Dzhurma  had to be treated for mental disorders… The plae where the 104 members of the Chelynskin party were waiting for deliverance was not far (no more than 200 miles) from the wintering place of the Dzhurma and its 12,000 prisoners doomed to death from cold and starvation. Moscow feared that in the course of saving the heroes of the Chelyuskin American fliers might by accident uncover the terrible secret of the Dzhurma martyrs” (Bollinger, 2003, pg. 66).

    The conditions on the ships were horrendous and what waited for them at the Kolyma camps was not much better. The prisoners met over work conditions, starvation, abuse in many forms after Stalin inflicted the Great Terror. If his goal was to eliminate many people who went against his beliefs, he managed to accomplish that goal by the transporting of prisoners and the gulags. 

A Devils’ Pact 

   Stalin’s sworn enemy, Hitler, signed a joint peace pact swearing off violence between the two countries, Russia and Germany. Stalin knew it was inevitable concerning an attack by the German military. On August 23, 1939, the two dictators signed the “Nazi-Soviet Pact” or “Hitler-Stalin Pact,” a peace pact that stated there would be no violence inflicted by either party. The dictators did not trust each other while the pact was being signed and after it was signed. It appeared they came together for a common cause. The pact had been linked to starting WWII which isolated Poland between its two malicious neighbors.

    The pact added confusion to the Western world about how to stop Hitler in his tracks before he caused more damage and questioned what was going on between the two dictators. They viewed the phony war suspiciously between the two dictators while Poland was invaded and divided between Berlin and Moscow. Stalin went on to occupy some of the Baltic states and the Romanian province of Bessarabia. Finland was invaded by the Russian army. Hitler invaded  Scandinavia and then France along with some of the other Low Countries such as Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. Stalin congratulated Hitler for his malicious efforts. The Nazis and Soviets traded secrets, blueprints, technology and materials to fine tune each other’s war machines. Countries such as the United States watched with a careful eye. It appeared the two countries were in it together to defeat the democratic world. France and Britain toyed with a plan to attack the Soviet Union in 1940. A multitude of countries felt ill at ease while they tried to get to the bottom of the dictators’ plans.

    Other countries believed Stalin wanted to bide his time with the pact while he prepared his defenses against a preeminent attack by Hitler. Another goal may have been to exploit Hitler’s hostility to lead to the fall of the West and the capitalists’ regime. He despised capitalism.

    The Nazis had little moral compass left after launching the Holocaust. The Soviets followed suit by incredibly horrendous acts of persecution, torture and murder such as the 22,000 Polish Army officers and officials massacred in Katyn by Soviet Russia in 1940. Both Stalin and Hitler politically cleansed those under their command. However, much to the world’s dismay, Hitler’s crimes have been well-known while Stalin’s scarcely made front page news.

    The Pact had a long-lasting effect on many countries in Europe. The pact contained approximately 280 words, seven short paragraphs and only lasted 22 months. As a result of the pact, boundaries of specific countries were altered by German and Soviet ministers. Horrible memories of the Soviet and German occupation have fueled resistance movements. The protests in the Baltic states on the fiftieth anniversary of the pact’s signing in 1989 fueled the process of the USSR’s termination. At the time of the pact’s existence many countries watched carefully to see what the two malevolent dictators had in store for the rest of the world (Moorhouse, 2014). 

World War II

    WWII played out differently for Stalin. He started his reign of terror by occupying countries near Russia and then sat waiting for Hitler’s first move. He thought he had more time before Germany attacked Russia because of the peace pact and did not take heed to warnings given to him by his central intelligence agents. The Red Army, ill prepared for Germany’s attack in June of 1941, lost many soldiers. Stalin realized he was not prepared to lead an army and had to quickly line up generals and other military officials. During one of his purges, he had many of the more experienced generals and other military officials murdered at an earlier date. When the Russian military operated at full capacity the German military faced a fierce opponent.

    The German forces weren't prepared for the long, cold winters and were unable to maintain supplies. The tenacity of the Russian people made the German's utilize too many resources which helped the Allied Forces in other areas such as Western Europe. Stalin gave the Russian troops a warning that they were not to surrender under any circumstances and if they did they would be treated as traitors and end up at the gulags. Stalin practiced the “scorched earth” policy of destroying the food supply in certain areas before the Germans could seize them. This move caused unimaginable starvation and anguish for the civilian population who was left behind. The Russians ended up winning the war against Germany (DeJonge, 1986).

Stalin’s End of Life and Legacy

    On March 1, 1953, after Stalin enjoyed a dinner with an interior minister and future premiers, he collapsed in his room due to a stroke. His right side was paralyzed. The cause of death was noted as a cerebral hemorrhage. His body was laid to rest in Lenin’s Mausoleum until October 1, 1961. His body was removed from the Mausoleum and buried near the Kremlin walls as a result of the de-Stalinization process.

    The Soviet Union was transformed from an agricultural country to a nuclear superpower under Stalin’s rule at a high cost of human life. The industrialization in Russia ended up being moderately successful. The United States added to their progress by the supplies provided under the Lend Lease Plan which aided in the country to defend itself against the Axis invasion in WWII. Stalin ended up responsible for the initial military disasters and massive human casualties during WWII. Stalin eliminated many of Russia’s military officers during his purges, especially the senior ones. He also rejected intelligence warnings of the German attack.

    Stalin’s strong negotiation skills along with his political, social and economic polices and his intelligence network led the USSR to becoming a superpower. The ruthlessness of his leadership was condemned by many people in Russia and the country experienced a denunciation of Stalinism. His successors, however, continued to follow Stalin’s basic principles in which the political control of the Communist Party completely ruled over the country’s economy and suppressed dissent (DeJonge, 1986).

 

Jeffery Amherst

 

 

Jeffery Amherst’s heinous acts of genocide killed many Native American people. His favored form of genocide was biological warfare. Smallpox was used against a segment of the population unprepared to fight off its lethal properties. The men who fell under his command bought into his racism and helped him in his murderous rampage. Various tribes succumbed to the deadly grip of a very contagious disease while they thought the British were being generous with their gifts of blankets, handkerchiefs and little metal boxes. Amherst served as the commanding general of the British forces in Canada during the concluding battles of the French and Indian War (1754-1763). He acquired Canada for England after the takeover of Louisbourg in 1758 which assisted in helping England become the world’s chief colonizer as a result of the aforementioned war. Because of his victory in Canada, Amherst was promoted to Commander-in-Chief of the Forces; shortly after this appointment he was also promoted to General. He gained a lot of public support concerning his beliefs about the Indian people which he referred to as “savages,” undeserving of living. The Native American people lived in fear of Amherst and the British.     

    “The depiction of Indians as wild beasts was quite common among early American leaders, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. David E. Stannard writes: ‘As is so often the case, it was New England’s religious elite who made the point more graphically than anyone. Referring to some Indians who had given offense to the colonists, the Reverend Cotton Mather wrote: ‘Once you have but got the Track of those Ravenous howling Wolves, then pursue them vigorously; Turn not back till they are consumed…Beat them small as the Dust Before the Wind.’ Lest this be regarded as mere rhetoric, empty of literal intent, consider that another of New England’s most esteemed religious leaders, the Reverend Solomon Stoddard, as late as 1703 formally proposed to the Massachusetts Governor that the colonists be given the financial wherewithal to purchase and train large packs of dogs ‘to hunt Indians as they do bears’” (Stannard, 1992, pg. 241).

    Amherst went as far as giving Seneca land near Niagara to some of his officers for payment for their dedicated service. His actions matched Britain’s attitude toward land rights and treaty rights between the Six Nations and the colony of New York which were to be ignored (Utley and Washburn, 2001). The British spread their demand for land and all of its resources throughout Canada and the eastern portion of the United States during the 17^th and 18^th Centuries. Forests and and the land the Native Americans resided on was filled with healing medicines, wild game and places to garden and gather. The British took it upon themselves to cut down a lot of trees to build their homes and plant large gardens. Many of the benefits found in the forests were lost forever to the Native Americans. To make matters worse, many indigenous people faced deadly diseases as a result of the European invasion, intentional and unintentional. Many of the Odawa Indians in Michigan lost their lives as a result of Amherst’s intentional act of genocide.

 

The Odawa and the Smallpox Genocide

 

    In 1763, the British provided the Odawa Indians gifts consisting of three little insulated metal boxes. During the time the biological warfare occurred, the Odawa were on a peace mission returning British soldiers safely to the British settlement in Montreal. Under the direction of Sir Jeffery Amherst, the British instructed the Odawa people to not open the metal boxes until they returned from Montreal to their village near present day Harbor Springs, Michigan. The smallpox massacre was remembered in legends passed down for generations with the Odawa people. Pontiac’s rebellion, and the actions of few British officers were linked to the rationale behind the biological warfare inflicted against the unsuspecting Odawa people in 1763.              

    The Odawa Indians resided in various locations stemming from Canada, lower Michigan, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and as far as Oklahoma. Ancient birch bark scrolls indicated the Odawa resided in the eastern areas of North America. They lived in the Great Lakes area for centuries before the arrival of the French in the 17^th century.  In the past, colonists in Quebec referred to all Algonquian tribal people from the Great Lakes as Odawa even if they were from another tribe such as the Ojibwe tribe. However, like other tribes they had their own language, customs, traditions, and own history which made them a distinct population and tribal nation. The Odawa, also known as the Ottawa, had a close connection to the Ojibwe/Chippewa and Potawatomi. All three tribes, referred to as the Anishnaabek (the original people), were known as the Three Fires Confederacy. They fought wars together, inter-married, and shared villages.

    The name Odawa was said to mean traders, buyers and sellers. They were considered prominent leaders concerning the fur trading business. Their abilities included their diplomatic skills with other tribal nations and white settlers. They were great fishermen, hunters and also relied upon their corn crops. They prepared maple syrup and gathered wild berries to provide for their families. The Odawa products, sought after by other tribal nations and white settlers, consisted of woven mats, black ash baskets and birch bark goods (Cappel, 2007).

    The area the Odawa lived in was referred to as L’Arbre Croche, which included a series of villages stretching from present day Cross Village to Harbor Springs, Michigan. “Arbre,” meant tree and “croche,” meant crooked or hook like. They deformed trees to serve as council trees and marker trees. Most of the trees were large maples. The deformed trees were formerly used to guide Native Americans on the overland path from Chicago to the Straits of Mackinac.

    To deform a tree, the center trunk was removed at a human’s shoulder height which caused the surrounding branches to grow out in an inverted umbrella shape. Deformed trees of this nature can also be found in ancient sacred sites in New England (Hanka, N.D.).

    The Odawa people were not completely exterminated or moved to another part of the country like many other tribes. Because many of the Odawa people were peace-loving and agrarian, they decided to assimilate with the white settlers. The common belief of the white settlers was if the inhabitants farmed the land they lived on, the land belonged to them. Otherwise, if the land was not being farmed, anyone could claim it. They worked as lumbermen, shop keepers, carpenters, and educators alongside the settlers and were part of the changing economic environment.

    After a skirmish at Fort Mackinac in 1763, some of the British soldiers who were in command of the fort were taken as prisoners by the Ojibwe people with the plan of killing them. Some Odawa warriors rescued the British soldiers and transported them back to Montreal where Amherst was stationed. The Odawa warriors, who returned the British soldiers, thought they were in good grace with the British military. As a token of appreciation, Amherst gave the Odawa warriors three little metal boxes. One larger box with another that fit into the first box and the second box contained an even smaller box. Three little metal boxes all together. Unknown to the Odawa, the smallest of the boxes contained smallpox pores. When they opened the last box, they ran their fingers in what they thought was a dust like substance trying to figure out what it was. Thousands of Odawa people lost their lives as a result of Amherst’s actions. Unrelated to what happened to the Odawa people at Abre Croche,  a warrior by the name of Pontiac proved to be a fierce adversary against the British and attacked and took over many British forts. 

Pontiac’s Rebellion: 

    From 1763 to 1766 Chief Pontiac of the Odawa tribe from the Detroit area became famous because of Pontiac’s rebellion. The rebellion represented an American Indian struggle against the British military efforts concerning the Great Lakes region. In July of 1763 Pontiac successfully defeated the British at the Battle of Bloody Run. He was unable to capture the fort at Detroit. Other Indian groups joined Pontiac’s rebellion against the British and these groups captured eight forts in what were present-day Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Crafty warriors with one thing in mind, to defeat the British by tricking the soldiers into allowing them to enter the forts, then they would capture and/or kill the residents (Cappel, 2007).

    When the Detroit Fort was under siege other tribal groups attacked and took over Ft. Presque Isle, Ft. Le Boeuf, Ft. Venango, Ft. Miami, Ft. St. Joseph, Ft. Ouilatenon, Fort Sandusky and Ft. Michilimackinac. Ft. Bedford and Ft. Ligonier. Ft. Pitt and Ft. Niagara were assaulted but not taken. Pontiac led a multitude of American Indians from several tribes in the resistance effort to drive the British from American/Indian held lands. The attacks on British forts may have led to much of the animosity of the British towards the Indian people.  Sir Jeffery Amherst heard about the Indian attacks on the British forts (Cappel, 2007). Pontiac’s Rebellion came to an abrupt halt when Colonel Henry Bouquet led a large army unit from Fort Pitt to Ohio and forced the Indian warriors to make peace (Douglas, 1996). 

Additional Acts of Biological Warfare Against the Native American People             

    Amherst plotted to exterminate many Indian people. “With the surrender of New France to Great Britain, command of the English North American military forces fell to Lord Jeffrey Amherst. An arrogant aristocrat who despised all Indians, Amherst withheld gunpowder and lead from France’s former native allies, stating that England’s enemies ought to be punished, not rewarded. When informed the tribes depended on their muskets for taking game and would starve without ammunition, he remained unswayed, callously informing his aides that they should seed the complaining bands with smallpox so as to lend starvation a speedy hand” (Robertson, 2001, pg. 119).

    He gave orders to supply smallpox infected blankets to American Indians at Ft. Pitt. He expressed his readiness to use any possible method to wipe out the Indian race completely. A letter from Colonel Henry Bouquet to General Amherst dated July 13, 1763 suggested the distribution of smallpox infested blankets to the Indians. In another letter dated July 16, 1763, from Amherst to Bouquet, Amherst gave approval of supplying contaminated blankets and every other method to exterminate the Indian people (Cappel, 2007).

    “In the spring of 1763, during the Indian uprising led by Ottawa Chief Pontiac, a party of Delewares ringed British owned Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), calling for its surrender. Captain Simeon Ecuyer, a Swiss mercenary and the fort’s senior officer, saved the garrison by giving the Delawares a gift – two blankets and a handkerchief. The Indians readily accepted the offering, but still demanded the Ecuyer vacate the stockade. They had no inkling that the blankets and kerchief were more deadly than a platoon of English sharpshooters. Ecuyer had ordered the presents deliberately infected with smallpox spores at the post hospital. By mid-July, the Delewares were dying as though they had been raked by a grape cannonade. Fort Pitt remained firmly in English hands” (Robertson, 2001, pg. 119). 

Later Years for Amherst: 

    Amherst’s successes in North America awarded him with honors before and after his death. Towns and a college were named after him. His conduct as a commander, which was considered solid, aided in the takeover of Louisbourg in 1759. Labeled as an organizer of victory, he left nothing to chance concerning the fields of supply and transport. His thoroughness was what the war in North America required.  He was appointed governor of Virginia in September of 1759. He did not function actively in that role. The appointment of commander-in-chief in America led him to holding the office of colonel-in-chief of the Royal Americans. In 1775 at the age of 58, the British king encouraged Amherst to take command in America. The colonists threatened war. He refused. The king asked him again in 1778 and again he refused. In 1780 he had the task of restoring order in London after the Gordon riots. Dismissed of that assignment when Lord North’s ministry went out of office in 1782. At the age of 76, he was recalled and appointed commander-in-chief with a seat in the cabinet because war with France served as a threat. He retired after two years and promoted to field marshal as of July 30, 1796. Amherst died August 3, 1797 and was buried at the parish church of Sevenoaks (Stacey, 1979).

    Amherst’s hatred of the Native Americans followed suit with many of the leaders of the time. North America during the mid to late 1700s faced turmoil due to the animosity between France and Britain as a result of territorial issues in North America. The French and Indian War also known as the Seven Year War occurred due to the aforementioned animosities. The British outnumbered the French, but many Native Americans joined forces with the French against the British. Pontiac’s rebellion also added fuel to the hatred of the indigenous people by the British. As a result of extreme hatred of the Native Americans, many lost their lives by biological warfare and other means at the hands of Amherst and other British leaders.

           

           

 

 

The History of the Indian Boarding Schools

 

The Indian Education Act of 1891 gave authority to government officials to control the location, activities and treatment of all Indian children and mandated the collection and transportation of tribal children to Indian boarding schools. Total control of the Indian children’s education was viewed as the most feasible option to achieve assimilation and the adaptation of a perceived “civilized” lifestyle for Native Americans. The governmental officials believed the children’s separation from their families would reduce their families’ influence. Some Indian people managed to survive with little to no repercussions after attending these insti-tutions, however, for the majority of Indian people, the boarding school initiative made more of a negative impact than all other efforts to destroy the Indian people which included massacres, starvation, disease, loss of land, and Christianity.

The outcome of the boarding school legislation was a vulnerable population laced with disease, death, poverty, and other social ills, such as rates of domestic violence, alcoholism, child abuse and neglect higher than any other sectors of the population. Ongoing cultural oppression, health disparities and a lack of access to services and eco-nomic opportunity coupled with chronic poverty, have depleted hope for many tribal families. The cumulative effects of chronic stress and unresolved historical trauma have led to an increased risk for developing psychological and behavioral disorders. The negative impact of the enforced boarding school legislation has resonated with many Native American families today. 

“The way they went about it was horrific. They would just go to a town and round up the children… They would chop the Indian hair off, and in the Indian culture, hair is sacred. To make sure children wouldn’t escape, they would tell them their parents died. We’re a very spiritual people. When the children tried to do death rites, they were prohibited to pray or speak their language and they were punished for it. Many of the children were discombobulated, and horribly damaged” (Brody, 2019, para. 68).

            “The truth about the US Indian boarding school policy has largely been written out of the history books. There were more than 350 government-funded, and often church-run, Indian Boarding Schools across the US in the 19th and 20th centuries. Indian children were forcibly abducted by government agents, sent to schools hundreds of miles away, and beaten, starved, or otherwise abused when they spoke their native languages. Between 1869 and the 1960s, it’s likely that hundreds of thousands of Native American children were removed from their homes and families and placed in boarding schools operated by the federal government and the churches. Though we don’t know how many children were taken in total, by 1900 there were 20,000 children in Indian boarding schools, and by 1925 that number had more than tripled. The U.S. Native children that were voluntarily or forcibly removed from their homes, families, and communities during this time were taken to schools far away… Many children never returned home and their fates have yet to be accounted for by the U.S. government” (The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, N.D., para. 3).

            When boarding schools were first established families, forced to rely on the U.S. government for sus-tenance, faced the threat of losing their much needed rations, annuities and other goods if they did not let the government take their children and place them in these cold and harsh institutions. A compulsory attendance law was passed by Congress in 1891. As a result of the poor economy, many parents felt they had no choice but to send their children to the institutions because they could not provide for them (Child, 2000). Some of the children were provided better care when they attended the boarding schools because of the problems their parents faced such as alcoholism. Other reasons why they attended the boarding schools included racism which was endemic towards Native Americans at the public schools or they had cousins, siblings and other people they knew who attended the schools.

The concept of the boarding school initiative began in 1875 when Richard Henry Pratt was given responsibility of 72 Indian men charged with murder and rapine (the act of seizing property by force) at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida. During their stay, these prisoners served as laborers to offset the cost of running the prison. They performed cleaning and maintenance duties. Pratt rehabilitated these men. The prisoners were introduced to reading and arith-metic in a classroom setting and worked part time at odd jobs at St. Augustine. The Indian men adopted the appearance and characteristics of the American population. These same Indian men were later placed in jobs without guards. Following Pratt’s efforts to rehabilitate the Indian men, the Carlisle Indian Boarding School was established by Pratt in Carlisle, Pennsylvania with support of the federal government in 1879. The boarding schools were fashioned after the same rehabilitative principles as the prison pro-gram, which included the school attendants serving as laborers to offset costs (Child, 2000). 

 

“A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one, and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indians there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.”
— General Richard Henry Pratt 

Native American children from various tribes and a multitude of locations from around the country were kid-napped from reservations where they were sequestered with their families by the U.S. government. The school employees transported the children to the school where they succumbed to abuse and stripped of any semblance of their culture and self-respect, completely traumatized. Their hair was chopped off (their long hair represented their connection to Mother Earth, growth of their spirit, extrasensory perception and connection to all things.). The school employees scrubbed them with kerosene and they were forbidden to use their native language, only the English language. They had to wear foreign clothing. In the effort to reform nondominant cultures, they inflicted irreversible damage (Irving, 2014). By 1917, the final year of operation of the Carlisle Boarding School, there were 58 tribes represented in the student body (Child, 2000).

The Indian children were given meaningless English names at the schools. In the Native American tribal way of life, one was not permitted to own anything that was provided to them by the Creator. The land, food and other necessities were bestowed to them to use and must be honored. The only thing that could be owned was their given names. Only one person in a village had a specific name, and this name was derived by spiritual means such as visions, dreams and naming ceremonies. Names provided their identity throughout their lifetime. When English names were given to the children as a part of the assimilation process, this led to identity confusion (Reyner and Eder, 2004). 

“Conversion to Christianity was also deemed essential to the cause. Indian boarding schools were expected to develop a curriculum of religious instruction, placing emphasis on the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes and Psalms. Implanting ideas of sin and a sense of guilt were part of Sunday schools. Christianity governed gender relations at the schools and most schools invested their energy in keeping the sexes apart, in some cases endangering the lives of the students by locking girls in their dormitories at night — meaning they could not get out, even in the case of fire...” (American Indian Relief Council, N.D., para. 14).

The religious instruction added to the confusion and degradation of many Indian children. Oftentimes, they were abused in various ways by the same people who were providing religious instruction. Children who demonstrated resistance to the teaching practices and the regimented authority were subjected to humiliation and harsh punish-ments. They suffered whippings and unusual torture such as standing on their tiptoes with arms outstretched while their hands were hit with wooden boards and rulers. The treatment of boys was typically more severe than that of girls. Ruthless punishment occurred when children tried to run away, although this did not deter many from attempting to do so.

It may be difficult to imagine the shock these children experienced when they were yanked from their homes and families, stripped of their cultural identity, while forced to attend a foreign environment filled with fear and hostility. A strange form of religion was forced upon them while told they were savages. However, the dominant population continued to see a solid purpose for the establish-ment of these institutions. The Carlisle School led to the establishment of many similar boarding school institutions in various locations around the country with intentions of civilizing the Native American children to prepare them to fit into American society as servants and laborers. The trans-formation included vast changes in family structure, economics (how they earned a living), how they expressed emotion, and so much more (Irving, 2014). Their loss of identity formed mixed messages about their heritage and about themselves, resulting in contempt for those in power as well as their parents and elders.  

Boarding schools were run like military camps. Indian children were stringently taught how to follow orders. The children had to fall into formation, march in a straight line, and oftentimes wore military clothing and shoes. During the weekdays, the children attended school educational sessions. They were taught English, math, history, and geography usually by American teachers. Geography was an eye-opening experience when they learned about the world and stars. When asked to draw pictures of the earth, they drew pictures of dwellings, animals and vegetation (Adams, 1995).  Some of the teachers tried to be kind and helpful, but many were cruel and harsh.

On average, only a few hours a day was spent in the classroom, and the other portion of the day was spent undertaking assigned tasks. The children received minimal care and education. Learning how to accomplish various tasks were thought to help prepare them for adulthood in the white man’s world, because the only viable future was a white future. Girls were prepared to work as servants or to become homemakers. Boys were trained in the areas of gar-dening, repair and maintenance of homes and farms, the running of farms, printing presses, and the building of houses and furniture.

The children who attended the boarding schools suffered from various types of abuse which included sexual abuse. One woman reported she spent years in therapy until she finally grasped the fact, she had been a victim. The shame and guilt she experienced as a result of the sexual abuse she was forced to endure at the hands of a priest at a missionary boarding school caused her chronic emotional stress into adulthood.

According to one report, nuns at the Holy Childhood Boarding School in Harbor Springs, Michigan would main-tain relationships with young boys and these young boys would become confidants for these women. Mentally healthy women in their 30s or 40s do not fall in love with boys who are 10, 11 or 12 years of age.  Pedophiles work in a way that does not permit children to refuse. It is cunning, measured, and done under the pretext of fondness. These children were used as sexual outlets. Once the sexually deviant person tired of the current victim, they dumped them and preyed on other unsuspecting children. Victims often felt abandoned. Children could not escape from their per-petrators. They had no one to turn to and they were held captive because these institutions became their prison (Stanton, 2008).

Another report involved nuns at the same boarding school who began their seduction by kissing the younger boys good night. One of the abusive nuns was in her 20s, rather plain and chubby. The favored boys would get kissed on the lips and she would tickle them.  One of the people who attended the school stated that a few years went by for him until the kisses started getting longer and longer, and then he was taken to her bedroom. The boys were not expected to perform sexual acts until they were approximately 12 years of age.

One day, another nun at another institution pulled a boy off the playground and forced him to perform sexual acts, he and a pedophile nun were caught in a compromising position by other nuns, yet the perpetrator did not receive any retribution (Podles, 2008).  The children were habitually exposed to “institutionalized pedophilia” and “sexual terror-ism.” The pedophiles included, but were not limited to, priests, nuns, teaching staff, and Protestant clergy.

 When children first arrived at the school, they felt lonely and isolated and as a result many suffered from home-sickness. Most children who attended these institutions were separated from their family before they were develop-mentally mature. The boarding schools were often one hour or further from the children’s homes. The expense of travel was more than most Indian families could afford, which deterred them from visiting their children. In 1924, the Native American per capita annual income was approximately $81 (Churchhill, 2004).

Prior to the 1920s, boarding school officials would have to seek preapproval from the local reservation superintendent or an Indian agent before permission could be granted for children to go home, even for severe hardship, such as deaths in the family and sick relatives.  Indian parents learned to get around these sanctions by stating their children were needed to assist with farming. Since farming was a part of the assimilation process, it served as a more worthy excuse. When John Collier filled the position as Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1933, these policies took a turn for the better.  Students were permitted to go home for the summer months and usually for family hardships.

Indian children developed alliances with each other and looked after one another while attending these institutions. Many of the children had never met Indian people from other tribes. Long-lasting friendships were often formed, some lasting their lifetimes. They made fun of the teachers and gave them names the students felt best suited their personalities. On occasion, they snuck out at night together and did things they knew were forbidden activities, such as breaking into buildings on and off school property. Sports, choirs, bands, and dances were other ways long lasting friendships were developed and ways in which the children maintained their sanity. Sharing the common experience of attending boarding schools was another way in which life long bonds were established.

When a child was sent to bed without a meal, the other children would often sneak them food. The children experienced what could be referred to as slow, agonizing starvation. School officials were allotted very limited fund-ing, which served as a strong indication of the lack of impor-tance concerning Indian children.

Because many Indian children from various tribal nations attended the boarding schools together, they shared a rich cultural exchange referred to as pan-Indianness. They developed an understanding of other Indian cultures while helping each of their acquired acquaintances with the harshness of the boarding school experience. Ojibwe students, for example, met Indian children from various tribes such as the Lakotas, Oneidas and Poncas from various locations around the U.S. The Indian children became more alike, they learned a portion of other Indian languages along with the enforced English language. Students who left the boarding schools after graduation married people from other tribes and summer gatherings on reservations became intertribal events. New political alliances were created and the schools became a part of a joint history (Child, 2000). 

“The Carlisle school developed a “placing out system,” placing Indian students in the mainstream community for summer or a year at a time where they could learn skills other than farming. While monitored carefully at Carlisle, other outing programs were often exploitive. At the Phoenix Indian School, girls became the major source of domestic labor for white families, boys were placed in seasonal harvest or other jobs unwanted by white or immigrant laborers and the students were unsupervised, learning very little from their outing experiences” (American Indian Relief Council, N.D., para. 11). Other boarding schools followed suit and many Indian children became laborers for white people who lived near the schools. 

During the 1920s, the Meriam report revealed the lack of fresh food and milk for boarding school residents in the United States. This report involved an investigation concerning failed U.S. Indian policies in various areas such as education. The average per capita food allowance was 11 cents per day. As a result, students suffered from mal-nutrition because of the shortage of food. The Meriam report contained a suggestion that 35 cents per day for each student would meet the children’s needs. This would ensure proper nutrition and adequate food supply. During the time of the Meriam report, the children’s diet mostly consisted of meat and starch. Vegetables and fruit were rarely served. They did not receive milk on a daily basis. The school staff promised the children would receive adequate clothing but oftentimes they sent letters home requesting jackets, hats, shoes and other attire.

The Meriam report was especially hard on BIA run boarding schools and referred to them as inferior to public schools and did not prepare the students for life either on the reservation or among white society. All boarding schools were overcrowded, and there was poor hygiene, inadequate nutrition, and the forced labor was difficult for the students, who were usually under fed.

Poor delivery of health care services to the reservations was also noted in the report. Trachoma, tuberculosis, and other serious maladies ran rampant. Out-side of smallpox vaccinations, other preventative medical procedures was non-existent (Page, 2000).

Good Housekeeping series in 1929, author of the series, Vera L. Connolly, wrote about the past and present injustices concerning Indian people. She defined one of the worse circumstances involved children who were removed from their families and reared in over-crowded, disease ridden boarding schools, places where the government officials overworked and starved the students. Average enrollment in the Indian boarding schools exceeded capacity by approximately 40 percent (Child, 2000).

The recommendations put forth by those who conducted the Meriam study were often ignored. On another note, during the time the Meriam team was observing some of the boarding schools, they made notice of the extreme levels of quietness. Episodes of intermingling and comfortable conversations were non-existent (Churchhill, 2004).

Disease ran rampant in the boarding schools with tuberculosis being one of the most serious. Measles, mumps, influenza, and trachoma, a disease that inflicted the eyes, were other common health maladies. Often, the parents were not informed about their children’s illnesses. Children with these diseases and healthy students were kept together at the schools. Due to the lack of medical services and poor diets, the children often died as a result of contracting diseases. Sometimes the children’s loneliness and homesickness be-came too much for them and they became physically ill. Parents were often not informed when their children were sick. Tribal nations carried out special ceremonies for some-one who passed on. These traditional practices were not honored at the boarding schools.

Neglect was another form of oppression in which a person has been deprived of love, care, nurturance, support, or other pertinent assistance, as well as basic material needs such as food and shelter. They often experienced failure to thrive. As a result, many Indian people associated these institutions with death and despair. 

The boarding school experience did prepare children to communicate with the English-speaking population. A high percentage of the attendees had a difficult time returning to their home of origin. Their difficulty of fitting in with their families was partially due to the biased instruction they received at the school, as well as the lack of bonding with their families because of their long absences. Much of the native language was lost, along with many of the traditional customs. A multitude of boarding school attendees did not return to the tribal communities.

 A vast number of Indian children were released from the boarding schools when they were old enough to attend high school. After spending years of following the stringent rules at the schools, they struggled to fit in with their families and the outside world. They were not taught how to think for themselves.

Teenagers have been known to have difficulty making smart choices. During the late teens, the brain begins to develop its prefrontal cortex and inferior cortex, the areas that supervise judgment and self-control. This process is not completed until the mid-twenties. As a result, teenagers and young adults have been subject to making bad judgments, lack inhibitory control, and experience a likelihood of developing addictive behaviors. These susceptibilities can be lessened if they had received caring support (Wnuk, 2018). 

Many of the teenagers who left these institutions were not welcomed by their families. The years of separation and the vast differences these attendees had with their families caused them to feel alienated and the needed support and guidance was nonexistent. A large number of Native American people continue to live with regrets that resulted from making poor choices when they were teenagers and young adults because of their boarding school experience. Many Indian people married individuals who mirrored the caregivers at these institutions and ended up in loveless relationships and/or divorce. Again, the negative impact of these harsh environments resonated throughout tribal communities (Child, 2000).

            The boarding schools served as a harsh reminder of white supremacy and how the Native Americans were view-ed by the Americans. These institutions proved to be one of the most harmful bureaucratic actions taken against the indigenous. The Indian children were trained to be repli-cas of the white race and they received minimal care and education while attending the schools. They suffered from malnutrition, neglect, severe physical, emotional, sexual abuse and cultural abuse. As a result, Native Americans have continued to suffer from higher rates of alcoholism, domestic violence, various diseases, suicide, poverty and many other societal ills than the rest of the population. Memories of the boarding school experience for many of the residents remained prominent in their lives and has carried complex emotions. The U.S. government had never apolo-gized for the hardships entrenched by the boarding school legislation and the legacy of genocide that resulted from the boarding school institutions still exists.