Indian Heart/White Man's Head: Native-American Teachers in Indian Schools, 1880–1930

Two teachers at Haskell who had a profound impact on my life were Ella Deloria and Ruth Muskrat Bronson. They stood apart from the others as far as I'm concerned. Ella Deloria was Standing Rock Sioux and a graduate of Columbia…. She taught girls' physical education and drama. Ruth Muskrat Bronson was Cherokee and a graduate of Mount Holyoke. She taught English. They both had such a wonderful sense of humor. They taught non-Indian subject matter but had a very strong respect for Indian culture, and they were clever enough to integrate it into the curriculum. They taught their students to have a healthy respect for themselves as individuals and a pride in their heritage. They taught us about Indian values and kept them alive in us. They respected and encouraged us to voice our opinions in and out of the classroom, and they had the ability to draw out our creativity. When Ruth would tell us to have pride in who we were, she'd say, “Indians are people too. Don't forget that.”