Hello, Below is a copy of part my testimony I sent to the House Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States. My testimony is a result of the fifteen years of research I did to write my book, Sky Woman Lives in Me.
I am a descendant of relatives who were forced to attend various Indian Boarding Schools here in America. Two of my relatives, my Great Grandmother, Sophia Huff, age 14 and her sister, Lily Huff, 16, had to attend the Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School in July 1891. Their mother, Elizabeth Huff, refused to allow her daughters to go to school in Oneida to learn English and not be allowed to speak their Oneida language. The US Government sent the two girls away from their mother and family to Carlisle to become assimilated white. There they would learn English and become ‘citizens,’ better their lives, and become good Christians. Elizabeth was told her daughters would be at Carlisle for five years. The girls would be allowed home to visit each Christmas.
When Sophia and Lily arrived at Carlisle, they were stripped of their Oneida clothes and showered and scrubbed down with a brush. Their Oneida clothes were burned. The girls had a blue liquid put into hair, apparently, to delouse them. They were given European, Victorian ladies long, heavy woolen dresses, hard toed shoes and were told to either put their hair into a bun or get a very short haircut. They were given English names and told they could only speak English or would be punished for speaking Oneida.
The girls were then separated so they couldn’t converse with each other in Oneida. After three days, Lily was put in a lineup with other Indigenous Girls. The girls were told to “Stand tall, in a straight line.” As they stood in line, a group of non-Indian ladies walked up and down the line of girls, looking at the girls from head to toe. After a while Lily was tapped on her shoulder, chosen to become a servant for a white lady from New Jersey. Lily never returned to Carlisle.
Elizabeth and Nicholas Huff had no idea that their daughter, Lily, was sent out as a servant to a white family, far away from Carlisle. Lily could not speak English. She wasn’t taught at Carlisle anything. The Carlisle School Rules for students to work for a white family included having two years of schooling at Carlisle, knowledge of the English Language and a student had to sign up for an Outing. None of these rules applied to Lily! Lily would spend years working as a servant for various white families on the east coast. She never saw Sophia for eleven years. Lily was paid to be a servant; part of her earnings was sent back to Carlisle for safekeeping. Carlisle also received funds from the US Government for Lily to attend Carlisle, even though Lily was no longer attending the school!
Sophia would spend one year at Carlisle, learning English and basically a kindergarten elementary education. She was taught domestic training skills and sewing and learned to march all over the Carlisle School grounds! She, like many other students, would be caught speaking their native tongue. Her punishments for speaking Oneida included being forced to chew on lye soap; scrub a floor with a small brush (the size of a toothbrush)! She was locked up in a dark closet. She was slapped for speaking Oneida. She was hit for speaking Oneida many times.
After her first year at Carlisle, Sophia was put in a line up with other Indigenous Girls, for another group of white ladies, from area states, to look over and choose a girl as a servant. Sophia was chosen to work for a Quaker lady from New Jersey. Sophia would be a servant with this family for ten years. She was paid. Part of her earnings had to be sent back to Carlisle. Like Lily, Carlisle received funds for Sophia for attending Carlisle, even though Sophia was not at Carlisle. Sophia was a hard worker for her Quaker family. Through the years she worked her way up to being head servant. After ten years, her Quaker family allowed her to go back to Wisconsin to visit her parents and family. But she was to return to New Jersey and continue being a servant for the Quaker family after that summer visit of 1902.
Luckily, Sophia fell in love with my Great Grandfather, Hyson. She told Carlisle and her Quaker family she was not returning to New Jersey. Sophia not returning to New Jersey meant ‘Sophia had gone back to the blanket’ (gone back to her Indian ways)! Her Quaker family was upset. Carlisle was upset, hence Sophia never received any of her saved earnings from Carlisle!
Sophia’s Quaker boss took a train to Wisconsin from New Jersey to try to get his top servant to return to New Jersey. They all wrangled and argued over this for three days. Sophia stayed in Wisconsin. Her Quaker boss returned to New Jersey empty handed.
Thanks to Sophia returning to Wisconsin, I am here to testify to you as her Great-Granddaughter! When Sophia returned to Wisconsin, she was able to communicate with her parents, Nicholas, and Elizabeth Huff, in Oneida. She secretly kept her Oneida language! That reunion still brings tears to my eyes!
When my grandmother, Millie was a little girl, she would visit with her grandmother, Grandma Elizabeth Huff. But it was difficult for Millie. Millie could not speak Oneida. She wasn’t taught Oneida by Sophia for fear of repercussion from the US Government. Grandma Huff could not speak English. Millie couldn’t bond with her grandmother because of neither speaking the same language. Millie would always leave the room when her mother Sophia spoke Oneida with Elizabeth, because she couldn’t understand Grandma Huff and Sophia anyways. Learning about this made me very sad.
I did not meet Sophia until she was well into her eighties. She was like a stranger to me. No one told me about her. I never knew about her. I didn’t see the Oneida Reservation until I was an adult. I know nothing of my Oneida Culture or language. The television westerns I saw on TV as a child, portrayed Indians as dirty and savages. I didn’t want to be one of those! I was made to be ashamed of my Indian self and I was prejudice of my Oneida roots for a long time, well into my adulthood.
As an adult I was able to tour the Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School Grounds three times. It is now an Army War College. Most of the buildings of the school are gone. But one thing that remains is a cemetery at the entrance to Carlisle. When I first saw this cemetery, I was really surprised and shocked. What was a cemetery doing on the grounds of the Carlisle School. The headstones were white, marble, military type with children’s names on them. Some had written ‘Unknown’ on their headstone. I was sad to see this cemetery full of children! All the schools I attended had swings, basketball hoops, hopscotch, and a playground to play on. Seeing this cemetery, I realized my great grandmother had attended a school where children had died. “How come these children died at this school?” came to my mind. Children aren’t supposed to go to school to die. I am grateful today that my great grandmother, Sophia, survived Carlisle and her Outing work as a servant for a Quaker Family in New Jersey.
The cemetery at Carlisle still haunts me. I feel the sadness Indigenous families have, who lost their loved ones at the boarding school. I feel sad that these children died. I still think about the tombstones that are labeled ‘Unknown’ at the Carlisle Cemetery. Yes, my Great Grandmother, Sophia Huff survived but at what price? Maybe Sophia’s memory of the burning of her throat from chewing the lye soap, (given to her at Carlisle for speaking Oneida), made her not teach Millie, my grandmother, Oneida. Fear of repercussions from the US Government probably have contributed to Millie, my mother and I, my children, and many relatives from not learning our Oneida language.
Well, I am alive today to learn my Oneida language and culture! But the children buried at Carlisle, and at many Indian Boarding Schools, here in the United States did nothing wrong but be Indian. All the children buried at Indian Boarding Schools here in the United States, deserve respect, deserve to be acknowledged, even the ‘Unknowns’! Their stories of human suffering need to be brought into the light! For this reason, I respectfully urge the passage of H.R. 5444
Thank you for allowing me to share my story. Thank you to the Natural Resources Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States.
Sincerely, Roberta Capasso, Author, Sky Woman Lives in Me
Sky Woman Lives in Me 