1918 Cushman Indian School Tacoma Marvin D Boland Collection BOLANDB1187

These Native American girls were taking a sewing class at the Cushman Indian School on the Puyallup Reservation in June of 1918. The goal of Native American education from 1880-1920 was to assimilate the children into the dominant European culture, removing them from traditional Indian ways. One method was to remove them from their families and enroll them in government run boarding schools. By 1910, the Puyallup Indian School had become the Cushman Indian School, a large industrial boarding school, hosting over 350 students from the Northwest and Alaska. The school's focus was training the students for a place as a laborer in an industrialized America. During WWI the Red Cross entered into a partnership with schools to produce needed goods for the war torn countries. The girls in this photograph are probably sewing for the Red Cross. The boarding school closed in 1920. G39.1-163; TPL-2822

car racing automobile 1918 in washington state cushman indian school group photographs of sitting people groups of people in the united states photographs by marvin dement boland sewing rooms in the united states race cars wwi high resolution education classroom washington state

1914 - 1920

Washington State Historical Society

https://www.washingtonhistory.org/

public domain