They Called it Prairie Light

They Called It Prairie Light Just yesterday, the newspapers reported a high number of college students going to the emergency room, with a few dying, as a result of drinking too much alcohol. It’s a time-honored tradition across cultures, as old as going away to school for young people. Even younger boys, in the Chilocco Indian School, observed this ritual as a form of rebellion against the authority figures in their lives. The goal …

…even excelling through the social strata. In order to maintain identity, the students needed to rebel against the rules of the school and they were often left with generally detrimental choices when doing so. A question raised by the author, Lomawaima, deserves some consideration. “Did the schools contribute substantially to alcoholism among Indian people?” Much attention is devoted to it in these accounts. Perhaps it’s worth a moderate level of concern, at the least.