288 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[Bull. 196 



... It was a farce . . . they are just vocational schools, and a person 

 could learn in 1 year what it takes him 2 to get at a place like Haskell 

 or Cherokee." 



People in group 3 shared similar school experiences with the people 

 in group 2. They also share, but for different reasons, the bitterness 

 found among the Conservatives in group 1. Beyond this similarity 

 they do not resemble Conservatives in any way. Nearly all of them 

 have completed high school, and many have had vocational or college 

 training. They are actively encouraging their children to succeed in 

 school. In almost every case, their children attend schools off the 

 reservation. They condemn Indian schools in general, and the 

 Cherokee school in particular. 



CONCLUSIONS 



Levels of aspiration and recollections of educational experiences 

 have been the focus of the study of education. Analysis of educa- 

 tional aspirations has yielded three categories of Cherokee: high school 

 oriented, post-high-school vocational training oriented, and college 

 oriented. We see quite clearly that only secondary school completion 

 is a goal for one group. The second group is aware that some train- 

 ing beyond high school is often necessary. The third group antici- 

 pates college education for its offspring. The members of these 

 categories fit Thomas' continuum in a crude way. The group with 

 the lowest aspiration level includes a large number of Conservatives 

 and a few Rural Whites and Generalized Indians. The group with 

 the intermediate expectation is made up of Generalized Indians, 

 Rural Whites, and a few Conservatives. The largest single group in 

 the college oriented category is the Middle Class. Table 11 illustrates 

 this distribution for 41 families with school age children. 



Table 11. — Distribution of selected Cherokee families by educational aspirations 



Through the informants' memories of personal experiences asso- 

 ciated with boarding school, I have been able to discern three groups 

 of Cherokee adults: those who resented the harsh treatment, those 



