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Donna's Journal
Condensed notes, Chilocco (pronounced Shuh-lock'-o) Yesterday and Today, March 10, 2005


1910-Slide number 1.
1. You might ask why I am showing this picture? This woman, Anna Schoenholz, obviously isn't Indian so how is she involved in Chilocco. Anna came to Ellis Island from Germany, circa 1910. George Schoenholz, also an immigrant, sent for her from Germany. He went to New York and married her there before he brought her home to these prairie lands outside of Foraker and Grainola. She was a widow with two children, Emma and Bill. These children, her grandchildren are my half brothers, Arnold and Paul Jones, children of my father's first marriage.

The 1910's were a decade of great change for America. It was the decade when the United States was first considered a world leader. World War 1-the first 'war to end all wars' raged. 1910 was the decade America came to age. It was the decade which began with America's efforts to reform itself and ended with its efforts to reform the world.

http://www.electricscotland.com/history/america/donna/picturebook/192193.htm

Slide 2
1910- Elizabeth Little Cook, Pensoneau, Hernandez my grandmother is the  first short story in my book, “How To Keep Up With The Joneses.”. She is full Ponca but dressed here in the costume of the day, 1910.  It was the last year of the “Gibson Girl Look.” Elizabeth for all her academic life was schooled in institutions. First in the government school out of White Eagle and then at Chilocco. She worked at Chilocco as a housemother over 200 boys in Home Two. She was a court clerk here at Newkirk taking notes in the court room with short hand. She worked in the A.W. Comstock, Attorney at Law, Law office as a secretary and a interpretor.

http://www.electricscotland.com/history/america/donna/picturebook/122123124.htm

This time period enjoyed, BALL ROOM DANCING,   GEORGE GERSHWIN, THEATERS, COLE PORTER  and songs like, “ HINKY DINK PARLAY VOUS.”   The first MODEL T for 345 dollars rolled off new assembly lines. The Titanic sunk in 1912.

All of us remember how we became skilled ballroom dancers at Chilocco. We danced every night at the Flaming Arrow. In later years I was dancing at a party. Someone said, “Why Donna, I thought you lived in such a “straight laced family.”  They obviously thought I had learned to dance at the public dance houses. I just let it go, how could I explain about Chilocco and our socials.

Slide 3
1920-My father, Lee Otis Jones,  on the right, his sister, Gertrude Jones in the middle, and his brother, Dennis Homer Flynn Jones on the left. This decade is often characterized by a period of American optimism and prosperity. The nation became urban and commercial. It is seen by historians as a decade of serious cultural conflict.

http://www.electricscotland.com/history/america/donna/picturebook/190191.htm

Hitler was coming into place in 1921. He capitalized on our economic depression in 1929. Because we as a nation had become frivolous with our good times in and around the prohibition era we were weakened so that he did come to power. The nation had been practicing isolationism.

Like the concentration camps saved today as museums it is my plea to the people of this great  nation that Chilocco should be saved for the same reason.  OF course, we were NOT imprisoned in a concentration camp, quite the opposite. Most of us as alumnae agree it was a wonderful time. We enjoyed:

1. LOVING TEACHERS  WHO WERE DEDICATED TO THEIR MISSION
2. CLEAN HOUSING (no matter that we did the cleaning).
3. GOOD FOOD (until we got tired of it)
4. FELLOWSHIP WITH TRIBES FROM ALL OVER THE NATION (and some of us married.)
5. SOCIAL ACTIVITIES WITH GRACEFULNESS WE COULD HAVE HAD NOWHERE ELSE
6. THE SPORT OF OUR CHOICE (and this wasn't night hawking)

We are proud that a difficult problem was addressed and implemented by the fathers of our country. We as American Indians were educated and learned how to survive in the White man's world for that I am thankful. Of course, we have all had our own trials and struggles but because we could read and write we all have been able to accomplish.


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