Housing and Adult Education on the Crow Reservation, 1884-1934

FAIN: FT-278282-21

Rebecca Wingo
University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH 45220-2872)

Revision leading to a book on federal house-building and adult education initiatives on the Crow Reservation during the Assimilation Era.

My in-progress monograph, Reframing the Crows, examines three under-researched aspects of Native American history during the Assimilation Era: housing, adult education, and photography. My book argues that the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) fetishized the house as a conduit of education and catalyst for cultural change for tribal adults. Rooted in settler colonialism and misguided Progressive Era philanthropy, the OIA constructed frame houses around Indigenous peoples in an effort to instill American family structures, land use, and moral authority. The government used architectural determinism (the belief that the physical structure of the house could restructure the behavior of the residents within) to erase tribal cultures. On the Crow Reservation in Montana, the OIA meticulously documented employees’ efforts through photography, wittingly or not also documenting the Crows’ resistance. This proposal seeks funding to support revisions of the final two chapters over June/July of 2021.