Chauncey Yellow Robe: A Biography of the American Indian Educator, ca. 1870-1930

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As a young man Canowicakte boarded a train in Indian Country and began a journey that some of his friends said would end at the edge of the world and certain death. Instead, they crossed the continent and found themselves at Carlisle Indian School. In some ways they had reached the end of the world as they had known it. The horrors of Indian boarding school life are well-documented and are still the subject of studies and narratives about intergenerational trauma. However, unlike thousands of other Indians, Canowicakte, now named Chauncey Yellow Robe, flourished there and even developed a close, lifelong friendship with Carlisle’s founder Richard Pratt. He went on to work at Indian boarding schools for nearly his entire professional life.

Despite his education and his obvious acceptance of the idea of Indian assimilation into the white world, Chauncey was adamant about maintaining Native American authenticity and gained a reputation as an outspoken critic of the Wild West shows that were so popular at the time and which portrayed Native Americans stereotypically as savages. Chauncey was involved in the making of The Silent Enemy - one of the first realistically accurate representations of Indians in the movies. Chauncey’s life embodied the cultural conflict that still permeates American society.