Native Americans and Baseball

( I know it is not related to the highway, but the topic was too interesting to keep to myself)

As I sit here pondering the life and times of the late, great Harmon Kilebrew, I wonder what it was like for fans during the 30's and 40s to see their favorite ballplayers come to their communities. This was known as barnstorming where players would take time out of their way to play in areas that did not host professional baseball. However, as I am researching, I came into contact with another interesting facet. While some may know about Babe Ruth, Negro League legend Josh Gibson and other high profile players, there is another group of people that has largely been ignored by baseball fans, Native Americans.

During the later part of the 19th Century and early into the 20th Century, the United States policy with Native Americans was to have them assimilate to the dominant culture. This meant adopting a new way of living. One thing they did was create boarding schools (known as the Federal Indian Boarding School)such as the Haskell Institute and the Santa Fe Indian School. By creating these schools the United States government tried to break down the individual Native American identities. Many young Native Americans suffered mental and physical anguish. One detraction from their plight was baseball.

In 1879, former U.S. Army Officer Colonel Richard H Pratt formed the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. He strongly advocated a military style discipline that promoted civic and industrial learning. Many Native Americans who became successful baseball and football athletes attended Carlisle. The sport of baseball was considered to be "something nobler and higher to think about and do." Starting in 1886, baseball became an implement of assimilation. According to Pratt, "athletic accomplishments prepared the young men for broader and keener contentions of life they are to engage in later."

Baseball teams formed to become a positive outlet for many Native Americans students. It created a sense of pride and strength for these young men. They now were able to feel comfortable in their surroundings while learning a team game. Moreover, it provided them with the ability to display their grace, spirit ,nobility and pride.

The first to hit the Major Leagues was Louis Socalexis in 1897 when he joined the Cleveland Spiders. In 1903, Chief Bender became the first Native American to play in the American League and one of two American Indians to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame; the other is Zach Wheat.

For Chief Bender,"the reason I went into baseball as a profession was that when I left school, baseball offered me the best opportunity both for money and achievement. I adopted it because I played baseball better than I could do anything else, because the life and the game appealed to me and because there was so little of racial prejudice in the game. There has been scarcely a trace of sentiment against me on account of birth. I have been treated the same as other men."

Today, we have an extremely talented player of Navajo background, Boston Red Sox outfielder, Jacoby Ellsbury. He is a member of the Colorado River Indian Tribes and is the first Navajo to play in the Major Leagues. Along with Ellsbury, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Kyle Loshe (Nomlaki Nation) and New York Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain (his father was born on the Winnebago Indian Reservation) are the only non-Hispanic Native Americans in baseball today.

As I learned about these leagues, it makes me wonder, if Major League Baseball keeps promoting diversity, then why don't they speak more about these men?


Link with a very good documentary on Native Americans in baseball

http://public.csusm.edu/NativeAmericansinBaseball/Baseball.mov

Sources:
http://public.csusm.edu/NativeAmericansinBaseball/Federal%20Indian%20Boarding%20Schools%202.html

http://ispy.mnhs.org