Crazy Brave Blog Post

Joy Harjo expresses her struggles throughout her indian education.  She tried using her education as a way to escape her step dad but was surprised by the quality of schooling that she received.   Joy Harjo mentions her church school where she had to deal with her step-father on a regular basis.  She wanted to get away from him and told her mom that she wanted to move to a different school, secretly her reasoning was to avoid him.  When she arrived at the campus in 1967, Joy Harjo felt emotionally free for finally being able to get away from her step-father and the boring church school.  Unfortunately for her, she quickly found a lack of camaraderie within the institution.  Everyone was indian, but they formed their own ‘gangs’ with alike tribe members. She was hardly able to make a variety of indian friends like her original intent was.  To top it off, Joy was unable to pursue music, one of her favorite past times.  She did have the opportunity to take various painting, pottery, and dramatic arts classes.  The quality of core classes were sub par though.  The teachers had a lack of resources for their use, and some of the teachers didn’t even want to teach, they were forced to.  The Bureau of Indian Affairs ran their schools and ran them as if they were on a military installation.  They usually stayed up until three or four in the morning “creating” and then awoke again at five thirty, less than two hours later.  The dorm staff would wake them up and then they had to conduct details around the area, such as cooking, and cleaning various rooms.  After those details were complete the students could conduct their education within their classrooms.  

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