Negotiating & Directing Cornell's Indian Extension Program, 1919-1927
In the 1920s, Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih (Haudenosaunee) women came to Cornell’s campus to receive an education in home economics. In 1918, Albert Mann, then Dean of the New York State College of Agriculture, requested the Quaker physician, Dr. Earl Bates, create an extension program for Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih youth. In 1919, Dr. Bates received $10,000 from the state to offer “short courses” in agriculture and home economics at Cornell. The Indian Extension Program was offered during Cornell’s winter session from 1920 to 1927. Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih men took courses on farm management and mechanics, which was informed by the survey of Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih farms and agricultural practices at Akwesasne (St. Regis), Ta:nöwöde’ (Tonawanda), Ga’dä:gësgë:ö’ (Cattarugus) and Ohi:yo’ (Allegany) in 1919. Whereas Cornell’s female faculty created a special program for Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih women who studied food and nutrition, clothing and textiles, sanitation science, and home management.
Negotiating the Application Process
Surveying Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih agricultural practices allowed Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih leadership to negotiate the application process and program of study. Initially, Dr. Bates suggested hosting a competition to recruit applicants. Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih leaders, however, proposed to elect two men and two women from each Nation to attend the program. Their decision to nominate four candidates from each Nation aligns with the teachings of Onöndowa’ga:’ (Seneca) leader and prophet, Ganiiodai’io’ (Handsome Lake), who viewed western education as a means of negating the effects of settler colonialism on Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih communities.
“This concerns education. It is concerning studying in English schools. Now let the Council appoint twelve people to study, two from each nation of the six. So many white people are about you that you must study to know their ways.”
Ganiiodai’io’s views may thus explain why the Six Nations appointed representatives to sit on the Cornell Indian Boards and elect two men and two women from each Nation to attend the Indian Extension Program. Through the knowledge and understanding that came with education, these young men and women were charged with protecting themselves, their land, and their culture.
Student Applications for the Indian Extension Program
Courtesy of Division of Rare and Manuscript Collection, Cornell University Library, Dr. Erl Bates papers, #21-24-790, box 1, folder 20.
However, the College attempted to regulate which nominees were selected to partake in the program. One way this was carried out was by barring those students with health conditions from enrolling. In a letter addressed to Mrs. David Hill of the Onoñda’gegá’ (Onondaga) Nation, Dr. Bates instructed her to select another candidate since the initial student she nominated, Mabel Thomas, had a hearing impairment. Requiring incoming students to pass physical exams allowed the University to restrict enrollment and impose their own selections upon Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih leadership. Furthermore, the exams challenge the founding principle of the University as a place where “any person can find instruction in any study.” Hand-written letters, however, show that several Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih women upheld their roles and responsibilities as delegates of the Six Nations while attending the program in addition to the work they undertook as home demonstration agents.
Letter from Dr. Erl Bates to Mrs. David Hill, September 28, 1921
Courtesy of Division of Rare and Manuscript Collection, Cornell University Library, Dr. Erl Bates papers, #21-24-790, box 1, folder 11.
Declarations of Sovereignty on Campus
Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih youth nominated to attend the Indian Extension Program exercised and asserted their sovereignty on Cornell’s campus through several extracurricular activities. This included their participation in student organizations like the Cosmopolitan Club, the first club dedicated to international students at Cornell. Founded by Modesto Quiroga, a graduate student from Argentina, in 1904, the club’s objective was to “bring intelligent thinking men of different nations in such contact that they might find the best in one another.” Through their participation in the Cosmopolitan Club, Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih youth asserted their sovereignty by designating themselves as international students on Cornell's campus.
Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih students also formed their own club, known as De Yen Twas or “Builders of Farms.” The club became one of the first college societies to restrict membership to Native American students in the U.S. nation-state. According to their constitution, De Yen Twas sought to promote the welfare of the Six Nations on Cornell’s campus. They held weekly meetings every Tuesday evening and organized public performances that allowed them to negotiate the representation of their cultural practices on Cornell’s campus.
Image: Founding members of Den Yen Twas, from The Campus Countryman, February 1, 1921, 3. Front row from left to right: Harry Webster (Skarù·rę’), Verna Henry (Skarù·rę’), Beulah Jacobs (Onoñda’gegá’), and Hamilton Mountpleasant (Skarù·rę’). Back row from left to right: J. Wesley Patternson (Skarù·rę’), Ira Charles (Gayogo̱hó:nǫ’), Russell Hill (Onöndowa’ga:’), and David R. Hill Jr. (Onoñda’gegá’).
Tonawanda Home Bureau Club, 1921-1927
Following their participation in Cornell's Indian Extension Program, Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih women were encouraged to become extension service agents themselves and share the knowledge they gained within homemaking demonstrations on their respective territories. This led short course student, Inez Blackchief (Onöndowa’ga:’, Deer Clan), to establish the Tonawanda Home Bureau Club at Ta:nöwöde’ in 1921. With the assistance of Erie County home demonstration agent, Alice Bosserman, Blackchief initially offered dressmaking demonstrations. However, Blackchief explained to Dr. Bates that members of the Tonawanda Home Bureau Club requested additional demonstrations related to food and nutrition, such as the cooking, gardening, and canning of vegetables.
Image: Gummed-tape dress form made during a homemaking demonstration in 1914 from #23-2-749, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, DD-TT-01.
She wrote: “Miss Bosserman suggested that we take only dressmaking, but the ladies seem to differ. They especially want cooking and the canning demonstrations, so many want to know how to can vegetables.”
Blackchief further explained in an interview with the Buffalo Courier Express that the women of her community “cultivate their own land” and are thus “interested in preserving the foods that they raise, beans, corn, potatoes and fruit.” Her remarks closely align with Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih women’s roles in overseeing the harvesting, preparing and cooking of The Three Sisters (corn, bean, and squash). For these reasons, Onöndowa’ga:’ women possibly sought out homemaking demonstrations on the planting, harvesting and preparation of vegetables as a means of maintaining and upholding Indigenous practices and lifeways.
Letter from Inez Blackchief to Dr. Erl Bates, May 19, 1921
Courtesy of Division of Rare and Manuscript Collection, Cornell University Library, Dr. Erl Bates papers, #21-24-1605, box 1.
In 1925, Van Rensselaer established the New York State College of Home Economics at Cornell. This led Dr. Bates to propose the creation of an additional scholarship fund for Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih women at an annual meeting for the Elmira Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which resulted in the Olive Whitman Memorial Scholarship Fund.
Archival Collections
“Agricultural Extension on Indian Reservations: Allegany Reservation,” Indian Reservations, Box 15, Folder 21, Albert R. Mann papers, #21-2-14, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY.
“Den Yen Twas Society Constitution,” Box 1, Folder 21, Dr. Bates papers, #21-24-790, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY.
“Extension Work in Agriculture and Home Making on Indian Reservations in the State of New York,” Box 2, Dr. Erl Bates papers, #21-24-1605, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY.
Extension Work on Indian Reservations,” Indian Reservations, Box 15, Folder 21, Albert R. Mann papers, #21-2-14, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY.
“Farm Program: Onondaga Reservation,” Box 1, Dr. Earl Bates papers, #21-24-1605, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY.
“History of Indian Extension,” Box 1, Dr, Erl Bates papers, #21-24-1605, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY.
“Indian Girls,” Box 1, Folder 20, Dr. Bates papers, #21-24-790, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY.
“Indian Students at Cornell,” Box 2, Dr. Erl Bates Papers, #21-24-1605, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY.
“Memorandum to Dean Mann: Extension Work on Indian Reservations,” Indian Reservations, Box 15, Folder 21, Albert R. Mann papers, #21-2-14, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY.
“Memorandum on Assembly Bill No. 1102,” Box 2, Dr. Erl Bates papers, #21-24-1605, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY.
“Memorandum on the Employment of Dr. Earl Bates,” Box 1, Dr. Earl Bates papers, # 21-24-1605, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY.
Additional Sources
“Den Yen Twas Society Formed by Indians,” Cornell Countryman, February 1921, 3.
“Domestic Economics News,” Cornell Countryman, January 1921, 6.
Engst, Elaine and Blaine Friedlander, “Cornell Rewind: ‘Above All Nations is Humanity’,” Cornell Chronicle, November 20, 2014, https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2014/11/cornell-rewind-above-all-nations-humanity
“Indians at State College Form Helpful Fraternity,” The Cortland Democrat, December 1920, 38.
“Indian Women Organize Clubs” The Official Record of the United States Department of Agriculture 7, no. 23 (June 6, 1928): 4.
“Indian Women Seek Home Bureau Help,” Cornell Extension Service News, June 1921, 59.
“Inez Blackchief at Cornell, First Indian Girl to Win Full Scholarship, Is Interviewed,” Ithaca Journal, November 2, 1929, 2.
“Iroquois Indian Girl Gets D.A.R. Cornell Scholarship,” Buffalo Courier-Express, September 22, 1929, 16.
Mohawk, John C. “Tradition and Education: An Iroquois Interpretation of Handsome Lake,” Native Americas 17, no. 42 (December 31, 2000): 38.