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Saiers, Corinne (audio interview #1 of 1)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION< - This single, short interview was conducted in conjunction with a class in American Indian Studies, a program in which both the native narrator and the Anglo interviewer were enrolled.
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- 2019-12-20
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- File: aicsaiers1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-7:31)... Saiers was born in a Mission in New Mexico and is one of eight girls in the family. She was raised by her parents, but her mother left her father and took all of the girls with her. Saiers lived on her grandmother&aposs farm while her mother was working two jobs to support the girls. The farm had animals and Saiers liked to hang around the chicken pen. Saiers and her sisters played on the farm and surrounding corn fields. Saiers recalls that a lot of people would come to see her grandmother and her grandfather because he was a pastor. He would help people write papers or fill papers out. (7:31-12:47)... Saiers&apos grandmother got sick and her mother took over for about a year. Then she went to a boarding school even though her grandmother was opposed to the girls going to school she thought that their place was in the home. When her mother met her second husband, he took all eight girls as his own. Saiers was close to her stepfather and she remained close with her father as well. (12:47-17:18)... When Saiers and her sisters went to boarding school, they were separated. Saiers spoke Navajo and did not know any English. If they were caught speaking Navajo at the school they were punished. She picked up English at the school, but it was broken. The children at the school were all Navajo and the matrons were from Oklahoma. They were very strict and came up with all sorts of punishments if the children were caught speaking Navajo. The teachers were mainly White although Saiers remembers one Black teacher who was her favorite. (17:18-20:17)... The children at the boarding school got up at 5:00 a.m., made their beds, and got ready to stand in line for breakfast. They had to sing Christian songs while they stood in line waiting for their breakfast. If the children did not finish their breakfast , they were punished. Saiers and her sisters did not like the food and refused to eat. Many of the children got sick from the food and from being homesick. Saiers was so ill that she had to be hospitalized and her mother took her out of the school. (20:17-24:58)... Saiers&apos mother sent her to a public school by this time her grandmother had passed away. Saiers did not speak English when she entered public school and during the school day she painted and played outside she did not learn anything and the teachers were not really doing a job. She did not learn how to speak proper English and was constantly told not to speak Navajo although the children spoke Navajo on the playground and when the teachers were not around. During lunch, the teachers would stand around the lunch room watching the children to make sure they would not speak Navajo. Saiers describes it as a prison environment. (24:58-29:50)... When the Cherokees were moved west of the Mississippi River, the rate of English speaking among them was much higher than what Saiers was experiencing. Her teachers were some of these very Cherokee women. These women grasped the English language and were sent to teach at the public school, viewed by the government as White. Saiers felt like her spirit was broken from the experiences at the boarding and public school. (29:50-33:43)... Saiers&apos grandmother died when she was fourteen. Saiers did not understand the process of death and when she saw her grandmother in the casket she asked her mother when her grandmother would be coming back. Her mother tried to explain death to her but did not know exactly how to deal with it and could not tell Saiers and her sisters that their grandmother would not be coming back. Saiers and her sisters took the death of their grandmother very hard. (33:43-39:16)... Note: the tape is barely audible for approximately one minute, to 34:55. Saiers was in the boarding school for two years and then attended public schools. She hated going to school because the children made fun of her and the school was mostly White. She did not grasp the English language until she was in sixth grade, after which she read as many books as she could. She still reads as many books as she can and her favorite place is the library. (39:16-41:38)... Saiers and most of the girls at the boarding school were abused. They were always punished and nothing was ever good enough for the matrons. She felt like her spirit was taken away from the experience. (41:38-46:31)... The children at the boarding school were separated for church services. They were asked what religion they were and sent to the separate rooms. The matrons would threaten the children by telling them that if they did not obey the matrons they would go to hell. Saiers did find the stories they told about God comforting but she recalls the experience at the boarding school as hell upon hell. The education system that the children were in was partly responsible for taking away the traditions of the tribes.< End of tape
- SUBJECT BIO< - Corinne Saiers is a Navajo woman who was born in a Mission in New Mexico. One of eight girls, she lived on her grandmother&aposs farm after her mother left her father, until her mother remarried. When she was sent to the Navajo boarding school, she knew no English. Her two years there were hell. Her mother took her out of the school after she became sick and sent her to public school. She still did not speak proper English when she entered the sixth grade. No details are available on her later life except that she was a student in the American Indian Studies program at the time of the interview. TOPICS: - family background, siblings and parents, living with grandmother on farm, boarding school, speaking Navajo, public school, learning English, and abuse at boarding school
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