ABSTRACT

The Charity Hall mission school was one of dozens of Protestant missions established during the 1820s using federal funding provided by the Civilization Fund Act of 1819. These missions have received little attention from archaeologists due to their short lifespans and limited number. The archaeological investigations at Charity Hall, which was established within the Mississippi territory of the Chickasaw Nation, provide key insights into the materiality of evangelization in southeastern North America, particularly among various Southeastern Indigenous groups just prior to Removal in the 1830s. This research provides important insights into the efforts of nineteenth-century missionaries to impose “civilizing” practices on Southeastern Indians and what the Indigenous responses to those efforts were. The Charity Hall research project has involved a collaboration between archaeologists and the Chickasaw Nation, which enabled several Chickasaw college students to visit and work at the site where their ancestors were first introduced to Western-style education. This reconnecting experience helped in a small way to undo the damage inflicted on Native people by Removal.

摘要

慈善厅教会学校是 1820 年代利用 1819 年《文明基金法》提供的联邦资金建立的数十个新教使命之一。这些使命由于寿命短且数量有限而很少受到考古学家的关注。Charity Hall 的考古调查建立在奇克索族的密西西比州境内，为了解北美洲东南部的福传重要性提供了重要见解，特别是在 1830 年代迁移之前的各个东南部土著群体中。这项研究为 19 世纪传教士将“文明”实践强加于东南部印第安人的努力以及土著人对这些努力的反应提供了重要的见解。慈善厅研究项目涉及考古学家和奇克索民族之间的合作，这使几名奇克索大学生能够参观他们的祖先首次接受西式教育的地方并在那里工作。这种重新连接的经历在一定程度上有助于消除移除对原住民造成的损害。