Just yesterday, the newspapers reported a high number of college students going to the emergency room, with a few dying, as a result of drinking too much alcohol. It's a time-honored tradition across cultures, as old as going away to school for young people. Even younger boys, in the Chilocco Indian School, observed this ritual as a form of rebellion against the authority figures in their lives.
             The goal of the Indian schools was to "Kill the Indian, save the man," as stated by the program's founder, Pratt. To do this, they needed to take these children away from their families, place them in a regimented daily routine, and train them in the ways of the new post-industrial-revolution society. Unfortunately, their goals were not realized in practice; they never managed to "Kill the Indian" in any effectively productive way. In some cases, by attempting to strip the identities of adolescents in their care, they also failed in the mission to "save the man." Of course, there were many different views about the school, as seen in the testimonies present by They Called It Prairie Light, but nevertheless the school seemed to fail in all its attempted reform.
             Rebellion was commonplace, taking the form of secret rituals, sneaking off, occasionally running away for good, and most commonly turning to alcohol. As most of the boys (and a few of the girls) testify, alcohol was relatively easy to come by despite the isolated location of the school. As described by Curtis, there were "nail kegs all over the place," which could be used to ferment all sorts of things, ranging from peaches and other fruit to barley, corn, oats, etc. The boys would mix together the ingredients in the kegs and bury them until fermentation was acceptably complete. Then they could all, as one cohesive group, take part in enjoying the drunkenness induced by the brew.
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