Assimilation: The Native American Indian Boarding School

The forced assimilation of the Native American children gave way for the Indian School to be historical significant. In the Phoenix Indian School, the Native American children changed dramatically. Originally, the Native American children were taught a culture that had been described of being extremely undomesticated. For example, the children of Native Americans were taught to hunt at a certain age and were dressed with tremendous about of skin visible to those around them. The children of Native Americans went from being barbarous to

Boarding School Seasons by Brenda J. Child offers a look into the boarding school experiences of many American Indian students. Child favors unpublished sources such as letters to give an uncensored inside look into boarding school experiences. However, she also includes other sources such as school newspapers, oral history collections, photographs, biographies, United States government publications, and annual reports. Government boarding schools were created to help the American government gain more control over Indians and to push the Natives to adopt the white ways of life such as language, skill, and education. While integration was the ultimate objective, Child sets out “to show that even with the challenges of cultural assimilation and a devastating land policy, American Indian people, even children, placed limits on assimilation and also defined and shaped the boarding school era.” (viii) The boarding schools designed to tear American Indian families apart did not succeed in isolating children from their tribes, but created bonds and

The BIA and mission schools usually were run with an Anglo-conformity assimilationist approach. Intensive efforts were made to destroy Indian ways. Some boarding schools were being replaced by day schools closer to home, and a bilingual policy was being discussed by white government officials. Enforced acculturation has been a recurring issue in BIA and local public schools, where white administrators and teachers have frequently blamed educational problems on cultural differences and thus emphasized the contrast between the often collective values of Indians and the intense individualism of most white Americans. Many white teachers have attempted to make their pupils “less

First of all, the photographs of the projects show that the government tends to break down the sense of connection of the Native Indians by civilizing their outlook. The sense of belonging of the Native Indians is very strong. In order to have good control of the Native Indians, the US government has to break down the connectivity between them. Sending them to the boarding school is a good way to diminish their sense of belonging since new knowledge and rules at the school are taught at the school. Eric Margolis also states in the article that "He believed in subjecting Native American youth to quasi-military

For almost as long as European settlers have interacted with the native peoples of the Americas, they have had a notion: what many call ‘assimilation’. To Europeans, assimilation of native peoples meant for their culture, which they believed to be superior, to be accepted over time by the natives. And as they grew more and more European in language, religion, customs, organization, morals, and behavior, they would slowly shed off all of their old culture which the European culture would be replacing. The Europeans believed this process was for the best for the natives and that they would be happier living ‘civilized’ lives as opposed to practicing their own traditions.

Prior to this class, I was not aware of the Native American boarding school and it was never discussed in any of my previous history classes. I think so few people have heard of the American Indian Holocaust because the U.S government still does not value the existence of Native Americans. It seems that what we are taught in secondary school are what they want us to know rather than what is needed to be known. It saddened my heart to know that this group of people had to undergo this horrible time period simply because of their race. I find it very upsetting that although the Native Americans ceded the land first, the Europeans came with force, claiming the land as their own. And felt they had the right to determine how the whole population

An agreement called Indian Residential Schools Settlement Act is where Native Canadians is taken away from their families and placed in Canadian residential school system during 20th century. That demonstrates the consequences of assimilation in every residential schools. Devaluation of their culture and religion is one of the consequences of imperialism addressed by the policy. Natives are forced to have European culture and leave their own culture to fit in with everybody else; going to a residential school is one of the most common ways of assimilation. Residential Schools in Canada started in 1831, where natives have encountered traumatic, physical and sexual abuse from the schools that were directed by churches. Any communications with

Native Americans have had a long history of resistance to the social and cultural assimilation into white culture. By employing various creative strategies, Native Americans have attempted to cope with the changes stemming from the European colonial movement into the Americas. There are fundamental differences in world views and cultural and social orders between Indians and Europeans, which contributed to conservatism in Native American cultures. In this paper, two aspects of such cultural and institutional differences of Native American societies will be examined: holistic Native American beliefs versus dualistic world views and harmony versus domination. These two aspects are important in terms of explaining changes (or lack thereof) in

How Boarding Schools Came To Be In American history, many things have affected Native American life and one of the biggest ones was boarding schools being created. Boarding schools may not seem like a very big deal but has affected a large part of Native American life. In the time prior to these schools being created, the American government's main issue was finding a place to move Native Americans to, since their homelands were now under the control of the government. Eventually, the tens of thousands of native americans were put onto designated lands called reservations and attended boarding schools.

Assimilation of the native Indians occurred in different phases. The United States in the early years adopted an Indian policy that they used to build good relations with the bordering tribes which helped politically and in trading with the natives. However, they reserved to stop the good relationships in order for them to acquire more land as the moved west to expand their territory. (Keller,1983)

Various federal government policies or actions have significantly impacted the daily lives of Native Americans today. One such action is one taken by President Grant in 1865 that required all American Indian to be taken away from their homes and families and be placed in boarding schools. This action was meant to separate American Indians from their culture. However, this action has greatly impacted the climate of schools and the education system towards American Indians. Many American Indian children continue to be belittled in school as there is a cultural bias that has existed against this native community for years (Martinez, 2014). Because of this cultural bias, many Native Americans continue to drop out of schools today.

Through the years minority groups have long endured repression, poverty, and discrimination. A prime example of such a group is the Native Americans. They had their own land and fundamental way of life stripped from them almost unceasingly for decades. Although they were the real “natives” of the land, they were driven off by the government and coerced to assimilate to the white man’s way. Unfortunately, the persecution of the Natives was primarily based on the prevalent greed for money and power. This past impeded the Native American’s preservation of their culture as many were obviated of the right to speak the native language and dress in traditional clothing. Because of this cultural expulsion, among other

With waves of the American population moving westward, government attempted to assimilate, or integrate, Native Americans into American society. Their goal was for Native Americans to live and behave like white Americans, and for them “to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community” (Doc 9). Children were sent to boarding schools where they were given new clothes and haircuts, and taught English, Christianity, and American ways of life (Doc 13). While many Americans believed this would be good for the Native Americans, it effectively destroyed their culture and identity. By forcing them to learn English, they were unable to communicate the concepts, beliefs, and ideas their languages were based on. Americans did not consider the fact that English could not substitute for Native languages, because they are based on different realities, histories, and cultures (Doc 3). Assimilation turned the lives of Native Americans upside-down, forcing them to give up ideas and beliefs they had been practicing their whole lives, without any say. Slowly, Native American culture and lifestyle faded until it was nearly

The boarding schools “educators suppressed tribal languages and cultural practices and sought to replace them with English, Christianity, athletic activities, and a ritual calendar intended to further patriotic citizenship” (Davis 20). Not only had the boarding schools taken away Native American culture, they were forcing the Native Americans into a different culture. The language was quite challenging to learn, especially to the older students. Learning a new language is much harder at an older age, and while being bilingual is vey helpful, these Native Americans were not allowed to speak their Native language. A Native American girl stated she, “remembers another little girl making a mistake in her use of English and being ridiculed for it. ... The English language was difficult to learn” (Vizenor 102). These Native Americans were learning a brand new language, being stripped from theirs, and they would be picked on if they did not have perfect English right away. Many chose to keep quite so they would not make mistakes.

In the 1870s, the U.S. government enacted a policy of assimilation of Native Americans, to Americanize them. Their goal was to turn them into white men. Schools were an important part of facilitating their goal. In 1879, Richard Henry Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian School. It was the first school in which Native American children were culturally exposed to American ideology. The idea for the boarding school first came through treatment of Cheyenne warriors. In the 1860s, Americans were in the midst of a major western migration. Settlers were moving into the western region, pushing natives off lands, and in some cases, killing livestock. Warriors then took revenge on settlers and soldiers. General Sherman called for “the