To understand the deep impact off
To understand the deep impact off
Why is it important for the authors to make distinctions between the educational experiences of American Indian children and the experiences of white children? The schools were intended as an alternative to the out-right extermination seriously advocated by Generals Sherman and Sheridan(Rothenberg & Mayhew, 2014). The author also compared the Indian children’s experience to Nazi concentration camps. Thus when evaluating the Psychological experience of the Indian children, the only reference was those of experiences of white children. Again the text reads, “ difference if from ours- the shock to the child upon arrival is still tremendous.”(Rothenberg & Mayhew, 2014)…
The Indian School experiment set out to "kill the Indian and save the man". I believe this relates to the old saying, "the only good Indian is a dead one" in that the school essentially tried to kill the Indian spirit by attempting to "American-ize" the students. The process of assimilating the students into the "white man's way" took away a very important part of the children's being--their culture.…
“The view of boarding school life constructed from their words portrays how an institution founded to transform Indian youth was paradoxically given life by the very people whose tribal identities it was committed to erase” (eBook). So therefore, In the late 1800s, Native Americans were abducted from their homes by the government to attend assimilation schools, likewise, the wolf girls from “St. Lucy’s home for girls,” were sent to an assimilation school. Once the Indians and wolf girls came upon the institution, they were forced to adapt; wearing a new wardrobe, new haircuts, new language, and all together a new culture. Throughout the years, the kids struggled primarily to homesickness, it may have been months to years before the kids saw…
Boarding schools have been in existence for thousands of years around the world, in many different countries and cultures. History tells us that most of them have operated with the main purpose of broadening the horizons for the youth that attended them. The main purpose of Indian boarding schools, like Chilocco, was to acculturate and assimilate Indian youth into the white dominant society (Lomawaima, 3). It is clear that most of the people that were involved in setting up the first Indian boarding schools, thought that assimilation and acculturation of Indian youth would indeed broaden the youth's horizons. Indians were thought to be uncivilized and primitive heathens. Hence, the crusade began to make the Indians more civilized by taking them away from their tribal families while they were young, and sending them away to boarding schools to learn the ways of civilized Americans. Broadening their horizons by having them absorbed "into our national life, with all the rights and privileges guaranteed to every other individual, the Indian to lose his identity as such, to give up his tribal relations and to be made to feel that he is an American citizen"(Lomawaima, 5). This all sounds quite noble if you were born white in the 1800's and raised as a Christian, Protestant, or Catholic, after all, you were the supreme beings of the era, and everyone should behave like you, including the Indians.…
Through Reservation Life,” by David Treuer, there are distinct parallels of the four models as…
Boarding school is a place where teachers encourage Native Americans to leave their Indian reservation, their skills, and be the same as the population there was. The government decided that everyone should be the same as others. The Native Americans were not the same, they have their own life and their own traditions. Therefore, you can not change them Native Americans, they will still have different skin color and have the same conviction as they were born with. This displays how the government could not adjust the Native American for themselves and the way they grew…
This boarding school was founded under the premise of “kill the Indian save the man.” (Pratt, Reese et all, 114) The goal of the school was to take in Indian children by force and turn out civilized young adults that were European in their behaviors. This was not achieved and actually led to several hundred deaths and runaways. When narrating on the culture and belief systems of the Native peoples many fallacies and creative licenses were taken that caused it to be a “trivialization of the belief systems of a people.”…
The film A Century of Genocide in Americas: The Residential School Experience is about how Native American children were taken from their parents, were forcedly sexually abused and were sent to residential schools in Canada and the United States because of their race. Each of these authors suffered…
This book was written by people who were either in the Kamloops Indian Residential School or got to see it second hand. These stories of the schools were told by Aboriginal People to have a record of how the Residential Schools went for them, not by how other people made it seem. These horrific stories told build my argument in my essay of how improper and inhumane these schools were for people who did nothing to deserve it. The torture they went through and have had the courage to tell their stories is inspiring. These people wanted people to know what happened so history would not be repeated; they also wanted to let people know that although they had to go through those years, they survived as a whole. It is important to recognize that this…
For many years prior and during the 1930’s and WWII, there was a huge movement set in motion by the U.S government to destroy every cultural and religious aspect of Native Americans. During those years, as many Indian boarding schools separated young children from their tribes and tried erasing their cultural roots, some changes were being set in motion. For the first time, some people started speaking out about this destruction of culture and new advocates started to try and set policies in place to try and protect Indian traditions. Among them was the commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, John Collier. During the early years of the war, Collier was advocating for segregated Native American units because he thought they would help…
Throughout history, Native Americans have been faced with the obligation to assimilate to the overwhelming presence of white colonists. When Native Americans assimilate into white civilization, they inevitably develop negative views of their own identities, regardless of whether their assimilation was forced or unconscious. The scenarios in which such effects emerge make it apparent that the terrors of our history toward the Native Americans are still present. Forced assimilation is when someone is not given a choice about adopting another culture. This type of assimilation is evident in Joe Suina’s short story, And Then I went to School.…
The residential schools truly killed the Indian within the Aboriginals, which was their primary objective after establishment.The reserves destroyed the customs of Aboriginals through its compact living conditions; and the lack of education or stress caused the Aboriginals to take atrocious actions. Furthermore, suicide rates would not be so high if the Aboriginals were not assimilated and enforced to follow the english way of…
The article examines United States policies that affect Native American people, in particular their educational issues. The author connects the government assimilating of Native Americans into “main stream society” and the current issues Native American’s face such as violence and drug abuse. Cherokee people are the primary focus in the article, but even though every tribe is different, many are faced with the same problems. General information on the development and reasoning of assimilation, as well as the use of boarding schools are thoroughly explained.…
Black Americans, segregation, and slavery. Most of the people who have studied American history recognize the inhumane actions towards people of color during the 1960’s and 1980’s. Yet, people often are not aware of the similar acts perpetrated on the Native Americans during the same period of time. The Native Americans had to suffer their past of external shame imposed on their culture and tradition by the White American society, followed by a coercion of White American culture due to the government proposal of the “Indian problem.” Nevertheless, the Native Americans maintained their pride in their identity and culture internally, within their tribes, and carried out such acts as Ghost Dance, valuing their own tradition. While it may seem paradoxical, both shame and pride of culture and identity simultaneously resonate in Native Americans today as a means of letting go of the unpleasant past and moving on to the future with a new hope.…
Native Americans have felt distress from societal and governmental interactions for hundreds of years. American Indian protests against these pressures date back to the colonial period. Broken treaties, removal policies, acculturation, and assimilation have scarred the indigenous societies of the United States. These policies and the continued oppression of the native communities produced an atmosphere of heightened tension. Governmental pressure for assimilation and their apparent aim to destroy cultures, communities, and identities through policies gave the native people a reason to fight. The unanticipated consequence was the subsequent creation of a pan-American Indian identity of the 1960s. These factors combined with poverty, racism, and prolonged discrimination fueled a resentment that had been present in Indian communities for many years. In 1968, the formation of the American Indian Movement took place to tackle the situation and position of Native Americans in society. This movement gave way to a series of radical protests, which were designed to draw awareness to the concerns of American Indians and to compel the federal government to act on their behalf. The movement's major events were the occupation of Alcatraz, Mount Rushmore, The Trail of Broken Treaties, and Wounded Knee II. These AIM efforts in the 1960s and 1970s era of protest contained many sociological theories that helped and hindered the Native Americans success. The Governments continued repression of the Native Americans assisted in the more radicalized approach of the American Indian Movement. Radical tactics combined with media attention stained the AIM and their effectiveness. Native militancy became a repertoire of action along with adopted strategies from the Civil Rights Movement. In this essay, I will explain the formation of AIM and their major events, while revealing that this identity based social movement's…