What Are The Effects Of Assimilation Of Native American Culture And Education

Throughout United States history, minority groups have always faced oppression, poverty, and prejudice. A main example, that has endured such hardships the most, is the Native American. Their land and basic way of life has been almost entirely stripped away from them since the first arrival of American colonies. They were forced off their own land by the government and forced to assimilate to a new culture that was far different from what they had known for centuries. This oppression was largely due to avarice and need for power and control over the Natives. This harmful past hinders Native American’s conservation of culture due to the lack of freedom to speak Native language and wear traditional clothing for many. This removal of culture,
Americanization attempts directly oppressed Native culture and identity through government Indian boarding schools. Rules, such as, cutting children’s hair, changing names, altering diets, modifying clothing, and reshaping identity were ordered. Teachers demanded Native American children to speak English and practice Christianity (Marr). They instilled these Western ideas in young Native Americans in order to conquer their natural liveliness and standards which were too different than those of an American youth. These guidelines at
This sub sequentially influences the way they adjust to American culture and education after being discouraged from embodying their own long lasting traditions. The savagery and lack of concern shown towards the Native Americans throughout the Trail of Tears had much to do with this point of view. The awful travel forced thousands of Native Americans to leave their Native land and walk thousands of miles across the Mississippi River to a new area identified as “Indian territory” (histroy.com Staff). A few decades later, Natives were again dealt an injustice when the Dawes Act in 1887 which stimulated the partition of tribes and supported assimilation. Whites had jurisdiction over the land allocated to Natives, and the Natives were given very little little compensation for it (The Dawes Act 1887). As a matter of fact, money collected from the sale of Native American land was used for Indian boarding schools and “by 1932, the sale of unclaimed land and allotted land resulted in the loss of two-thirds of the more than 100-million acres Native Americans held prior to the Dawes Act” (The Reservation System). Had the Natives had more control over where and how the money was allotted, these sales may have been justifiable. However, the lack of authority the Natives had over their own land distorts Native attitude and furthers the resentment towards the American education