“At the schools the students were stripped of their culture as if it were clothing.” This statement from a paper written by Sarah E Stone explains the poor treatment of the Indians in the boarding schools. This paper also perfectly states not only the treatment of the Indian children but, also the great lengths taken to change them. It seems like such a simple task for the enforcers yet an awful act in general. American Indian children and the wolf girls at St. Lucy’s were forced to assimilate into the civilized culture of the white man through many approaches and techniques that in the end ultimately reached the goal of the enforcers, which ended with benefits to society but not to the Indian children or the girls.
The Government and the
…show more content…
One of the students from the schools, Eastman, had learned to respect elderly and be generous to the poor plus other things that helped him to have a bright future. (Indian school) The wolf girls had returned home after they had gone through all the phases of change but did not become part of society at least not told in the book. For the Indians both of the sides of the assimilation had good points because using the American Indian values did help about half excel academically, although on the other about the same amount did not do well using the Indian values with the American. (Assim. Retention) According to “Indian Country Diaries” in April, 1878, 62 of the younger and more educated American Indians joined the Hampton Institute in Virginia, which was a “normal school.” The wolf girls had only gone to “St. Lucy’s School for Girls,” which was the school that taught them how to act like ladies. Whether the enforcers had a good reason to force them or if it worked, now it’s a controversial part of history.
Assimilation of the Indians and the wolf girls had the end result of being beneficial to society but not to the Indians or the wolf girls. Through many tactics the enforcers came to the end goal they were yearning for the entire time, changing them to fit in with the white man’s culture. A very opinionated, educated man once wrote, “by assimilating a student into mainstream American culture through