Analysis Of The Article Death Became Their Scapegoat

Death Became Their Scapegoat: The Boarding School Trauma Effects

In this article the author traces native language usage among three generations of a Lakota family, explaining one woman's decision not to teach her children Lakota to protect them from abuse at a boarding school and her descendants' efforts to learn and preserve their language (Haase). Phyllis’s was a third generation Lakota child. Phyllis’s mother never taught her Lakota because she feared harm would come to her. Phyllis felt that what American settlers did to her mother killed her. The experience from the boarding school never left the Lakota children for example Phyllis’s mother was abusing alcohol as a result of her childhood experience. Phyllis says that she “saw how the

They began moving West due to the arising conflicts with neighboring tribes and diminishing sources of food and clothes caused by the migration of buffalo and white settlers’ expanding west. The Lakota believed, migrating to the west, would help avoid confrontation with American settlers and their problems would be resolved. (Burke, Greene, and Earring) The Lakota, like many other Native American tribes, ended up falling victim to Manifest Destiny, the widely held belief that American settlers were destined to expand throughout the continent no matter who was in their way (ushistory.org). The Lakota were a barrier between American settlers and expansion. The United States had two options: one was essentially committing genocide or to exterminate all the Lakota in their way, or convert all the Native Americans to Christianity as they felt this to be a better option than committing genocide. The Americans claimed, “They would simply kill the Indian and save the man”(Little Elk). American settlers felt the best approach would be to target the younger children and teenagers since they could be placed in boarding schools and be converted to Christianity. They soon figured it would be simply easier to begin the brainwashing at an early age as their minds were more malleable than adults. The Lakota children suffered substantial mental and emotional long-term effects; ultimately

The creation of the boarding schools at the start of the 20th century was used to “Civilize and Americanize” Native children so that they could function in American society. (Little Elk) They wanted to culturally transform the Lakota children and make them civilized to American customs. The education they received in boarding schools was also encouraged cultural assimilation, where the Lakota children did not speak their native tongue but English. The Lakota children were only trained to function in specific fields. The girls for example where taught to be domestic workers, they were to cook, clean and sew (American Indian Relief Council). The boys on the other hand obtained other skills for example shoemaking, blacksmithing, or performed manual labor like farming (American Indian Relief Council). Instead of boys learning to hunt and girls learning to pick berries, they where taught to do basic labors expected of them in the new American culture they were being taught. There were consequences when these tasks where refused, which resulted in harsh beatings. There was no waiting for the punishment to begin; as soon as some children had arrived to the boarding school they experienced their first traumatic experience. In the Native American culture the cutting of hair meant a relative had died and as the Lakota children were all forced to stand in line