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Assimilation: Long-Term Effects Of Native American Boarding Schools

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Assimilation was the goal of the Native American boarding schools. Native kids will be taught the importance of material wealth, Christianity, private property and monogamous families. By the 1880s, the US federal government operated over 60 schools. These schools would be the foundation for the ethnic cleansing of native children. These schools were the ideal tool used to try and erase a whole culture from the minds of upcoming generations. Misconceptions are all around us, and especially surrounding the native boarding schools. “No one knew what the conditions were at the time,” (Slide 11). There is ample evidence showing that the US government & church covered up the abuse that went on in the schools. Discipline inside the boarding schools were …show more content…

(2007). The Ojibwe. Lerner Publications Co.) That is what Henry Pratt said the superintendent led the idea of boarding schools to accomplish just that. Long-term effects of residential boarding schools were profound. Generational trauma along with Ojibwe people trying to rebound from the effects of boarding schools. In 1893, a court ruling increased pressure to keep Indian kids in boarding schools. It wasn’t until 1978 that the Indian Child Welfare Act was passed by the federal government. This law gives Native American parents the right to deny their children’s placement off the reservation. By 1926 nearly 83% of Indian school-age children were attending boarding schools, this equivalent to 60,889 kids. Conversion to Christianity was deemed essential for the Indian boarding school curriculum. Expected to know the Ten Commandments along with teaching the ideas of sin and the sense of guilt. Traditional native food was abandoned, making the students adjust to white food while using forks, spoons and knives. A complete abandonment of their culture is expected. It is astonishing that the Native American peoples are still here living their authentic

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