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Assimilation into the life of america
Cultural assimilation of native americans
Cultural assimilation of native americans
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As mentioned above, the loss of their culture terribly affected the young children’s relationships with their families. In an interview, a Native American that had been affected by these schools, Bill Wright, shared that his loss of his language led to his grandmother feeling as if he had lost his identity, as he had lost his ability to communicate with her and others he had associated with. Though this was clearly deleterious to the indigenous tribes, Americans still felt as if they were assisting them with their opportunities for the future. Officially, they made it seem as if they thought this was polite, beneficial, and in the best interests of both parties. From the inverse perspective, though, this was not the case.
Native Americans lived according to their culture and religion, but they didn’t speak English and didn’t understand the rules of American society. The government had to somewhat “Americanize” the Native Americans. Which was a very difficult task and a huge responsibility. The government made the Dawes act. Which broke the Native American’s reservations and gave each one of them their own land.
From 1800 to 1850, America experienced a lot of geography, population, and capita growth. For one, the geographic size not only doubled, but triple because of the introduction of 4 million slaves and 2 million immigrants. Additionally, in the thirty-one of the states, fifteen of which were acquired in the last 50 years, the capita per home had doubled. The eastern United States was growing in number, and to accommodate new life, people began to move west. Accompanied by the technological innovations of the day people were now able to experience much more when they were outside of their small towns.
Native American boarding schools were established in the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s to educate and assimilate children of Native Americans to conform to American standards. Assimilation was meant to make all Native Americans speak English as their primary language, for them to be Christians, to stop wearing their native clothing, wear their hair as the Americans wear their hair and most importantly, to think like Americans. So the best method of assimilation was to focus on the children of these reservations. Most schools started on the reservations by Christian missionaries, their goal was to Christianize Indians so they wouldn’t believe in Wakan Tanka. Their hope was “that an education grounded in Western training and stern discipline would detribalize Native American children
American Indian boarding schools, emerging in the 19th and 20th centuries, were driven by a systematic agenda to assimilate Native American children into white society, as a means to commit cultural genocide as opposed to physical genocide. These institutions sought to erase Native languages, traditions, and identities, leading to perpetuating cycles of intergenerational trauma and socio-economic disparities, that have left enduring scars on the Indigenous community. The inception of Native American boarding schools during the 19th and 20th centuries was rooted in a systematic effort to erase indigenous cultures and assimilate Native American children into white society, embodying a form of cultural genocide. Initially established to provide Christian instruction to Native Americans, the focus shifted towards targeting
The American government of the late 1800’s adopted the policy of assimilation because they were influenced by the desire to expand westward into territories occupied by these Native American tribes. All Native American tribes, lived to the west of the Mississippi River. These American Indians, some from the Northwestern and Southeastern territories, were confined to Indian Territory. The Native Americans had endured nearly a century of forced removal westward.
With the arrival of Anglo-Americans, Native Americans lost much more than just their land. Tribes were forced onto reservations, stripped of their culture, wealth and place in society, with no hope of regaining what they owned unless by complete assimilation. For the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, many Anglo-Americans continually pushed for Native Americans to abandon their cultures and “savage” ways. However, despite the many attempts to force Natives into Anglo-American culture, many Native Americans found ways to negotiate with the demands of the Anglo-Americans through mainly social, economic and legal means.
During the 1920s a lot of changes happened in the United States immigration policy. Americans became very nativists as a result of the political and social changes that happened during that time. Therefore, many Americans were against the idea of immigration. Form 1880s until then, many people from Sothern and Eastern Europe came to United States; most of them being Jewish and Catholic.
For many new immigrants coming to America, it is difficult to adjust into the new society. Many come to America without the basic knowledge of English, the new immigrants do not have the ability assimilate to American society because of the lack of possible communication between the immigrant and an native. Non-English speaking immigrants that come to America face harsh challenges when trying to assimilate to U.S. society because immigrants are often segregated into ethnic communities away from natives, Americans do not know basics of words of other well known languages, and the lack of government funding education programs. Assimilation into a new society is difficult enough, but when the society pushes any new immigrants to separate part
Native Americans flourished in North America, but over time white settlers came and started invading their territory. Native Americans were constantly being thrown and pushed off their land. Sorrowfully this continued as the Americans looked for new opportunities and land in the West. When the whites came to the west, it changed the Native American’s lives forever. The Native Americans had to adapt to the whites, which was difficult for them.
I am writing this letter to tell you that me and couple of the men of the ship are doing fine, some of our men have died from hunger and from the ship crash that we’ve had recently, and here I am with the men in an island being welcomed by the native indians that helped us through. The native indians are extremely welcoming people in my point of view, they helped us when the ship crashed, they gave us food, water, and shelters for us to live in since we didn't have anything anymore. The native americans are the opposite of what I thought, when I saw them after the crash I thought they would kill us and sacrifice us to their gods, when actually they are celebrating and trying to fill us with happiness, instead of thinking about our lost of the ship. They are emotionally understanding people of what I've seen, they felt our sorrow and sadness of losing our ship from the recent occurring hurricane that led us to this island.
In U.S. history Native Americans have experienced discrimination, rejection of cultural values, and displacement, which has affected natives psychologically, economically, and socially. Native American Indians and Alaskan Natives tend to identify as members of a specific nation or tribe in the United States of America. Over the years many natives have integrated their lives into the dominant western society to pursue a better education and sustainability. Natives have been forced to go through the process of acculturation from their early adulthood, which in turn influences the societal native culture. The enculturation and acculturation have presented problems for a native person to find a sense of meaning, purpose and cultural
Throughout the 19th century Native Americans were treated far less than respectful by the United States’ government. This was the time when the United States wanted to expand and grow rapidly as a land, and to achieve this goal, the Native Americans were “pushed” westward. It was a memorable and tricky time in the Natives’ history, and the US government made many treatments with the Native Americans, making big changes on the Indian nation. Native Americans wanted to live peacefully with the white men, but the result of treatments and agreements was not quite peaceful. This precedent of mistreatment of minorities began with Andrew Jackson’s indian removal policies to the tribes of Oklahoma (specifically the Cherokee indians) in 1829 because of the lack of respect given to the indians during the removal laws.
The Native American boarding schools of 1800’s and early 1900’s left a huge crater in the Native American societies. Under the pretense of “helping”devastated Indian Nation the Euro-Americans,created boarding schools of assimilation .Forcing children to attend and sometimes resorting to what would now be kidnapping. Many of these children died from homesickness,working accidents ,uncontrolled disease and ill planned escape attempts. They have were abolished in the 1940’s,but the damage has been done.
Early studies which go back to 1930s, basically focus on the socio-anthropological aspect of the issue as parallel with the definition above. In those studies, researchers are mainly concerned with the nature of the adaptation processes of a particular ethnic community contacting with a culture different than theirs. (Berry, Kim, Minde & Mok, 1987; Goldlust & Richmond, 1977). STUDY EKLE Based on the first studies investigating remote tribes, immigrants and refugees, it has been revealed that assimilation is not the only strategy or the outcome of acculturation.
