Indian Boarding Schools In the 1800’s, all Native Americans in America were forced onto reservations by the United States Government. The government controlled their food, supplies, and ways of life. However, the government wasn’t satisfied by this. They felt like the Indians were savages and needed to become more like the whites. They wanted to assimilate the Indians and make them “civilized”. One way that the U.S. Government tried assimilation was by sending all Indian children to boarding schools far away to learn Christianity, English, farming, and other white trades. These schools proved to be very effective in assimilating the Indians. In the early 1800’s, Christian churches opened schools on reservations to convert the Indians to …show more content…
However, many of them continued to resist, because they knew that if they sent their children to school it would be the end of their culture. If the family chose to resist, then the reservation agency would send in the agency police to take their children by force, or, the agency could withhold that family’s rations until they gave up. Other families chose to send their children to school because they wanted them to learn English and other white skills. Other families couldn’t afford to feed their children so they had to sent them away. It wasn’t until 1978 that parents could deny sending their children to boarding schools. When the students arrived at the schools, many of them found it strange and unfamiliar. Many schools also treated their students poorly, and this led to many escape attempts by the students. In 1921 at Chemawa, 46 students ran away from the schools, and in 1922, 70 more followed. However, not all escape attempts went well. If a student was caught trying to escape, they were severely punished. At many schools the students caught escaping were forced to clean the entire school or even beat in front of the