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Native American Boarding School System Analysis

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During the American Colonial period, the primary focus of colonists was to establish their own settlements in order to survive in the new continent. However, many of them believed that it was their responsibility to Christianize and civilize Native Americans. The educational institutions they established became the forerunners of the boarding schools which arose later in the 19th century both in the United States and in Canada (Stout 1). The aim of these schools was to resolve the so called “Indian-Problem” and to assimilate American Indians by separating Native children from their families and teaching them the American or the Canadian way of life (Trafzer, Keller and Sisquoc 14). Children in boarding schools were taught to be ashamed of and to reject their cultural heritage, ancestors and spiritual traditions (Chansonneuve 43). Moreover, boarding schools were usually underfunded, which had a negative impact on numerous aspects of school life and on the health of children (Daniels, 151). Therefore, with their harsh discipline and poor living conditions, boarding schools had damaging effects on Native people’s lives, and they contributed to many of the problems Native Americans have to face the present-day both in the U.S. and in Canada. …show more content…

Although there were some significant differences between the two countries’ systems regarding their control, enrollment, structure and the later government apologies reflecting on them, American and Canadian boarding schools shared numerous similarities with each other concerning their aims and treatment of Native children. By examining the differences and similarities between the two systems, the thesis is going to focus how these institutions worked in order to assimilate Native children to the dominant

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From analyzing the documentary Unspoken: America’s Native Boarding Schools and Joe Suina’s personal narrative And Then I Went to School, it is clear that Native Americans are negatively portrayed in the media. Unspoken: America’s Native Boarding Schools is a documentary published by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). It shows how Americans attempted to assimilate Native Americans into western society by establishing the American Indian Boarding School system. These schools had the intention of removing all aspects of Native American culture, tradition, and language.

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Over the past few decades, there has been many distinct perspectives and conflicts surrounding the historical context between the Indigenous peoples in Canada and the Canadian Government. In source one, the author P.J Anderson is trying to convey that the absolute goal of the Indian Residential School system in Canada has been to assimilate the Indian nation and provide them with guidance to “ forget their Indian habits”, and become educated of the “ arts of civilized life”, in order to help them integrate into society and “become one” with their “White brethren”. It is clearly evident throughout the source that the author is supportive of the Indian residential school system and strongly believes that the Indian residential School System

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These schools have been described as an instrument to wage intellectual, psychological, and cultural warfare to turn Native Americans into “Americans”. There are many reports of young Native Americans losing all cultural belonging. According to an interview with NPR, Bill Wright was sent to one of these schools. He lost his hair, his language, and then his Navajo name. When he was able to return home, he was unable to understand or speak to his grandmother.

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The TRC’s “The History” author appeals to logos through the use quantitative findings. The use of logical evidence from the collection of testimonials made by former residential school students is an effective way to aid the persuasion of a reader. Throughout “The History”, the author describes the memories of known First Nations peoples Frederic Ernest Koe, Marlene Kayseas, Lily Bruce and many others. In addition, the author quotes Vitaline Elsie Jenner’s use of ‘kaya nakasin’ (TRC, 2015, p.38) in describing her experience with residential school. The author’s example that contains the use native language reaffirms his credibility and detailed knowledge of the

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Between 1790 and 1920, the United States used assimilation to shift Native-American culture into Euro-American culture. Americanization policies stated that when Natives learned Americas customs and values, they could combine their culture with American culture and have a peaceful transition into society’s majority. However, after the Indian Wars, Native American children were sent to boarding schools where they were forced to adopt the English language and other cultural aspects of the new America and leave their own traditions behind. The question of whether assimilation should be encouraged is still debated today.

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However, boarding schools specifically targeted the younger generation creating a more impactful lasting effect. As talked about in lecture, these children were taken from their homes and forced to completely disassociate themselves from tribal life. At these boarding schools, children were taught in and forced to speak English, which led them to forget their own language. Once done with school, if the children decided to go back home, they would often times not be able to communicate with their parents and grandparents because many Native Americans living on reservations didn’t know English. This ruined relationships and the transferring of culture through generations as children had no way of communicating and were never home to learn from their peers and environment about culture.

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Many Native Americans, as well as the pack in “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”, were forced to receive an education. Figures of authority tried, and usually succeeded, to force Native American children to attend school. These figures of authority did not give the Native Americans a choice in this matter, nor did they care about these individuals or their culture. Not to mention, over 100 Native American youth were chosen to attend school in PA. This was a noticeable number of people that were forced to attend school, and this was not very considerate.

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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.

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“The significance of Native American boarding school was that Americans were trying to assimilate their culture and their way of living.” Many Native Americans today have very different opinions to how their people were placed in Indian boarding school. “Many Native Americans think that it helped their people be more civilized and help them live in american ways. ”While other Native Americans think that boarding schools were a place where they were torchered and a place where they lost their freedom and their culture. “Most people agree that Indian Boarding schools were just trying to help indians be more civilized, but others can see the wrong in the schools.”

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The nature of these boarding schools was to assimilate young Native Americans into American culture, doing away with any “savageness” that they’re supposedly predisposed to have. As Bonnin remembers the first night of her stay at the school, she says “I was tucked into bed with one of the tall girls, because she talked to me in my mother tongue and seemed to soothe me” (Bonnin 325). Even at the beginning of such a traumatic journey, the author is signaling to the audience the conditioning that she was already under. Bonnin instinctively sought out something familiar, a girl who merely spoke in the same “tongue” as her. There are already so few things that she has in her immediate surroundings that help her identify who and what she is, that she must cling to the simple familiarities to bring any semblance of comfort.

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The Tlingit of today are putting into action talking about their boarding school experiences in the 1800s in order to heal themselves and generations’ still suffering from it. The nonprofit local urban Native Corporation is using the stories to create a curriculum for K-12 about the impacts of colonialism on the Tlingit people. As I discussed in one of my previous blogs, from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s, the federal government split up families and forced the Native children into boarding schools to become civilized. Many were also raised in orphanages.

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The Native Americans suffered through many things especially when Americans wanted to “Americanize” them. Americans wanted to turn Native American into Americans people and teach them their ways and make them forget their ways. American believed that this would kill the Indian and save the man. Boarding schools were an attempt to “Americanize” Native American children. Americans believed that it was easier to manipulate children than older Indians.

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Indian Boarding schools were created in the 1800s to “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” They achieved this by transforming the natives looks, culture, language, and teaching them a certain way so they would be able to function in a “european society”. Indian boarding schools taught students both academic and “real world” skills, but they did so while ripping the indians from their culture. Most indian boarding schools were the same with their tactics in transforming the native man into a white one.

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Neither were the parents allowed to visit their children so the time the kids were finally able to go back with their family they started to become practically like strangers to each other because they knew very little about each other especially since many of the children were younger and had spent most of their lives in these school. The lack of communication between the Native American parents and children was another reason many parents weren’t aware of the trauma the kids were suffering in the homes. The kids were so affected they remember that even at night when they were left alone to sleep they were all so quiet and no one talked about what was happening to them. The native children didn’t have normal childhoods they didn’t play or interact with each other this alone shows how affected they were with the boarding

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