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Native American Boarding Schools During The 19th And 20th Century

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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 …show more content…

Moreover, this means that though there are no longer residential schools, their harm cannot yet be forgotten as many Native peoples’ have yet to find any healing. Despite some legislative efforts, such as the Indian Child Protection Act, the lack of adequate healing services and redress sustains this cycle of suffering (Native American Boarding Schools, n.d.). Furthermore, the socio-economic fallout of historical trauma, including barriers to education and opportunity, exacerbates the challenges faced by modern Native youth. The pervasive impact of these factors makes it exceedingly difficult for Native individuals, both historically and in contemporary times, to excel in education, as they are hindered by systemic barriers that impede academic success and limit access to resources and opportunities. The legacy of Native American boarding schools is a harrowing testament to the destructive and horrific impact of cultural genocide inflicted upon indigenous

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A segment of the documentary analyzes the impact of these schools on Native Americans today. Specifically, how the educational system is an integral aspect of the portrayal

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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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They were stripped away from their traditional and ordinary lives and introduced to the “oppressors’” way of life. If they stepped out of line and attempted to retain their previous lifestyle, they were physically abused through a system that wanted to spend as less money as possible to “kill the Indian, save the man.” It was this trauma that they went through as children that they reflect on their own children as they grew accustomed to it. It was this that many Navajo families of the reservation have a sense of fear to teach the younger generation the culture and language they were forced to grow apart from. The result and impact of the boarding school system can still be seen

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The objective was to get rid of Native American culture, religion, law, legends and language. It was planned to save the man and kill the Indian. The government wanted to teach the children, their ways of living and their language. Pratt told leaders that he wanted their children so that the children may come back and help their tribes with leadership. However, Pratt had no intention of the children returning to the tribe.

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Those kids got the message that no matter what they learned at home in their tribal cultures, it was wrong. The worst part was, some of the people teaching and working at those schools abused them”(Pearson et al. 11). The adage is a adage. It was clear that the goal of these Native American Boarding Schools was to assimilate young generations of indigenous people and erase their cultures from American society. To add, the “educators” themselves were complicit in even violating the law.

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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

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759 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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759 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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Native Americans in the 1920s were forced into assimilation. Many Native Americans tried to reject the assimilation, some tried to adapt the white man’s practices with their own practices, and others accepted the assimilation. Forced assimilation began at a young age beginning in the 1920s. Young Native Americans were taken from their homeland and tribes and were sent to assimilation schools. The assimilation schools stripped the young children of their Native American identities by renaming the children, cutting the children’s hair, changing the attire they were allowed to wear, and teaching the children tasks that were beneficial for the white population but not for the traditional Native Americans.

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In the 1800s, Native Americans were oppressed because they were deemed to be “uncivilized” barbaric human beings. In order for Native Americans to become assimilated into the “white mans” culture of that time, Native American children were enrolled into boarding schools. Students in these boarding schools have had both positive and negative experiences. In the novel, Recovering Native American Writings in the Boarding School Press, by Jacqueline Emery, Henry Caruthers Roman Nose reflects on his experience in the boarding school through essays, and in the novel, American Indian Stories, Legends and Other Writings, Zitkala-Sa reflects on her experience through different types of writings. Despite how Henry Caruthers Roman Nose found boarding

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Killian Weston AIS 100, Spring 2024 Section 303 Current Events Reflection Leaving home to begin on an endeavor of educational prowess is no easy task for any teenager; In, “Despite college aspirations, Native American students find it hard to leave home” by CAL MATTERS, a non-partisan California news outlet, many Californian Indigenous teens are currently finding it quite difficult to leave home because of past injustices and real trauma. Rightfully so. In American Indigenous Studies, I have learned that countless Indigenous tribes were exploited and hurt during an entire era in American history, this era is best known as the Assimilation Era of the 1940s. Boarding schools were placed throughout the United States in an attempt to civilize Indigenous

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833 Words | 4 Pages

To understand what the Native American boarding schools were, we must look back to why they were created in the first place. In the 1830s president Andrew Jacksons issued a policy of removing eastern Native Americans to the west saying that lands west of the Mississippi would remain “Indian Country”. Not only did many plains Indians refuse to restrict where they lived, but when news of gold in the west came out came the moving of the settlers. With the movement of miners, cattlemen and homesteaders westward and onto native land, war was inevitable. These battles would become known as the Indian Wars which would be a driving force into the creation of the Native American Boarding Schools.

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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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“Native American children have the highest drop-out rates of any ethnic group in the US” (Youth). The real issue at hand is trying to identifying the things that cause natives to drop out. Much of this has to do with the earlier governmental approach that the government took to educating Native children. These schools were later labeled as corrupt, with abusive teachers that beat and starved native children for speaking their native language or practicing their spiritual beliefs. The horrible conditions that Native American children had to endure at these schools had ruined Native Americans view "public" education.

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527 Words | 3 Pages

The government believed that if the children remained with their parents the problems would only increase, with the boarding schools it would make it easier to cut off their culture and religions. They decided it was best to christianize the children making almost every boarding schools either christian or catholic. The Native American kids were forced into going to church two to three times a day. It was against the

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