Native American Education Essay

The United States’ horrific actions towards the Native American population range from outright genocide to forced cultural assimilation. One such method of forced assimilation was through education. The American Indian education system was responsible for the abduction of Native American children who were then forcibly stripped and alienated of their own culture and forced to assimilate into White American culture. An education for extinction is an accurate term used to describe the American policies towards Native Americans and their culture. Native Americans were able to resist by engaging in political advocacy, fighting for their rights, launching cultural revitalization movements, and establishing tribal colleges and universities, language

Under the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant(1869 - 1877), a policy of “peace” was established with the Native Americans. Instead of armed soldiers, churchmen became the norm when dealing with Native American affairs. White Americans believed that to save Native Americans, they would have to “kill” the Indian to save the man. One such policy that was used to assimilate the Native Americans was through education. The policy consisted of opening boarding schools specifically for Native Americans in an attempt to “Americanize and civilize” them. This policy began in 1878, when the Hampton Institute began to accept Native Americans. In 1879, the American government opened its first off-reservation Native American boarding school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania called the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries over 300 schools were built ranging from off-reservations, on-reservation, day schools, religious schools, and private institutions with nearly 22,000 children being forcibly enrolled. Education in these boarding schools was mandatory for Native Americans during this time period, with Native American children being dragged from their homes by Army troops and police

One of the clearest accounts of a Native American’s upbringing is from Charles Eastman, a mixed-race Native American hailing from the Dakota tribe. Eastman was fifteen years old when he attended an American boarding school at the bequest of his father. Eastman had a traditional Native American upbringing, with himself stating, “From childhood I was consciously trained to be a man ; that was, after all, the basic thing; but after this I was trained to be a warrior and a hunter, and not to care for money or possessions, but to be in the broadest sense a public servant.” Eastman’s upbringing was of a free life. Eastman himself stated, “Thus I was trained thoroughly for an all- round out-door life and for all natural emergencies. I was a good rider and a good shot with the bow and arrow, alert and alive to everything that came within my ken. I had never known nor ever expected to know any life but this.” Native American children were completely forced to abandon their ways and convert to the Anglo way. In these boarding schools, Native American students were given Christian names, forced to wear stiff uniforms, speak English, cut their hair short, and follow a rigid set of school rules. The boarding schools were akin to boot camp when it came to discipline, with students being forced to eat the same monotonous meal every single day and stick to a strict routine to