ipl-logo

Summary: The Impacts Of American Boarding Schools

1021 Words5 Pages

The Impacts of the American Boarding Schools on Indians
Introduction
Prior to the arrival of the first generation immigrants who disrupted the social and political setups of the Indians, there had been one social unit strung together in their beliefs, unity, and a drive for survival and existence (Mayo, 2014). However, the first generation immigrants proved superior and later even subjected them to systems that they had never anticipated (Charla, 2008). Amongst such systems were the boarding schools that came in place of their cultural/informal schools. The Indians’ boarding school experiences, as was described by Zitkala-Sa (2015), began in the 1860 with the government later establishing over 100 schools particularly for this purpose. While …show more content…

It is important to note that when effecting the policy of compelling the Indians to send their children to schools, the white society operated on the motto; Kill the Indian and Save the Man (Charla, 2008). This motto inspired cultural disintegration with an aim of assimilating the Indians. In the schools, the Indian children were forced to adopt the ways of the white man. They were forced to drop their languages, shave their hair, and in every way, try to act in the ‘civil manner’, which involved acting as the white man as opposed to their native self, which were considered as savage. This move affected the cultural setups of the Indians as their children could barely recognize the precepts that define their cultural institutions (Margolis, …show more content…

These factors resulted from the abuse, both physical and sexual, to which they had been subjected. Besides, the Indians were subjected to fear and punishment as the education tools. These were measures that were targeted at completely brainwashing the Indians and making them devalue even their own existence. As a result, several Indians leaved traumatized and scared of the processes through which they had undergone. Littlebear (2003) illustrated that this aspect drew even further the Indian children from their families. The combination of these factors is what contributed to end of the Indian Cultural ways of life. Zitkala-Sa (2015) noted that the Indians became ‘civilized’ and forgot themselves. Some even dissociated themselves from their cultures and never named even their children using the Indian

Show More
Related
1184 Words | 5 Pages

Both Indians and Anglo-Americans wanted to exterminate the other from their lives. The last chapter examines the tensed racial views. Groups like Pennsylvania’s Paxton Boys ruthlessly encouraged the removal Indians. Unfortunately, racial divisions grew, and an attempt by the Indian people to integrate Europeans into their paths ended in increasing violence. Of all the chapters, Richter

Read More
1114 Words | 5 Pages

Indian Residential Schools is a horrible event that happened from the 1840s until the 1990s. From these past mistakes in judgement, the education system has added curriculum to bring more knowledge to the event. By doing this we read “Indian Horse” by Richard Wagamese which is a fictional novel based on true events. It is about an Ojibway boy who experienced the hardships before, during, and after the Indian Residential School. The importance of learning the past is to ensure that this can be prevented in the future, to recognize what happened, and to help those affected by Indian Residential Schools.

Read More
113 Words | 1 Pages

In the speech “Kill the Indian, and Save the Man”, Captain Richard Pratt claims that the savagery of the Indians poses a problem to the advancement of the American society. He argues that their surroundings including language, superstition, and lifestyle cause this problem. TO support his claim, he provides the example of an Indian and White infant. He states that raising them in opposite environments will result in the acquisition of their respective qualities. Pratt proposes the solution of sending Indians to boarding schools, so they can gradually become civilized.

Read More
186 Words | 1 Pages

Throughout assimilation, there was a cultural barrier between the Indians and the teachers. At the core of this barrier was the idea that one culture was more civilized than the other. This idea can be seen in both Native American boarding schools and at St. Lucy’s. As stated in Sarah E. Stone’s dissertation, the teachers at Native American boarding schools were not “culturally familiar” (57) with the students and, as a result, treated them differently. Similarly, at St. Lucy’s the nuns saw the wolf girls as barbaric people and treated them accordingly.

Read More
805 Words | 4 Pages

The excerpts from the given articles express the opinions of three individuals who have influenced Native American history. The influences varied between both positive and negative. Nevertheless, they are all important. The words in each of the excerpts will help enlighten people on how Indians were treated. Each author approached race differently in their excerpts and had different ideas about the Indian race.

Read More
1314 Words | 6 Pages

The white men had treated the natives poorly, continued in viewing them as savages and trying to civilize the Native Americans through uncomfortable ways. Native Americans were forced to assimilate into Western culture and have to withstand the racism and discrimination from the Whites during that time. One of the methods that the Whites used to try to have the Indians fit into the Western culture were Native American boarding schools. These schools were established during the late 19th century to educate the Native American children according to Euro-American standards. The boarding schools often established rules for the Native Americans to follow, but most of the Native Americans were not willing to abandon their culture and tribal traditions.

Read More
916 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More
759 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
759 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
1187 Words | 5 Pages

“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.”

Read More
235 Words | 1 Pages

The Author explores this cultural irregularity in an attempt to shed light on how stereotypes and true Indian experiences have constantly competed for dominance in the aftermath of the military subjugation of Native America

Read More
272 Words | 2 Pages

During the mid 1800’s, America made a push for mandatory public education. By having more of America educated, it would provide a greater advancement in technology for our country. But this educational movement had something different planned for Native Americans. Instead of integrating Native American children into the American education system, they were placed separately into Native American boarding schools. These boarding schools were first chartered in 1860 in order ‘“to ‘assimilate’ these Indians tribes into the mainstream ‘American way of life”’(American Indian Relief Council).

Read More
967 Words | 4 Pages

In 1870 the United States government decided that they wanted to remodel the Native American Culture. They began with forcing all Indians to live on small, unprotected land which they called an Indian reservation. Their next step was to put our Native children into extremely harsh boarding schools and have them stripped of their culture. They decided it would be easiest to take the culture away from our children instead of adults. In 1877 the Congress set aside $20,000 to reeducate all Native children, their goal was to “kill the Indian, and save the child.”

Read More
1278 Words | 6 Pages

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.

Read More
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

Read More

More about Summary: The Impacts Of American Boarding Schools

Related Topics

Open Document