Summary: The Impacts Of American Boarding Schools

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

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,

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