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Boarding schools are scary enough for children who speak the same language. Imagine a village, soldiers come in and take the children age five and older away in a wagon. These Children are taken to a school far away from home, family and culture. Separated by age and sex then stripped of their clothes, bathed and then forced to stand still as their hair is cut. Crying, some silently as they are given a uniform, at this point they are terrified of what is happening. They are told they have a new Christian name and it is the only name they were permitted to use. This is how most Indian children were introduced to boarding schools. The plan was to use the schools to assimilate the children into their culture. This idea began in the United States …show more content…
The passage of the Indian Civilization Act by the United States in 1819, opened the door for Christian missionaries to teach the indigenous population agricultural techniques and the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Although the missionaries did not like the spiritual or cultural beliefs of the population, they believed that in learning civilized ways of living the Indian population would see that Christian ways were the proper course of life. The Indian Civilization Act assisted the missionaries with establishing missions close to indigenous communities. At the time assimilation was not a top priority, the missionaries were interested in taming the savage side of Indians. As a result, the government began assisting the Indian tribes with funds for education in 1820. Due to government’s involvement in the education of Indians, the creation of federally funded boarding schools was developed in the late nineteenth century. All boarding schools were created with the same goal in mind, to “kill the Indian to save the man”. On the other hand, Mexico’s method of handling …show more content…
The United States was the first to create Industrial boarding schools as most of them were called. The Carlisle Industrial Indian School was the first to open in 1879. Colonel Richard Henry Pratt, known for his love of military life came up with the idea to create an Indian Boarding School in Pennsylvania. His goal was to “Kill the Indian, save the man.” By the arduous work of the students the first two years the Carlisle school was open it was completely self-sufficient. It was Pratts belief that by separating the Indian children from their life on the reservation the assimilation process would be easier as they learned to live in a white community. The Carlisle Indian School was the template for most of the other boarding schools throughout the United States and even throughout
By introducing how Christopher Columbus coining the term “Indian” influenced the initial perception of Native Americans. Although he paints them as intellectual, generous, and happy people, there is also account of them being cannibalistic, thieves, and intimidating. As a result of this depiction and many more, American Indians are never seen as good enough in comparison to Whites due to not being Christian and civilized. Along with this view, they were seen as “wilder” and “savage” Indians, which is to this assumption that Native Americans do not have guidance (13). Also considered heathens, this idea that converting them to Christianity came about through Alexander Whitaker’s pamphlet. Furthermore, separation of American Indians according to tribes was unheard of and resulted in grouping all the tribes into the same customs and beliefs. In effect, they were described as the opposite of Whites by lacking features necessary to being successful as a Caucasian
In 1887 the federal government launched boarding schools designed to remove young Indians from their homes and families in reservations and Richard Pratt –the leader of Carlisle Indian School –declared, “citizenize” them. Richard Pratt’s “Kill the Indian… and save the man” was a speech to a group of reformers in 1892 describing the vices of reservations and the virtues of schooling that would bring young Native Americans into the mainstream of American society.
People know about the conflict between the Indian's cultures and the settler's cultures during the westward expansion. Many people know the fierce battles and melees between the Indians and the settlers that were born from this cultural conflict. In spite of this, many people may not know about the systematic and deliberate means employed by the U.S. government to permanently rid their new land of the Indians who had lived their own lives peacefully for many years. There are many strong and chilling reasons and causes as to why the settlers started all of this perplexity in the first place. There was also a very strong and threatening impact on the Native Americans through the schooling that stained the past and futures of Native Americans not only with blood but also with emotion. It was all a slow and painful plan of the "white man" to hopefully get rid of the Indian culture, forever. The Native American schools were created in an attempt to destroy the Native American way of life, their culture, beliefs and tradi...
News of Pratt's experiment spread. With the blessing of Congress, Pratt expanded his program by establishing the Carlisle School for Indian Students to continue his "civilizing" mission. Although liberal policy for the times, Pratt's school was a form of cultural genocide. The schools continued into the '30s until administrators saw that the promised opportunities for Indian students would not materialize, threat they would not become "imitation white men." Native Americans who attended the schools help tell the story of a humanist experiment gone bad, and its consequences for a generation of Discover the tragic, long-term consequences of attempts to "civilize" Native Americans in the 1870s at the Carlisle School for Indians.
The governmental leaders of the United States of America began implementing Indian policies from its inception. As Euro-Americans they expected all non-whites in the U.S. to assimilate into a Euro-American (Christian) lifestyle, without reciprocation or sympathy to the traditions and history of our native people. Our founding fathers and subsequent leaders of the United States at varying times have used suppression, segregation, aggression, and assimilation to manage what they perceived as an Indian problem, and civilize them. The native peoples of North America have responded to these actions by, at times, complying with the U.S. government and allowing themselves to be relocated to other areas of the country leaving behind their ancestral
The Americans settled all over the United States and in the 1820s began showing interest in the West because of trade with Asia. Certain leaders were sent out on missions' to "help" better the lives of the Indians and Mexicans. When the white settlers first came to West they viewed the Indians and Mexicans as savages. They did not think of them as human because their lifestyle was unsuitable, or rather different then their own. The only way that they could tolerate them was to try and change their way of living. They attempted to convert them into the Christian religion, to change the way they ate, what they ate, how they ate it, the way they dressed, teach them English, etc. "The object of the missions is to convert as many of the wild Indians as possible, and to train them up within the walls of the establishment in the exercise of a good life, and of some trade, so that they may be able to provide for themselves and become useful members of civilized society."1
The American public 's reaction to Lumbee English were negative and they tried to erase the language and their culture. In 1880 the government established Indian boarding schools where Native American students were treated harshly and were forbidden to express their culture or speak their language. A direct quote from one of their headmasters was “Kill the Indian, save the man”(History and Culture "Boarding Schools," 2016). The boarding schools served as more of a “correctional facility” than a school and imprisoned children of all ages. These boarding schools did not close until 1932, and in that time many children were whipped, mentally scarred, and some even died. There are hundreds of reported cases of Native American students dying in schools and there are even more that are not on paper. With time people have become more accepting of other cultures but the stigma towards Lumbee English still exists. The standardization of American English has created a lot of tension with other dialects of English present in the United States. Presently outsiders see Lumbee English speakers as uneducated because it is not the form of English they learn in schools, but the issue is slightly more complex. North Carolina’s dialect of English has southern routes that give it a different accent,
This school was significant because it changed the way they lived for the rest of their lives. The boarding school’s mission was to help Native Americans adjust to American culture by influencing upon their children white lifestyles, or what was close to it. However, this did not seem to help Native Americans. Many of the children weren’t welcomed back home because some of them could no longer remember the life they used to lead and were therefore thought of as a shame to all Native Americans and their heritage. Many came back not knowing how to speak their native tongue, or even not knowing their tribes’ rituals. In some ways, the Americans did accomplish what they set out to do, they did change many Native Americans, but there were cases in which they didn’t. Some students disobeyed the rules and continued to speak their native tongue and practice rituals in secret in school. This was resistance inside the school, and resistance also happened outside of the school. However, if children were caught disobeying the rules they were punished. Some parents were angry that they weren’t allowed to see their kids when they wanted, so few would resist allowing their children to go back after breaks. Others would run away with their children and families, though this was a tough choice to
The Allotment and Assimilation Era of the 1880’s to the 1930’s had a widespread and devastating impact on the Native American population in the United States. These two policies were attempts by the U.S. Federal Government to separate tribes, and indoctrinate the Native American youth to further assimilate the Native American population into the western body of culture. These policies were allotment, which broke apart the tribal land of the Native American people, and boarding schools, which attempted to teach the Native American youth about western culture and ways.
The Indian Act is made up from the Gradual Civilization Act of 1857 and the Gradual Enfranchisement Act of 1869. The Gradual Civilization Act encouraged the Indian people to give up their status and become a Canadian citizen. The Gradual Enfranchisement Act gave the government full control over the Indian people. They were able to decide everything from who kept their status, received benefits, and even who were able to keep their children. In 1876, these acts together alongside with other rules and regulations formed the Indian Act. The government thought it was best to be able to control every aspect of the First Nations people’s lives. It was stated in annual report of the Department of the Interior Indian Affairs in 1876:
In the 1870s, the U.S. government enacted a policy of assimilation of Native Americans, to Americanize them. Their goal was to turn them into white men. Schools were an important part of facilitating their goal. In 1879, Richard Henry Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian School. It was the first school in which Native American children were culturally exposed to American ideology. The idea for the boarding school first came through treatment of Cheyenne warriors. In the 1860s, Americans were in the midst of a major western migration. Settlers were moving into the western region, pushing natives off lands, and in some cases, killing livestock. Warriors then took revenge on settlers and soldiers. General Sherman called for “the extermination of the natives.” Groups of warriors were captured, arrested, and charged without a trial.
In the late 1800s, the United States proposed an educational experiment that the government hoped would change the traditions and customs of Native Americans. Special schools were created all over the United States with the intention of "civilizing" Native youth. This paper will explore the history and conditions of Native American boarding schools and why they were ultimately unsuccessful.
At these boarding schools, Native American children were able to leave their Indian reservations to attend schools that were often run by wealthy white males. These individuals often did not create these schools with the purest of intentions for they often believed that land occupied by Native American Tribes should be taken from them and put to use; it is this belief that brought about the purpose of the boarding schools which was to attempt to bring the Native American community into mainstream society (Bloom, 1996). These boarding schools are described to have been similar to a military institution or a private religious school. The students were to wear uniforms and obey strict rules that included not speaking one’s native tongue but rather only speaking English. Punishments for not obeying such rules often included doing laborious chores or being physically reprimanded (Bloom, 1996). Even with hars...
"Compressed emotions," that is the explanation a teacher once gave to the ongoing question, "What is poetry?" He said it was someone's deepest emotions, as if you were reading them right out of that person's mind, which in that case would not consist of any words at all. If someone tells you a story, it is usually like a shell. Rarely are all of the deepest and most personal emotions revealed effectively. A poem of that story would be like the inside of the shell. It personifies situations, and symbolizes and compares emotions with other things in life. Louise Erdrich's poem Indian Boarding School puts the emotions of a person or group of people in a setting around a railroad track. The feelings experienced are compared to things from the setting, which takes on human characteristics.
To begin with, the Native Americans were becoming more civilized. The Cherokees began to act and dress more like the white Americans. This can be seen in the following quote, “ First I tell you about the Cherokees. I think they improve. I hope they will soon become civilized and enlightened.” (Sally M. Reece, letter to Reverend Campbell). This quote demonstrated that the Cherokees, a group of Indians, are becoming more civilized. These Native Americans are making effort to keep and live in their land, and it wouldn’t make sense to send them away from these missionaries that are helping them. If they are to relocate, then the Cherokees would lose all this. They would revert back to their old traditions if they were to be surrounded by other Native Americans and if they were excluded from American civilization. While it is true that some Native Americans were becoming more civilized, not every group was. Of the big group of five Native Americans, only the Cherokee were showing an actual effort. However, if the other Indians see the Cherokee prospering and keeping their land, then they will follow in example. Without a doubt, the Native Americans shou...