Native American Education Research Paper

The Indian Reform program was an initiative by the United States citizens to reform previous policies put in place by the government regarding Native Americans. These policies placed Native Americans onto reservations in the west. Reformers believed there was a corrupt service in the government that was dealing with the Native Americans. Many citizens were sympathetic towards the cause and urged for change. Most believed change needed to come by assimilation of the Native Americans, specifically being that of breaking up reservations and educating them.
One representative of the Board of Indian Commissioners, Merrill Gates, offered a resolution to the issue at hand. His proposal was to separate the tribes and impose law upon the Native Americans.

In his letter to the board, he stated “we must not only give them law, we must force law upon them. We must not only offer them education, we must force education upon them” (source 1). He believed that Native Americans would never be able to properly be governed, because of their loyalty to their chief and tribe. He posed that the Native Americans had to be shown the importance of family life. The Dawes Act of 1887, allowed for the general allotment of land to the Native Americans. This act also stated that the reservations and those residing on them, would be under the laws of whatever state they were in (source 2). In source 4, one Native American from the Cheyenne tribe, recalls being taught to farm to farm the reservation by farmers appointed by the government. The Dawes Act and the teaching of farming shows the government’s pushing for the Native Americans to become more assimilated with the American citizens way of life.
The second way that many sought to assimilate the Native Americans was through means of education.

In source 7, Lyman Abbott states in his proposal for a solution to the education issue, that no solution has been offered “for converting them from groups of tramps, beggars, thieves, and sometimes robbers and murderers, into communities of intelligent, industrious, and self-supporting citizens.” Many personnel on various Native American affairs boards believed that Native American adolescents should be taught the same material as American youth, so that they may be ready to be introduced into American society as an adult, along with being able to become a citizen. Army officer Captain Richard Pratt began education Native American youth after witnessing the education of Native American prisoners. Pratt saw many similarities between that of the treatment of Native Americans and of African Americans. In his account, he speaks on behalf of African Americans and their journey to citizenship by stating that schools are not to be awarded for developing citizens. Instead “denied the right of schools, they became English-speaking and industrious through the influence of association” (source 9). He believed the best way to promote growth of the Native Americans into American society, was not to keep them sheltered on reservations, but instead to promote their integration into schools and

society.
The Indian reform program sought to create new, model citizens out of the Native Americans by assimilating them into core American values. This reform initiative faced many differences on what would be the proper way to change these natives’ culture, though most individuals believed the separation of reservations and education proved most effective.