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.” Often times the schools that the children were assigned to could be 800+ miles from their homes and family. By the 1900s almost all of our native children were taken away from our families …show more content…
Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian School at Carlisle Barracks as a demonstration to convince the government that Indians could be reeducated in an American way. After the government agreed to reshape our culture, the numbers of boarding schools and students increased rapidly. They had an enrollment of 3,598 in 1877 and by the beginning of the nineteenth century, 20,000 Indian students were enrolled in 148 boarding schools and 225 day schools. Many of the schools that the children were forced to attend were built extremely poorly. When boys first arrive in the camps they had their hair cut short, many would have had longer hair, for having short hair was looked at poorly in the native American culture because it represented a state of mourning and was associated with death. Traditional clothing was taken away from our children. The boys were given miniature copies of military uniforms with high collars, stiff shirts, and leather boots. Long cotton dresses and hard leather shoes were given to girls. Their Indian names were taken away from them and they received Americanized names. The Blue Starred Woman, a famous Native American child that attended a boarding school says that her original name meant absolutely nothing in the camp and they were never allowed to use it. Most children had harsh discipline, especially if they were caught speaking a native language, performing a traditional ceremony, or practicing their native religion. While at the boarding …show more content…
After two years of long, intensive research, the findings were published in 1928, the 847-page report mentioned numerous concerns with American Indian programs. children were in overcrowded schools and exposed to unsanitary conditions, there were several diseases and infections that were not fixed properly. The merriam commission showed that the schools are illegal because of child labor that they are having to do. The report spoke about education, policies toward American Indians, emigration, family life of American Indians, health issues, and the legal and religious aspects of the “Indian Problem.” Research showed the that Americans failed at the task of keeping us safe. In the late 19th century the United States put a plan together to have policies against the American Indian people of North America. Although Indian Boarding schools ended, many of our Indian children never
In chapter 5 of Lomawaima & McCarty (2006), the Hopification is used to describe the success of the Hopi people in co-opting cultural norms into their society while maintaining their unique identity as a tribal and ethnic group and they were not the only ethnic Native American group to use parts of American national norms to help continue the existence of their ethnic identities (Processes of Hopification, Para 1). In chapter 1 of Lomawaima & McCarty (2006), the issues of local public school control was an American idea that was not extended to all Americans, the government along with the support of the colonizers decided to raise up the race of the Native Americans so they could one day join the ranks of civilized society, however; it is unclear the timeline in which the Native Americans would be deemed civilized because their cultural norms had been so different than those of the European colonizers that they were seen as savages who needed saving even though they had managed their tribes long before the colonizers came to the Americas (Schools as “Civilizing” and Homogenizing Institutions,
In the world of today, the actions of our ancestors are frowned upon and chastised, but piles of history books cannot cover the crude horrors of the people before us and the suffering they caused. Centuries ago, American soldiers drove the Navajo Indian tribe off their land to seize it for themselves. They were thrown into places with “conditions that could only be described as concentration camp-like” (Ault). The Navajo Nation, the largest of the approximately 500 Native American tribes who used to roam the lands of the United States, had to stand up to the American government over a century ago and fight to keep their land that their ancestors had held for hundreds of years (Ault).
In “St. Lucy’s” and the Native Americans one and the other were forced into a new culture, but had no say in this event. In some cases Native American children were kidnapped and taken to boarding schools far away from their family 's. Likewise “St. Lucy 's” had basically the same issue as the Native American children people came and took them away to a new culture they did not particularly like. Presented to Brenda J. Child author of “Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940””American Indian children who often went to school quite a distance away from home, often suffered homesickness and their parents loneliness.”.similarly the girls were also homesick and desired to see their parents. Guy B. Senese claims that “Many
“The First Days at Carlisle”: Critical Analysis “The First Days at Carlisle” by Luther Standing Bear takes place in the year of 1879 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania at the Carlisle school, a federal boarding school. The purpose of the school was to force the Native American children to assimilate to the white man's culture and to eradicate their culture and traditions. At the school Native Americans children were taught the ways of the white man, but they were not given beds, they were not well fed, they were treated like prisoners, and they were taken advantage of. Throughout the short story “The First Days at Carlisle,” Luther Standing Bear shows how the Native American children were not well taken care of at the Carlisle school.
1972 will forever remains to be a historically significant year with Indian community in America. The Adoption of the Indian Control of Indian Education Policy by the general assembly of the native Indians national brotherhood marked a new beginning in the way education was perceived and imparted among Indian children. The establishment of the department of Indian education affairs and subsequent delegation of powers to implement the contest of the policy indicated a new beginning in the Indian education system. The Indian education system had for a long time been dependent on federal government. Since its adoption in December 1972 when the then minister for Indian affairs the policy has had significant influence in the way Indian access education.
Pratt used to say that an Indian had to die as an Indian to live as a man, which clarifies why Pratt thought, wiping out the culture of Native American children had to be done. One of the first things that were done in the boarding schools is having their names changed. They were asked to choose a new name from a set of names
Native Americans have fought for their land but Americans were too brutal and forceful to them that they had to give their land to keep their people safe. Not all the Native Americans land were given away by force but some of the Native Americans peacefully made a deal with Americans to keep themselves safe and secure. This essay is to talk about some of the reasons as to why this is one of the many dire mistakes the United States has made. The plan to make Indian reservations started in the 1930 when President Andrew Jackson signed the “Indian Removal Act” on May 28, 1930.
The United States gave the Indians time to move west and those that had not done so by choice were forced. The removal of the Indians was a long going issue for The United States, that no one knew just how to deal with. “Some officials in the early years of the American republic, such as President George Washington, believed that the best way to solve this “Indian problem” was simply to “civilize” the Native
The late 1800s to 1980s approximately 150,000 First Nations children in Canada were placed in residential schools. Canada failed in the treatment of indigenous children in residential because of vital child labour, isolation of children’s cultures, and severe physical abusement. To begin with, Canada failed in the treatment of indigenous children in residential schools due to the vital child labour. The residential schools were lacking on money and students’ labour became vital, boys would be “trained in farming and basic crafts. Girls received instruction in domestic skills…
These negative effects were further amplified with residential schools in which they were not allowed to practice their tradition and were forcefully assimilated into the “western” ways. Boarding schools were run by the new white government and forcibly taught Haudenosaunee boys agriculture and manual trades, while Haudenosaunee girls were taught domestic skills. Since residential schools targeted younger generations, it made the Haudenosaunee’s traditional
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.
Losing one’s cultural knowledge, and therefore the reality of their culture, allows others to have control over their collective and individual consciousness as well as their destiny. In this case, it is clear that the United States government has had the dominant relationship over the Native
“On average, for every twenty natives alive at the moment of European contact—when the lands of the Americas teemed with numerous tens of millions of people—only one stood in their place when the bloodbath was over.” (14) This quote illustrates the one-sided mass murder of the indigenous people. Another major factor that is connected with the topic of the Native American genocide is residential schools. As the primary objective of the residential school system was to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant
The Native Americans and white people never got along ever since the time the first pilgrims arrived. After losing many wars to the white men Native Americans soon became controlled by these white men to the point where their children were forced into boarding schools. The government stated that the schools would civilize the native children and fix what they called the indian problem. They saw Native Americans as if they weren’t also part of the human race, as if they were less. That wasn’t the worse part either in the boarding schools where the native american children attended they were mistreated and malnourished.
Throughout the 19th century Native Americans were treated far less than respectful by the United States’ government. This was the time when the United States wanted to expand and grow rapidly as a land, and to achieve this goal, the Native Americans were “pushed” westward. It was a memorable and tricky time in the Natives’ history, and the US government made many treatments with the Native Americans, making big changes on the Indian nation. Native Americans wanted to live peacefully with the white men, but the result of treatments and agreements was not quite peaceful. This precedent of mistreatment of minorities began with Andrew Jackson’s indian removal policies to the tribes of Oklahoma (specifically the Cherokee indians) in 1829 because of the lack of respect given to the indians during the removal laws.