In the late eighteenth century, the United States government wanted to acculturate and assimilate Native American people as opposed to instituting reservations. The officials endorsed the practice of education for Indian children in the customs of white people. To help in bringing this to life, the Civilization Fund Act of 1819 provided financing to mostly religious societies who worked on educating Indians, often at schools. Schools were founded by missionaries next to Indian settlements, which later became reservations. As time went on, schools were built with boarding facilities, to provide accommodations for students who lived too far to be there on a daily basis (Lajimodiere 8). The Civilization Fund Act was immoral and had tremendous negative impact because it assisted in funding the Indian boarding schools, which resulted in abuse of Native children, supported the loss of their own culture and language, and lead to forced separation from families and tribes. The Indian boarding school movement began in the post-Civil War era after idealistic reformers turned their attention to the matters of Indian people. While before many Americans looked upon the native people with either fear or hatred, the reformers assumed that with the appropriate education and treatment Indians could become just like other citizens. They convinced the leaders of Congress that education could change some of the Indian people into patriotic and productive members of society. One of the first attempts to accomplish this goal was the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, founded by Captain Richard Henry Pratt in 1879. Pratt was a leading proponent of the assimilation through education policy. Believing that Indian ways were inferior to whites, he ple... ... middle of paper ... ...s pretty prepared”. (Colmant et. al. 76) This student recognizes that there are two sides to every story, and this argument will probably remain for an extended period of time. However, after gathering all the data from multiple credible sources she does believe that the Indian boarding schools had no place among Native American nations and were destructive to them, because of abuse, the loss of their own culture and language, and forced separation from families and tribes. Many former students admit that the boarding schools effectively taught Native people to view themselves as a sub-class within white American society. What was done to the American Indian nation could be considered as one of the forms of genocide, as explained in the international human rights arena, is "forcibly removing groups of people away from their families and homes.” (Pember 27)
Across North America, the scattering of Aboriginal children contributed to damaged identifications with traditional First Nations culture (Alston-O’Connor 2010). Consequently, the Sixties Scoop caused irreversible psychological, emotional and spiritual damage to not only the individual, but to the families and the community too. In the 1950s and 1960s, the government began abolishing the compulsory residential school education among Aboriginal people. The government believed that Aboriginal children could receive a better education if they were integrated into the public school system (Hanson). However, residential schools were later deemed inappropriate because not only were the children taken away from their culture, their families and their people, but the majority of students were abused and neglected....
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...
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...
The history of Indian Child Welfare Act derived from the need to address the problems with the removal of Indian children from their communities. Native American tribes identified the problem of Native American children being raised by non-native families when there were alarming numbers of children being removed from their h...
American Indians shaped their critique of modern America through their exposure to and experience with “civilized,” non-Indian American people. Because these Euro-Americans considered traditional Indian lifestyle savage, they sought to assimilate the Indians into their civilized culture. With the increase in industrialization, transportation systems, and the desire for valuable resources (such as coal, gold, etc.) on Indian-occupied land, modern Americans had an excuse for “the advancement of the human race” (9). Euro-Americans moved Indians onto reservations, controlled their education and practice of religion, depleted their land, and erased many of their freedoms. The national result of this “conquest of Indian communities” was a steady decrease of Indian populations and drastic increase in non-Indian populations during the nineteenth century (9). It is natural that many American Indians felt fearful that their culture and people were slowly vanishing. Modern America to American Indians meant the destruction of their cultural pride and demise of their way of life.
Alexie Sherman, a boy under an Indian Reservation that suffers from bullying since the 1st grade, who would have a hard time being around white people and even Indian boys. US Government provided him glasses, accommodation, and alimentation. Alexie chose to use the title "Indian Education" in an effort to express his internalized feelings towards the Native American education system and the way he grew up. He uses short stories separated by the different grades from first grade to twelfth grade to give an idea of what his life was like. He seemed to have grown up in a world surrounded by racism, discrimination, and bullying. This leads on to why he chose not to use the term Native American. He used the term "Indian" to generate negative connotations
“It's a good day to die, it’s a good day to die all the way down the hallway” is a quote from the story Indian Education by Sherman Alexie. In the story it talks about Alexie childhood to adulthood and how he was treated being an indian.and the trial and tribulations that he went through and how he handled them. So i write this essay i'm got to tell my experience, and Alexie experiences and compare them and contrast.
The creation of the Residential Schools is now looked upon to be a regretful part of Canada’s past. The objective: to assimilate and to isolate First Nations and Aboriginal children so that they could be educated and integrated into Canadian society. However, under the image of morality, present day society views this assimilation as a deliberate form of cultural genocide. From the first school built in 1830 to the last one closed in 1996, Residential Schools were mandatory for First Nations or Aboriginal children and it was illegal for such children to attend any other educational institution. If there was any disobedience on the part of the parents, there would be monetary fines or in the worst case scenario, trouble with Indian Affairs.
The Innu indians have been around for many years dating back to 1000 A.D. and have descended from people who hunted whales. Innu Indians split into two different group names, which came to be the Naskapi and Montagnais, although they are in kinda the same group, the Naskapi and Montagnais indians are somewhat different. The two groups seem to dress different and they also speak different languages. According to Innu culture and history, “ the Naskapi and Montagnais bands were constant allies and have always considered themselves part of the same Innu people. There are tons of Innus still living today and over about 16,000 still live in Canada.
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.
In many cases, an important part of one’s coming of age is the gradual realization of the oppression and prejudice aimed towards them. At this point, the adolescent starts to find their voice, yet at the same time really starts to discern how they will need to deal with certain struggles as their lives go on. In the short stories “Girl,” by Jamaica Kincaid and “Indian Education,” by Sherman Alexie, both narrators start to understand how they are being subjected to preconceived notions and expectations as they mature. In “Girl,” a young girl is being taught how to fulfill the role of a perfect woman- that is, the person who does the domestic work to support the men in her family, and conforms to the ideal of a proper lady; in “Indian Education,”
Residential schools were first established in the 1880's to solve Canada's “Indian Problem”. Settlers in Canada thought of the First Nations people as savages, and the goal of the residential schools was to civilize them and integrate them in to white Canadian society. The first operators of residential schools thought of their forced integration as a benefit to native peoples. One of the overseers of residential schools wrote to the Sisters in charge of St. Joseph's Mission at Williams Lake that “It now remains for ...
The Dawes Allotment Act of 1887 brought about the policy of Cultural Assimilation for the Native American peoples. Headed by Richard Henry Pratt, it founded several Residential Schools for the re-education and civilization of Native Americans. Children from various tribes and several reservations were removed from their families with the goal of being taught how to be c...
In the reservations, school is not a main priority and often many Native Americans drop out. In fact less than 50% of Native Americans graduate high school. Followed by that is college degrees with an astonishing 5% (Treuer). It is proven when a society does not have good schooling it will not be prosperous. When a kid has free time on their hands they will likely get in trouble. That is why we have the Boys & Girls club. The Club benefits kids by filling up their free time when parents are gone from work. This way kids do not get bored and get into trouble. Now on the reservation when less than 50% of the kids graduate you have a lot of teenagers with free time. This leads them to finding a job or a hobby. This is a perfect example of unequal condition when reservations do not have clubs and programs to keep kids busy. Outside the reservations you can find multiple institutions to keep kids in the right direction so they may thrive. If more opportunities are opened up in the reservation then schooling will thrive. However, if you do not have a home to come back to then your schooling cannot thrive. It all comes back to unequal condition, because they do not have a stable house they can’t thrive in
The curriculum in a residential school emphasized immersion in the dominant. Every effort made to induce pupils to speak, read and understand English. The Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, the Life of Christ was thought. They was making sure that they except Christianity faith as their religion. The children were thought to walk, talk and acts like there Europeans by instilling these values independence, self-respect, industry, honesty, thrift, Self-maintenance, citizenship and patriotism. The floors should be swept daily and scrubbed frequently. The loss of identity that occurred when Indigenous children were taken from their homes and forced to attend residential schools—loss of identity that was tied up in loss of language, by losing