Residential schooling has been used in both Canada and America. It was said to be a solution for the “Indian problem”. For many others who attended, it was a time of abuse and desecration of culture. In 1920, under the Indian Act, it became mandatory for every Indian child between the ages of 4 and 16 to attend a residential school and it is illegal for them to attend any other educational institution. There are two objective views that the government wanted to establish with residential schooling. The first one is to isolate the children from their families, so they can be converted and educated into the “white” culture. The second view is to blend the Aboriginal children into the dominant culture. The objectives assume that Aboriginal culture …show more content…
This was when the United States was still at war with the Indians. Richard Pratt, an Army Officer, founded the first of this type of schooling. He based it on an educational program he developed in an Indian prison. He described his philosophy in a speech he gave in 1892. “A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one. Kill the Indian in him and save the man.” For many communities, for a variety of reasons, federal schooling was the only option. Public schools were closed to Indians because of racism. The curriculum in Indian schooling focused mostly on trades, such as carpentry for boys and housekeeping for girls. Students did not learn basic concepts in math or English; parts of speech or grammar. In 1945, Bill Wright, a Pattwin Indian, was sent to the Stewart Indian school in Nevada when he was 6 years old. Wright was bathed in kerosene and had his head shaved. Students at federal boarding schools were forbidden to express their culture. This ranged from wearing long hair to speaking their language. He stated that, “He had not only lost his language, but also his American Indian name.” According to Tsuanina Lomawauma, head of the American Indian Studies Program at the University of Arizona, the intent was to completely transform people, inside and out. “Language, religion, family structure, economics, the way you are making a living, the way you express emotion, everything.” The idea of these federal schooling systems was to keep the communities pacified with their children held in a school someplace far
This again shows the traumatic effects of residential schools and of cultural, psychological, and emotional upheaval caused by the intolerance and mistreatment of Aboriginals in Canada. Settlers not only displaced Aboriginal people from their land and their homes, but they also experienced emotional trauma and cultural displacement.
The over-representation of Aboriginal children in the Canadian Child Welfare system is a growing and multifaceted issue rooted in a pervasive history of racism and colonization in Canada. Residential schools were established with the intent to force assimilation of Aboriginal people in Canada into European-Canadian society (Reimer, 2010, p. 22). Many Aboriginal children’s lives have been changed adversely by the development of residential schools, even for those who did not attend them. It is estimated that Aboriginal children “are 6-8 times more likely to be placed in foster care than non-Aboriginal children (Saskatchewan Child Welfare Review Panel, 2010, p. 2).” Reports have also indicated that First Nations registered Indian children make up the largest proportion of Aboriginal children entering child welfare care across Canada (Saskatchewan Child Welfare Review Panel, p. 2). Consequently, this has negatively impacted Aboriginal communities experience of and relationship with child welfare services across the country. It is visible that the over-representation of Aboriginal children in the child welfare system in Canada lies in the impact of the Canadian policy for Indian residential schools, which will be described throughout this paper.
Residential schools had a negative impact on Aboriginal people, many children suffered greatly. The government had thought Aboriginal people’s history and culture were not worth preserving.This resulted to loss of culture and assimilation, because they were stripped out of their traditional ways, and taken away from their families.Stephen Harper apologized to the former students enrolled in Indian Residential schools on behalf of the government of Canada. What
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...
“To kill the Indian in the child,” this was one of the many atrocious quotes which were spoken during the peak of residential schools from 1913 to 1932. Residential schools were government-sponsored, church ran schools established to assimilate Aboriginal children into Euro-Canadian culture. This quote means what it simply says, to remove the Indian culture out of a child. There were many quotes which outlined the goals of residential schools in Canada; some of them as shown in source II for example, were made by Duncan Campbell Scott, the Deputy Superintendent General of the Department of Indian Affairs between 1913 and 1932. The quote depicts his Eurocentric views towards the Indians and his intentions on what to do with them. The first Source
Pratt in the late 1800’s. Americans felt it was important to influence on Native Americans traditional white, Christian values. This was also important in Arizona, and it led to the opening of The Phoenix Indian School. Americans felt Native Americans were “a cruel lot of savages...for horrible butcheries of white settlers and unspeakable barbarities upon their enemies.” This was the image Native Americans were given in the 19th and in part of the 20th century, and it was a big part of the reason why assimilation was put into practice in Arizona. Americans wanted Indians to live as they did, and the only way to do this was through forced assimilation. To do this, Americans took many Native American children forcibly from their families and villages on their reservations and took them to off reservation boarding schools located in the midst of big white cities. In Arizona, this was especially enforced by the military and by the police. The first round of students taken by the Arizona police were largely from different tribes, as the white Americans felt that this was necessary to further the process of assimilation and to help the Native Americans live successfully in modern American society. The tribes had been confined to their reservations for decades and lived by separate traditions, ways, and beliefs and that would therefore make being
During the 19th century the Canadian government established residential schools under the claim that Aboriginal culture is hindering them from becoming functional members of society. It was stated that the children will have a better chance of success once they have been Christianised and assimilated into the mainstream Canadian culture. (CBC, 2014) In the film Education as We See It, some Aboriginals were interviewed about their own experiences in residential schools. When examining the general topic of the film, conflict theory is the best paradigm that will assist in understanding the social implications of residential schools. The film can also be illustrated by many sociological concepts such as agents of socialization, class inequality, and language as a cultural realm.
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.
“To kill the Indian in the child,” was the prime objective of residential schools (“About the Commission”). With the establishment of residential schools in the 1880s, attending these educational facilities used to be an option (Miller, “Residential Schools”). However, it was not until the government’s time consuming attempts of annihilating the Aboriginal Canadians that, in 1920, residential schools became the new solution to the “Indian problem.” (PMC) From 1920 to 1996, around one hundred fifty thousand Aboriginal Canadians were forcibly removed from their homes to attend residential schools (CBC News). Aboriginal children were isolated from their parents and their communities to rid them of any cultural influence (Miller, “Residential Schools”). Parents who refrained from sending their children to these educational facilities faced the consequence of being arrested (Miller, “Residential Schools”). Upon the Aboriginal children’s arrival into the residential schools, they were stripped of their culture in the government’s attempt to assimilate these children into the predominately white religion, Christianity, and to transition them into the moderating society (Miller, “Residential Schools”). With the closing of residential schools in 1996, these educational facilities left Aboriginal Canadians with lasting negative intergenerational impacts (Miller, “Residential Schools”). The Aboriginals lost their identity, are affected economically, and suffer socially from their experiences.
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 government’s goal of the Residential School System was to remove and isolate the children from their families and their culture in order to assimilate the Indigenous race to the dominant new Canadian culture. What the citizens did not know about was the
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.
"A History of Residential Schools in Canada." CBCnews. Canadian Brodcasting Corporation, 07 Jan. 2014. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
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...
The Indian Boarding School Experience sanctioned by the U.S government decultralized Native Americans through Anglo Conformity which has led to a cultural smudging of the Native American mores generations later, disrupting centuries of cultural constructions and the norms and values of the Native American people.