Assimilation of Native American Education During my research in the assimilation of Native American Education, it was both interesting and alarming to learn of how the Americans assimilated the Native Americans into their White society. The focus of my paper is on how the assimilation of Native Americans was carried out in relation to their education and culture change. As well as, listing and describing certain types of schools created by the government to attain this. It is necessary to include how a typical day in the life of a Native American was spent; therefore, I have included a brief description of a day. In conclusion, there is a discussion of the reactions to boarding schools and the changing process in Native American culture and education. Life before Americans Reservation life prior to the European exploration was spiritually fulfilling for the Native Americans. For example, children were seen as the sons and daughters of the whole tribe, not just of those who bore them. The children were taught multiple skills such skills included: herbal remedies, how to worship, how to live off land, their tribes native tongue, and much more. There was no set school curriculum or organized process set forth by the Native Americans, which the Americans found as a flaw or disadvantage for the children. Americans adopted their place in lending Native Americans a hand in the matters of order and civility. Americans used several methods to in attain that Native American assimilate into their culture or White society as they saw fit without regards to old culture practices. Americans carried out several assimilation techniques that forced Native Americans to change their entire belief system, culture, and customs. Assimilation, is ... ... middle of paper ... ...oo late. What was lost of the Native American culture and beliefs can never be fully recovered. Works Cited “Assimilate.” Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. “School as Cultural Warfare.” Not School, 26 Apr. 2005. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. “Boarding School Era.” Prezi.com. Ed. Amber Williamson. N.p., 19 Nov. 2013. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. Marr, Carolyn J. “Assimilation through Education.” American Indians of the Pacific Northwest Collection. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. “Melting Pot.” Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. Spring, Joel H. "Chapter 6: Student Diversity." American Education. Sixth ed. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 143. Print. Spring, Joel H. “Chapter 6: Student Diversity.” American Education. Sixth ed. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 145. Print. Bear, Charla. "American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many." NPR. NPR, 12 May 2008. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
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...
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
There are consistent patterns or themes regarding Native American world views and the differentiation of cultural elements and society. Native Americans retained control of institutional and cultural orders against the assimilation effort because all aspects of Native American societies are interrelated, guided by the broader cultural world views. Each cultural or institutional element is, in fact, overlapped with other elements, so change in one element inevitably affects the broader cultural and social complex. While adopting to a new environment and small changes was possible in the West, where social and cultural elements are separate from each other, Native Americans were faced with conflicts and a potential, large disruption of the existing social orders.
The Native Americans religion "reflected their cultural practices" (Lauter, 5). The Indians religious practices were associated with their me...
"Native American Youth 101." Aspen Institue. Aspen Institues, 24 July 11. Web. 8 Apr. 2014.
Morgan, H. (2009). What every teacher needs to know to teach Native American students. Multicultural Education, 16(4), 10-12.
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.
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)
Boarding school experiences resulted in direct causes for interpersonal violence within the Native American communities. While the experiences of Native Americans in boarding schools is not entirely lost on the dominant American population, the brutal reality and resulting consequences for Native communities is not fully appreciated. Poupart (2003) explains that it is estimated that nearly three quarters of Native Americans that attended Euro-American ran boarding schools, where they were forced to assimilate into dominant culture or else, experienced physical and sexual abuse regularly. Native Americans were forced to cut their hair, don dominant culture clothing, were beaten if they spoke their Native language, and removed from their cultural way of life to learn skills that the dominant culture found fitting. In fact, boarding school abuse was so prevalent for Native Americans that there are existing communities where not a single living adult did not experience or witness abuse. What results out of generations growing up in boarding schools is not only a loss of culture, but a loss of
Adjusting to another culture is a difficult concept, especially for children in their school classrooms. In Sherman Alexie’s, “Indian Education,” he discusses the different stages of a Native Americans childhood compared to his white counterparts. He is describing the schooling of a child, Victor, in an American Indian reservation, grade by grade. He uses a few different examples of satire and irony, in which could be viewed in completely different ways, expressing different feelings to the reader. Racism and bullying are both present throughout this essay between Indians and Americans. The Indian Americans have the stereotype of being unsuccessful and always being those that are left behind. Through Alexie’s negativity and humor in his essay, it is evident that he faces many issues and is very frustrated growing up as an American Indian. Growing up, Alexie faces discrimination from white people, who he portrays as evil in every way, to show that his childhood was filled with anger, fear, and sorrow.
of Native American Culture as a Means of Reform,” American Indian Quarterly 26, no. 1
People have been living in America for countless years, even before Europeans had discovered and populated it. These people, named Native Americans or American Indians, have a unique and singular culture and lifestyle unlike any other. Native Americans were divided into several groups or tribes. Each one tribe developed an own language, housing, clothing, and other cultural aspects. As we take a look into their society’s customs we can learn additional information about the lives of these indigenous people of the United States.
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.
To examine the changing identity of America, one must look first at America’s first citizens, the Native Americans. While no one can simply place all Native Americans under the same group, many of the tribes held the same ideals. One ideal
Diversity in classrooms can open student’s minds to all the world has to offer. At times diversity and understanding of culture, deviant experiences and perspectives can be difficult to fulfill, but with appropriate strategies and resources, it can lead students to gain a high level of respect for those unlike them, preferably from a judgmental and prejudiced view. Diversity has a broad range of spectrums. Students from all across the continent; students from political refugees, indigenous Americans, and immigrants bring their cultural and linguistic skills to American classrooms. Students not only bring their cultural and linguistic skills, but they bring their ethnicity, talents, and skills.