Essay On Indian Education

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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)

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