Ethnocide In The School House Analysis

During the American Colonial period, the primary focus of colonists was to establish their own settlements in order to survive in the new continent. However, many of them believed that it was their responsibility to Christianize and civilize Native Americans. The educational institutions they established became the forerunners of the boarding schools which arose later in the 19th century both in the United States and in Canada (Stout 1). The aim of these schools was to resolve the so called “Indian-Problem” and to assimilate American Indians by separating Native children from their families and teaching them the American or the Canadian way of life (Trafzer, Keller and Sisquoc 14). Children in boarding schools were taught to be ashamed of and to reject their cultural heritage, ancestors and spiritual traditions (Chansonneuve 43).

“....I believe in immersing the Indian in our civilization and when we get them under, holding them there until they are thoroughly soaked.”, said Richard Henry Pratt. Richard Pratt founded the United States’ first indian boarding school. Carlisle Indian Industrial School was established in the year of 1879 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Indian Boarding Schools were created to decimate traditional indian culture, and replace it with white, american culture. There were a plethora of indian boarding schools established in the United States.

Imagine being forced to leave your home, just for the reason of white settlers needing land to plant cotton. In 1814, Andrew Jackson from Tennessee commanded, the U.S. military forces that defeated a faction of the Cherokee nation. In their defeat, they lost 22 million acres of land. The Cherokees were given two years to migrate voluntarily, at the end of the two years the Cherokees would be removed by force. In 1838 only 2,000 had migrated and 16,000 remained on the land.

In the 1800s, Native Americans were oppressed because they were deemed to be “uncivilized” barbaric human beings. In order for Native Americans to become assimilated into the “white mans” culture of that time, Native American children were enrolled into boarding schools. Students in these boarding schools have had both positive and negative experiences. In the novel, Recovering Native American Writings in the Boarding School Press, by Jacqueline Emery, Henry Caruthers Roman Nose reflects on his experience in the boarding school through essays, and in the novel, American Indian Stories, Legends and Other Writings, Zitkala-Sa reflects on her experience through different types of writings. Despite how Henry Caruthers Roman Nose found boarding

Throughout assimilation, there was a cultural barrier between the Indians and the teachers. At the core of this barrier was the idea that one culture was more civilized than the other. This idea can be seen in both Native American boarding schools and at St. Lucy’s. As stated in Sarah E. Stone’s dissertation, the teachers at Native American boarding schools were not “culturally familiar” (57) with the students and, as a result, treated them differently. Similarly, at St. Lucy’s the nuns saw the wolf girls as barbaric people and treated them accordingly.

Colonial life for early Americans was not what they originally anticipated. For a long time, they had to struggle to survive. When they came to America they were looking to be free from religious persecution. They wanted to be able to start a new life in this New World. They eventually created a thriving group of colonies, but their success did not come easy.

After fighting a losing battle against the English settlers, Native Americans found themselves cornered with the passage of the Indian Appropriations Act of 1851. Authorizing the creation of Indian areas in what is now Oklahoma, the native population was once again forced into even smaller fields of land called reservations. The U.S. government made several promises to provide the tribal members with food and supplies, but fell short in keeping them. In addition, there were strict limitations on the Native Americans ability to hunt, fish, and gather food. With all of these restrictions in place, the Americans were given the upper hand in terms of controlling the Indians.

In both instances in “St. Lucy’s” and the Native American Indians, they had no other option but to be repressed by the Early Americans. Such as the early American nation thought it was necessary for the assimilation of the American Indians. Likewise the assimilation of the American Indians the girls in “St. Lucy’s” were forced to blend in and forget their old way of life to learn to act like a human. For the purpose of assimilation, some American Indian children were kidnapped and taken to boarding schools to learn how to be more like the early Americans and forced to forget their old way of life. With this in mind; “St. Lucy’s” children weren’t really kidnapped, but more convinced that this is what there wolf parents wanted from them and

There is no doubt that the history between Native Americans and the government is one not to be proud of. It also goes to show that the United States never sat down and asked Native Americans what they wanted; if communication was conducted there would have been little conflict between the two. This overall theme is apparent in the 19th Century policy of Indian Removal and 20th Century’s Relocation and Termination policies. The main goal of the 19th Century policy of Indian Removal was to remove Native Americans from what was thought to be desired land. These policies were allowed to happen due to Native Americans being thought of as less than human.

government started to civilize them and moved to control all aspects of their lives through passing the Indian Act and residential schools. According to Carole Blackburn “although assimilation was the stated goal, in actuality, the Indian Act facilitated the ongoing supervision of aboriginal people as a racially segregated population, marking their externality from the nation and separation from the rights and duties of Canadian citizenship” ( ). Therefore, biology has been used as an ideology to maintain capitalism and used to determine society behavior. In the other words, prejudice, discrimination and racism become the reason that they occupied the subordinate position in the political, economical and ideological relations of Canadian’s society.

A) During the British conquering of Ireland in the 1570s and 1580s, “many English soldiers developed in Ireland a sneering contempt for the ‘savage’ natives, an attitude that they brought with them to the New World.” Such an attitude materialized in the use of “Irish tactics” by the British where “Elizabeth’s troops crushed the Irish uprising with terrible ferocity, inflicting unspeakable atrocities upon the native Irish people.” Indeed, one of such English soldiers included Captain De La Warr, who, unlike his predecessor, Captain John Smith, treated the Native Americans terribly just as he did the Irish, “raid(ing) Indian villages, burn(ing) houses, confiscat(ing) provisions, and torch(ing) cornfields.” Such a Native American policy led to