Native American Assimilation

Schools would “kill the Indian and save the man” by introducing them to the life of an American. In order to destroy their culture, children were taken away from their families. Indians were unable to engage in their tribe’s culture and they were required to speak in English.

Native American Indians was discriminated just like other nonwhites, the New Deal relief program by the Government did not benefit them as well. American Indians were the victim of violence their land was stolen from them many was killed the surviving Native Americans were denied equality before the law and often treated as wards of the state, and placed in reservations and force to learn Americans traditions and values. Their tribal land was lost to government sales. It was not until the 1930s laws stop America from forcing American Indians to practice their culture. The law gave tribes increasing tribal economic and political

Because they were pressured to adhere to white customs, many Native Americans no longer felt attached to the history of their people and felt emotional trauma from their experiences. As a result of their assimilation, some Native Americans felt that they no longer fit in with the whites nor their own peoples. They were in a grey-zone where they didn’t belong anywhere. However, there were some assimilated Native Americans that actually benefited from their changes. For example, Patrick Miguel returned to his people and “helped his people win limited self-rule” (Edwards 108). Despite all of the abuse they endured, Native Americans were able to utilize their experiences to seek reform for their

When the Europeans began colonizing the New World, they had a problematic relationship with the Native Americans. The Europeans sought to control a land that the Natives inhabited all their lives. They came and decided to take whatever they wanted regardless of how it affected the Native Americans. They legislated several laws, such as the Indian Removal Act, to establish their authority. The Indian Removal Act had a negative impact on the Native Americans because they were driven away from their ancestral homes, forced to adopt a different lifestyle, and their journey westwards caused the deaths of many Native Americans.

Native Americans were greatly affected by the expansion of the United States during the 1800s. As the U.S. moved west, they stole large amounts of Native American land by settling the land and killing the Natives who once lived there. Also during this time, their culture was being taken from them due to assimilation. While United States citizens were expanding into the west, many Native American lives were lost. They were also responsible for destroying a major food and supply source for Native Americans.

“The government’s assimilation policy sought to destroy Native nations’ cultural and political identities by replacing them with Anglo – American norms of behavior (108).” This started with Native American children. They sent them to off-reservation boarding schools where they taught Anglo- American culture curriculum and emphasized on teaching them the value of marriage, family, and gender roles. To break the bond between a native child and their parents, Indian service employees acted as surrogate parents to these children.

Residential Schools was an enormous lengthening event in our history. Residential schools were to assimilate and integrate white people’s viewpoints and values to First Nations children. The schools were ran by white nuns and white priests to get rid of the “inner Indian” in the children. In residential schools, the children suffered immensely from physical, emotional, sexual and spiritual abuse. Although the many tragedies, language was a huge loss by the First Nations children. One of the worst punishments in residential schools was for speaking their own language. The use of residential schools on First Nations has led to substantial loss of the indigenous languages, therefore, causing further cultural losses to First Nations people.

Different dress, food and confined living environment created a huge amount of stress, which those little boys and girls carried with them. There may have been some good intentions associated with the Boarding school program, but the process and the end results were completed opposite with those good intentions. The idea of exterminating a culture and transform it into another is a false concept to begin with. “I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place. He put in your heart wishes and plans, in my heart he put other and different desires. Each man is good in his sight. It is not necessary for Eagles to be Crows.”(Sitting Bull) This famous quote from the legendary Native American leader Sitting Bull conveyed Native people’s criticism towards the Boarding school and Americanization. Sitting Bull was a holy man and chief of his people, well-known by his bravery in battle and bright insight in leadership. Never afraid to persist his belief, Chief Sitting Bull was a forerunner during years of resistance to the U.S government policies. (Eastman) His powerful influence to his tribe and great knowledge led to his spiritual legacy remaining in the history of Native Americans. Unfortunately, the U.S government wasn’t perceptive enough to understand Chief Sitting Bull’s

Junípero Serra has been decapitated, defaced, and became a saint all within a month’s time. He is surrounded by controversy. Many celebrated for he was the first Latino to become canonized. Rubén Mendoza of California State University of Monterey Bay explains, “Father Serra was not only a man of his time, he was a man ahead of his time in his advocacy for native people on the frontier.” However, Valentin Lopez who is the chair of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band explains that “Serra’s and the Church’s failure to learn form the teaching of Christ or from the life of St. Francis resulted in the complete extinction of many, many California tribes and great devastation for many others.”

Over the past few decades, there has been many distinct perspectives and conflicts surrounding the historical context between the Indigenous peoples in Canada and the Canadian Government. In source one, the author P.J Anderson is trying to convey that the absolute goal of the Indian Residential School system in Canada has been to assimilate the Indian nation and provide them with guidance to “ forget their Indian habits”, and become educated of the “ arts of civilized life”, in order to help them integrate into society and “become one” with their “White brethren”. It is clearly evident throughout the source that the author is supportive of the Indian residential school system and strongly believes that the Indian residential School System

On January 28th, 1879, Davin was appointed from the new Conservative government to solely investigate the commission on American industrial schools for native children.8 His report submitted on March 14th, 1879, suggested that day schools were ineffective due to the influence of wigwam overpowered the influence of the school.9 It states, “Little can be done with [adult Native People]. [They] can be taught to do little at farming, and at stock-raising, and to dress in a more civilized manner, but that is all.”10 The perception was that Native American adults had a limited ability to learn new skills and concepts. Later in the report, it is expressed that children learn little at day school, causing their “tastes to be fashioned at home, and [their] inherited aversion to toil is in no way combated.”11 Davin recommended that similar industrial boarding schools should be built in Canada, which would attempt to assimilate Native children into the European culture.12 Nicholas Flood Davin’s research and advances about the industrial schools in America, was important in the creation and developing of the Residential school system in

The Native Americans had endured nearly a century of forced removal westward. By the end of the century, American policy makers thought of ways on how to “civilize” native people undermining traditional settlement and cultural ways. Then For instance including them with American white values. Also the establishment of schools for the youth were gradually getting

The goal of the United States was to use educations to erase Native American culture and assimilate indigenous students into European-American society (Boarding School). “Kill the Indian, save the man” stated Richard Henry Pratt—key figure in developing the Native American Boarding schools (Carlisle Indian School). The white folk saw the indigenous people as a problem. Therefore, they attempted to solve the problem through assimilation. Many indigenous people were forced to—at times—to attend the boarding schools (Boarding School). During the boarding schools, the children were stripped of their indigenous culture. Their hair was cut short, and they were forced to dress “proper.” The students were forbidden to speak their native tongue (Carlisle Indian School). Students could only speak English. It did not matter if the children were from the same tribe or opposing tribe. All students were expected to follow the strict military style disciplinary

First of all, Native Americans were settled on a hotbed of natural resources which included oil and precious metals such as silver and gold. There was also much fertile land that would entice farmers and frontiersmen to move out west. On this land there was so much potential economic opportunity for farmers, cattle drivers, miners and many other occupations. The government developed the popular public misconception that the indians were misusing the land and that Americans had the right to take advantage of the opportunities that lie in the west. These ideas led to the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 which authorized encroachment of Indian lands by the US government in order to divide up reservations and control Indian activity. The government tried to force assimilation on Native Americans as well as an attempt to “kill the indian, save the man.” These ideas and policies are similar to those popular during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. Jackson developed a sense of ‘paternalism’ towards indians and believed he was saving them by forcing them to live out west of the Mississippi river away from white culture. The difference was that Jackson did not believe in assimilation of indians into white culture, he believed they should be kept separate. With the help of the Federal government removing indians from land west of the Mississippi, Americans were

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). Moreover, boarding schools were usually underfunded, which had a negative impact on numerous aspects of school life and on the health of children (Daniels, 151). Therefore, with their harsh discipline and poor living conditions, boarding schools had damaging effects on Native people’s lives, and they contributed to many of the problems Native Americans have to face the present-day both in the U.S. and in Canada.