Native American Indian Boarding Schools

Today in Australia there may be around one hundred thousand indigenous Australian people that do not know who their family is or what their culture is. During 1910-1970 many mixed cultured Aboriginal children were removed from their families by a variety of white people as a result of various Government policies. The children taken because of these policies became known as the stolen generation. Being taken away from their families and cultures would leave a legacy of trauma and loss that to this day still affects the Aboriginal community. This all happened because the white people were trying to change the way aboriginal people were living they wanted them to forget they’re culture, speak nothing but English and live like “Normal People”.

Imagine being ripped apart from family members, culture, tradition, and labelled a savage that needs to be educated. Imagine constantly facing punishment at school for being one’s self. Unfortunately, these events were faced head on for many First Nations people living in Canada in the late 20th century. These First Nations people were the victims of an extensive school system set up by the government to eradicate Aboriginal culture across Canada and to assimilate them into what was considered a mainstream society.

Personally, I think that residential schools were not justified. Being torn for from your family and forced into an abusive school system where you had no choice but to give up your culture and beliefs is simply not okay. To me, learning life skills such as how to read, write and operate farm machinery would not have been worth the trauma and mistreatment they received. Imagine what being forced away from your family, having to forget about your culture without a choice, and being put into an a cruel, abusive school system where you would have to live would be like. How could a somebody learn and be happy in such conditions?

Since the dawn of time, society has always had a major issue in cultural believes. Less and less people find the need to know and understand other people’s customs, which lead to the misunderstanding of people’s lifestyle. The Carlisle Indian School was a horrible attempt to place children of Native American tribes into US culture by placing them in boarding school. The school was used to educate and civilize Indians, “kill the Indian, save the man” (Bear). Edward Thorp was one of those student at the Carlisle school.

This displays the political struggles the Chicano movement endures because the district wouldn

“The Red umbrella and a band aid for 800 children” are completely different in the author’s purpose. They both are trying to paint the same picture though. The red umbrella is a fictional story that tells us about what happened in the 1960’s .A band aid for 800 is a non-fictional story. Both of the texts portrayed a similar theme which was that sometimes in life things don’t go according to plan but you have to adapt to it and know that it might be a positive change.

In "Indian Education" Victor was Native American. Growing up he lived on an Indian reservation. You would think that those kids would be nice to each other since they were all mostly the same race. If you thought that then you were wrong because they were so mean to the him, they broke his glasses and beat him up. Another big problem for him was the teachers.

My assumption is that the government took these surveys to make Aboriginal people feel as if their opinion was heard as opposed to reality where it meant nothing to the Europeans. It was completely absurd of the federal government to be aware that Aboriginals did not like residential schools and that it was taking away their culture and still continue to operate the detrimental schools. In addition, something I think was very troublesome was that residential schools only hired religious officials. This was troublesome because the Aboriginal children were being taught by unqualified people who are incapable of teaching any subject

The history of Native Americans is one that has not received the attention it deserves. In elementary school through high school, learning about Native Americans was brushed over or presented with false information. It did not dive into the intricacies and complexities of Native American societies. This especially true when it comes to the impact of European contact with Native American societies. The effects of colonization are far more destructive than even what people are taught in elementary to high school.

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

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. 3. A great lesson Pratt drew from the experiences of African-Americans is that they became English speaking and civilized since they were forced to associate with people like that.

American and Australian native residential boarding schools have a lot in common, since they both s have the same goal. Which was to assimilate Native children into Western culture. Both Native American children and Aboriginal were taken to the boarding school by force. Their family did not have the option to keep their children either. Both System were sponsored by churches and the government backing.

“At the schools the students were stripped of their culture as if it were clothing.” This statement from a paper written by Sarah E Stone explains the poor treatment of the Indians in the boarding schools. This paper also perfectly states not only the treatment of the Indian children but, also the great lengths taken to change them. It seems like such a simple task for the enforcers yet an awful act in general. American Indian children and the wolf girls at St. Lucy’s were forced to assimilate into the civilized culture of the white man through many approaches and techniques that in the end ultimately reached the goal of the enforcers, which ended with benefits to society but not to the Indian children or the girls.

The first contact between the Natives and puritans was for trade and diplomacy only. The puritans though that they needed to teach the native their religion, but they where still too outnumbered by the natives to try that until after the war. The puritans were very hostile and they did not let the natives into their colonies. They were racist and they even robbed some of the natives graves. The natives were relatively chill, but they did have their faults, considering people just came and invaded their land.

Both groups experienced violence against their culture, against themselves, and they were also disrespected. They were often thought of as less than the white people, and were not treated compassionately or humanely. For instance, in 1903, Congress was allowed to “dispose of” the Indian’s land without their consent or approval (Native Americans and the Federal Government). This action was very disrespectful towards the Indians, and it resulted in violence. Another model of this is that some Europeans did not think that the Indians had “souls worthy of redemption”, which means that they viewed themselves as better than the Indians (The Story of Chilocco Indian School).