Why Children Enter Into Boarding Schools

There has long been significant historiographical and popular controversy about the conditions experienced by students in the residential schools. While day schools for First Nations, Metis and Inuit children always far outnumbered residential schools, a new consensus emerged in the early 21st century that the latter schools did significant harm to Aboriginal children who attended them by removing them from their families, depriving them of their ancestral languages, through sterilization, and by exposing many of them to physicalleading to sexual abuse by staff members, and other students, andenfranchising them forcibly.

In a few scenes of the the grades one through twelve the short story “Indian Education,” by the Native American author and filmmaker Sherman Alexie is able to show us what it is like growing up in the white, American culture. Sherman Alexie is able to give us a glimpse of the differences of what it means to be in a non-white student area that is struggling due to the effects of colonization. Even though it has been many years since the European explores “found” North America, the settlers and government continued to expand into Indian territories. The Native Americans gradually saw their land and culture diminishing as they were relocated to reservations. The feelings of oppression become obvious through the eyes of Victor, a young boy. The

“....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. For instance, Concho Indian Boarding School in Concho,Oklahoma , Sante Fe Indian School in Santa Fe, New Mexico, or or Stewart Indian School in Carson City, Nevada. These schools spanned all over the United States. In these schools, Native American children, taken from their homes and families, were taught mathematics and english, as well as trivial subjects such as farming and sewing. These schools served as a way to eliminate the culture of Native Americans.

When it comes to determining the identity of an individual, there are a few simple things that typically influence that assumption. The way one may speak or where they’re from, the types of things they like to do or hear or eat. While grander choices and decisions play into this identity, it is truly who one chooses to be on an average day that forms this mold. Gertrude Bonnin’s memoir The School Days of an Indian Girl focuses on her changing sense of self after being placed in a boarding school. No longer was she allowed to keep all of the little things that created her identity, the simple day-to-day habits that made her who she was up to that point. The schools fundamentally changed many Native American youths and anything that would have

Indian Boarding schools were created in the 1800s to “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” They achieved this by transforming the natives looks, culture, language, and teaching them a certain way so they would be able to function in a “european society”. Indian boarding schools taught students both academic and “real world” skills, but they did so while ripping the indians from their culture.

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.

These schools have been described as an instrument to wage intellectual, psychological, and cultural warfare to turn Native Americans into “Americans”. There are many reports of young Native Americans losing all cultural belonging. According to an interview with NPR, Bill Wright was sent to one of these schools. He lost his hair, his language, and then his Navajo name. When he was able to return home, he was unable to understand or speak to his grandmother. Losing one’s cultural knowledge, and therefore the reality of their culture, allows others to have control over their collective and individual consciousness as well as their destiny. In this case, it is clear that the United States government has had the dominant relationship over the Native

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

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

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

government on the Native society was boarding schools that began in the late 19th century. Native children, as young as five years old, were taken from their families off the reservations thousands of miles away to boarding schools. One of those boarding schools was the Carlisle Industrial School, which opened in 1880, founded by Captain Richard Harry Pratt. The sole purpose of these schools was to assimilate the next generation of Native’s into the Anglo society. The boys were taught mechanical and agriculture skills, while the girls were taught domestic lessons such as sewing and cleaning. They were all taught to devalue their own people and traditions. The conditions were brutal as the children were beaten if they spoke their own language. They were not fed well, as many Native children died from malnutrition as well as disease and abuse (Hudson, Lecture 18). “Once I lost a dear classmate. I remember well how she used to mope along at my side, until one morning she could not raise her head from her pillow. At her deathbed I stood weeping, as a paleface woman sat near her moistening the dry lips (Calloway, 430).” Zitkala-Sa describes the death of one her classmates at the Carlisle boarding school in 1921 while still very young (Calloway, 428). The boarding schools started a chain reaction of the Native children not learning their own language or traditions, cutting hair, and the gender roles reflecting the Anglo-Americans. These

Children would be taken away from their parents and forced into these boarding schools where they were harshly punished, constantly malnourished, and remained poorly educated. In these two pictures we see Chiricahua Apaches. The first picture of when they had first arrived at the Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School and the next was taken 4 months after that. The boys were seen with their hair now cut sort and all in western style of clothing. These boarding schools were clearly very much damaging to Native Americans and their intent was to, as Richard Pratt from the Carlisle Indian School, “Kill the Indian. Save the child”. Some of these boarding schools were privately owned and operated but school such as Carlisle were paid for by the federal government and under federal authority. These schools had some of the worst conditions imaginable and had the soul purpose of deculturalize all of these children. The next document further goes to prove how the federal government is to blame. The under supplying of reservations was harmful to Native Americans living there because it did little to stop epidemics and periods of starvation. In the photograph we see the extent of the lines on ration day on the pine ridge reservation in 1891. The line extend to dozens

However, resilience may also be described as the innate human quality that has not necessarily developed only after big disasters but processed through positive adaptation. A person can be resilient if he/she experience positive life events such as a job promotion, wedding, birth of a new child or having a new pet. These incidents would require the person to perform new roles and responsibilities and he/she can develop resilience to these changes overtime. This is resilience acquired through positive adaption (Fletcher & Sarkar,

Residential schools were a boarding school that was set up for the purpose of teaching and assimilating aboriginal children in the 1880s. These schools were an important part of Canada’s history because they treated aboriginals as themselves, as aboriginal people, and their culture was inferior to Canadians, although at the time they thought they were doing the aboriginals good. Some would argue that residential schools were a good thing, that they benefited the aboriginal people and that they didn 't do them wrong while others still believe that residential schools did more harm than good to these students lives and wellbeing. Others believe that even though these students were treated poorly, they benefited from this form of education. Overall,

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.