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Native American Assimilation
Boarding Schools:
● Office of Indian Affairs (Bureau of indian affairs)
○ Offshoot of the war department, moved to the department of interiors
○ One of its jobs was providing education for American Indians
■ Through the “Civilization Division”
● The original school was the Hampton Institute, a school for freed african
american slaves
● However the first official Indian boarding school was the
Things to do:
-podcast edited and up on youtube by monday
-individually cite all sources
-come up with definite audience and mode of distribution (youtube and
social media)
-Talk to cooper: works cited, transcript?, ask about distribution of product
-by tuesday: finish website and prepare presentation
Ideas for question Links to sources Summaries, facts
[GEORGIA] In 1879, the first government boarding school was founded. Created by
U.S. army officer, Captain Richard Pratt, the Native American boarding school was
developed with the end goal of eradicating all beliefs, morals, and traditions practiced by
these native people. Survivors of these boarding schools shared a few of their
memories... They remember being forced into government vehicles as their parents
watched helplessly. Although most were, not all Native children were taken by force.
Because most of the public schools were extremely racist, the boarding schools were
the only education route available for most. Upon arriving at these schools, the Native
Children were given haircuts, uniforms and “american names.” They were prohibited
from speaking their native languages and if caught they would face extreme
consequences. The punishments faced by the students at these schools were severe
as they ranged from beatings to being locked in guardhouses for days with only bread
and water. They were not allowed to be to be indian in any way as they were taught the
fundamental reading, writing, and language based knowledge of the English people.
They were also taught an extremely white biased point of view of American History.
Edith Young, a survivor of the boarding school process, reflected on a time in class
when she was taught that Christopher Columbus discovered america. When she
questioned this, stating that the indians were in America first, she was slapped across
the face in front of the whole class. She recalled that moment as one she will never
forget. In addition to biased views of history, on Memorial day, the students were made
to decorate the graves of the soldiers who killed their fathers. They were taught
European ways of farming and were given religious training in Christianity. After the
school, students were expected to return to their reservations and induce European
assimilation there. Others were funneled into jobs in white culture giving up all ways of
their previous life. As a result of these boarding schools, many Natives suffer from
PTSD and have no idea how to function as a family. Today few boarding schools
remain as a result of the shift in policy, lack of government funding, and the growth of
independent education systems on reservations.
[JOHN] After the civil war ended, the United States government began to move
Native Americans away from their tribal lands and onto reservations. Through these
actions native americans had their right to self determination systematically taken away
from them. Self Determination refers to the process by which a person controls their
own life. The United states government, through the bureau of indian affairs has
slaughtered natives, stolen their land, and attempted to destroy their culture, however
the Native Americans did not go without a fight. In 1890 some tribes initiated a
movement to preserve their culture known as the ghost dances. These religious dances
would last for weeks and were believed to eventually give the natives their land back.
More recently, in the 1970’s, native americans fought for tribal sovereignty and
self-determination staging sit-ins to get the United States government’s attention. Their
pleas were answered in the form of grants given to the tribes. These grants provided
public services for the tribesman in order to maintain some small amount of sovereignty.
Since this, there has been an even greater push for tribal sovereignty and even some
more acts passed by the federal government. This includes acts that improve a tribes
ability to create small businesses, police themselves, and run as a sovereign body in
general. The United States government took everything from these tribes. However as
time has passed, congressional support for tribal sovereignty has increased due to the
self-determination movement and hopefully this will continue.
Links
http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=c140ac28-096d-47f4
-81ad-782ce0230056%40sessionmgr4009
http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=16c72b0a-41d2-4d9
d-81da-0b85975a3d7a%40sessionmgr4006
[MATTHEW] The Dawes Act, adopted on February 8, 1887, was one of the most
important pieces of legislation in terms of Indian affairs in United States history. This act
came in a time of aggressive westward expansion, in which pressures on Indians lands
brewed new conflict between American settlers and Natives. Essentially, it authorized
the President to issue surveys of tribal lands and divide them into small allotments for
individual families. Only those who accepted the distributed allotments of land were
qualified to become US citizens. This policy stemmed from the varying ideals of
property between American Indians and white settlers. Indian culture valued the idea of
a sharing community and did not value individual property. However, the Commissioner
of Indian affairs, T. hartley Crawford expressed a popular opinion when he wrote:
“common property and civilization cannot co-exist.” As a result, the government adopted
the Dawes Act in order to destroy this aspect of their culture, weaken their tribal
organizations, and ultimately assimilate them into mainstream American society. This
solution to the so-called “Indian Problem” was even hailed by the heavily involved
reform groups as the “Indian Emancipation Act”. However, this legislative measure had
a lot of severely negative effects on American Indian society, including the loss of 90
million acres of tribal lands to settlers and railroad companies. But most importantly,
countless families and communities became divided, and many tribes experienced a
substantial loss of culture through this aggressive assimilation attempt. Fortunately,
public opinion towards the treatment of Native Americans shifted in the 1920’s and 30’s.
On June 18th, 1934, the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the
Indian Reorganization Act. This new legislative measure re-enabled Native Americans
to form their own governments, and it ended the land allotments created by the Dawes
act. However, the effects of the Dawes Act would continue on, and can even be seen
today. For example, tribes have still not regained their lost land, and many remain
scarred from a loss of culture and tradition.
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January 2018.
Davis, James. Roscigno, Vincent. Wilson, George. American Indian Poverty in the
Contemporary United States. EBSCO, Vol. 31 Issue 1, Wiley Blackwell, March 2016,
10.1111/socf.12226. 30 January 2018.
Davis, Julie. American Indian Boarding School Experiences: Recent Studies from Native
Perspectives, OAH Magazine of
History, Volume 15, Issue 2, Oxford University Press, 1 January 2001, Pages 20–
22, https://academic.oup.com/maghis/article-abstract/15/2/20/942658. 30 January
2018.
Heise, Tammy. Religion and Native American Assimilation, Resistance, and Survival.
Religion, Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Oxford University Press, Nov 2017,
10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.394. 30 January 2018.
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Kent, Jim. “Boarding School memories haunt Lakota man.” SDPB, Oct 8, 2012,
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Language and Culture in the Schools. ERIC Digest, [Institute of Education
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Emmetts links
Davis, James. Vincent Roscigno. George Wilson. “American Indian Poverty in the
Contemporary United States.” EBSCO, Vol. 31 Issue 1, Wiley Blackwell, March 2016,
10.1111/socf.12226. 30 January 2018.
Davis, Julie. “American Indian Boarding School Experiences: Recent Studies from Native
Perspectives.” OAH Magazine History, Volume 15, Issue 2, Oxford University Press, 1 January
2001, Pages 20–22, https://academic.oup.com/maghis/article-abstract/15/2/20/942658. 30
January 2018.
Heise, Tammy. “Religion and Native American Assimilation, Resistance, and Survival.”
Religion, Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Oxford University Press, Nov 2017,
10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.394. 30 January 2018.
Lipka, Jerry and Charleston, WV. ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools.
Schooling for Self-Determination: Research on the Effects of Including Native Language and
Culture in the Schools. ERIC Digest. 01 Jan. 2002. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=ED459989&site=ehost-live.. 30
January 2018.
Possible citations to add:
Strauss, Valerie. “Proposed Texas textbooks are inaccurate, biased and
politicized, new report finds.” The Washington Post, 12 September 2014,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/09/1
2/proposed-texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized-new
-report-finds/?utm_term=.02b1cc7d9524. 1 Feb. 2018
Heltai, Gillian. “What Millennials’ YouTube Usage Tells Us about the
Future of Video Viewership.” Insights, Comscore, 23 June 2016,
https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Blog/What-Millennials-YouTube-Us
age-Tells-Us-about-the-Future-of-Video-Viewership. 1 Feb. 2018