Indian Boarding
Schools
The Beginning
After the
end of the Civil War many Americans started moving West. The migration
of
Americans to the southern plains spurred many conflicts with the
Indians. Many
Americans were enrage about these
conflicts and advocated for reform of Indian policy. These Indian
reformers
called themselves the Friends of American Indians, and they believed
that the
way to solve the Indian problem was to assimilate the Natives to white
society.
They pentioned to end reservations and have Indian children go to
boarding
schools to learn how to be white.
To help them
with this, the Friends recruited Richard H. Pratt. Pratt was already
experienced with assimilating Natives. In 1875, Pratt was in charge of
assimilating 72 Indian prisoners from Cheyenne, Kiowa, Comanche, and
Caddo
Nations at Fort Augustine, Florida. Pratt thought that he should teach
the
Natives to be God-fearing farmers, just
like Euro-Americans. By the end of the three-year sentence, Pratt
recommended
that seventeen prisoners should enroll for higher education. Pratt and
Friends
believed that a co-ed boarding vocational school removed from the
reservation
would assimilate the Indian children into the white culture. In 1879,
Pratt had
acquired permission to open a boarding school in Carlisle,
Pennsylvania. In the
middle of the night on October 6, 1879, a group of 82 Indian children
from
Lakota Reservations arrived to Carlisle to a welcoming from the
townspeople and
lies from the BIA. With no supplies, the children were forced to sleep
on the
floor. Once arriving at the school, children were forced to have their
long
hair cut short like a white person’s hair. Their culture was taken away
from
them and a new culture was forced upon them from the beginning.
Boarding schools
and the government
After the
success of Carlisle, many schools popped up all around the United
States. By
the end of the nineteenth century there were 25 boarding schools,
jumping to
over 400 schools by 1920s. Many schools were run by Christian
organizations and
funded by the government. There were over 100,000 Native children sent
to
schools all over the United States to become like the white Christian
society.
The General
Allotment Act of 1887, commonly known as the Dawes Act, incorporated
boarding
schools into the Act, forcing many Indian children to schools. The
educational
agenda written into the Dawes Act became reality by the Commissioner of
Indian
Affairs Thomas Morgan. Morgan believed that an eight-year program would
give
the Indian children proficiency in the English language and a sixth
grade
education. In 1890, Morgan added another year to the program. This
extra year
added kindergarten classes and a religious education.
In 1901, the
idea of what was better for Indian children changed. Estelle Reel
became the
head of Indian Education, and believed that Indian children should
learn
vocational skills over academics. She changed the curriculum to focus
on
vocational training like farming and basket making. This training was
suppose to
help the Natives become self-sustaining. She believed these trades
learned at
school could bring in income for the tribe allowing them to become less
dependent on the United States and more like the dominant culture.
By the
mid-1920s, there was a backlash of public acceptance of the boarding
schools.
Brookings Institute began an investigation and published a report
called The Problem of Indian
Administration, which
was also known as the Meriam Report. The report criticized the physical
condition of many boarding schools, the care of the students, and the
educational
agenda at many schools.
After the
Meriam Report was printed in many national magazines, the Hoover
Administration
gave more funding to schools. Many changes in the care of students took
place.
The students were given a better diet, healthcare, and safer housing.
Many of
the suggestions in the report were made, except one of the most
important ones:
the education curriculum never changed. Untill the end, most boarding
schools
practiced vocational training.
The end of
forced assimilation came when John Collier was named Commissioner of
Indian Affairs
in 1935. From 1935 to 1966 most boarding schools closed. The ones that
stayed
open were controlled more by the tribes than the government, with an
emphasis
on cultural heritage.
School life, and
its consequences
Upon
arriving at the boarding schools,
children were forced to have their hair cut, to being washed in cruel
ways, and
to dress in a new outfit that closely resembled white Americans-
military
uniforms for boys, and Victorian (often too tight) dresses for the
girls. They
were forbidden to speak their tribal language, practice their religion,
use
their Indian name, and to practice their tribal culture.
School
became a military culture. Children were put into units and marched to
class
everyday. They did drills and were punished as if they were in the
military.
School days consisted of half day of vocational training and half day
of
academics. Until the Meriam Report, many boarding schools were in
terrible
condition. Many students lived in the worst possible conditions and had
little
health care. Many children died while attending school.
During the
summer, unlike other school children, many Indian children were forced
into
forced labor to obtain a work ethic envisioned by whie people. The
children
became a type of slave to be assimilated into the dominant culture.
The poor
conditions and the lack of respect from the officials set many children
to run
away. When reading accounts of many Indian people that attended
boarding
schools, we get the feeling on how bad it was. The children the of
being
terribly sad and scared. Children would be beaten if they talked in
their
tribal language. Many did not understand what was happening because
many could
not understand English. Children became scared of their heritage, and
many
forgot their culture and language.
Not only
were the boarding schools hurting the children at school, but once they
came
home, it was very hard for many to get accustomed to being there. Many
children
forgot their own language and could not even speak to their families.
Others
were too scared to practice their heritage. This put a strain on the
relationships of the students and the tribes.
Some students
thought they were like white people and never came back to the
reservations.
Others were too scared and went to the city. Denouncing their heritage
and
blending into the main culture. There were some who went straight back
to the
old ways and others who went on to higher education and fighting for
the Native
Americans.
For many
smaller tribes, these children were the last of their great nations.
They had
lost their language and also their identity. Many languages became
dormant in
later years because none of the students knew them. For example, the
Miami
language became dormant in the 1960s because the last of the fluent
speakers
died. Miami was one tribe that was easily forced into assimilation
because of
their small numbers and their relatively large intermarriages with
non-natives.
The results
of the Indian boarding schools can still
be seen today. Many old boarding schools are now tribal schools, and
one in
Lawrence, Kansas called Haskell became the only inter-tribal
university. Many
tribes and native people are trying to regain their language and
culture that
were lost during the boarding school years. Indian boarding schools
were never
a good idea, and their presence can still be seen today.
Bibliography
"Indian Boarding
Schools." Humbult State
University. 12 Sep 2007
<http://www.humboldt.edu/~go1/kellogg/boardingschools.html>.
Landis, Barbara .
"Carlisle Indian Industrial School
History." 1996. 12 Sep 2007
<http://home.epix.net/~landis/histry.html>.
"Native American
Treaty Rights." Central
Michigan University Clarke Historical Library. March
1999. Clarke Historical Library. 12 Sep 2007
<http://clarke.cmich.edu/indian/treatyeducation.htm#rp>.