Native American Boarding Schools & F o r c e d A s s i m i l a t i o n

ederal Indian policy in the late 1800s and early 1900s sought to use schoolhouses,

specifically boarding schools, as instruments for to assimilate Indian youth to American ways of thinking and living. Policy makers reasoned that only by removing Indian children from their homes

could white “civilization” take root while childhood memories of “savagism” gradually faded to the point of extinction. The goal of Indian Boarding schools was to teach Indian children the skills necessary to function effectively in American society. However, in the name of uplifting, civilizing, and assimilating the Plains Indians, these schools took Native American children away from their families and sought to strip them of their cultural heritage. Academically, the schools were lacking. At best, only half the “school” day was spent in traditional academic instruction. The rest of the time was occupied by religious teaching, which was regarded as the primary task of school officials, and hard labor, which in various ways was used to pay for the costs of the schools. The children’s time was carefully monitored. Recreation was rarely allowed. In 1879, the government set up the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in an abandoned military site in Carlisle, PA. The Carlisle School was the first major non-reservation boarding school for American Indians. Army officer Richard Henry Pratt was in charge of the school. Pratt’s motto was, “Kill the Indian and save the man.” The Carlisle School was to be a model for education of the American Indian as its mission proclaimed, “To civilize the Indian, get him into civilization. To keep him civilized, let him stay.” Students were given new “civilized” names and uniforms. Their hair was cut short, their heads washed with kerosene and their bodies scrubbed with lye. Discipline was strict, and students were forbidden to speak their own languages or practice tribal religions. By the time the Carlisle school closed in 1918, over 10,000 children had been through the school. Less than 8% graduated while well over twice that many ran away.

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Questions (Answer on a separate sheet of paper.)

1. Look at the top two photographs of the same Native American boy pictured both before he went to the Carlisle School and after. What specific changes do you see?

2. Define the word assimilate. How did Indian boarding schools force Native

Americans to assimilate into the dominant, American culture? Include at least three specific examples that show how boarding schools demonstrated the strategy of forced assimilation when confronting Native American culture.

3. Rather than traditional studies, what was the primary “academic” task according to

most school officials at Indian Boarding schools?

4. Ethnocentrism is defined as: judging other people and cultures according to the standards of one’s own culture. In other words, viewing one’s own culture as being superior and others as being inferior. Explain how Army officer Richard Henry Pratt displayed an attitude of ethnocentrism when he said of his philosophy at the Carlisle School, “Kill the Indian, and save the man.” Did Pratt actually want to murder people?