The arrival of European settlers on the shores of North America is one of the most significant historical events. At the time, the continent was populated by numerous Indigenous tribes that suffered greatly after the landing of the colonizers. The U.S. government sought to assimilate American Indians and force them to abandon their traditions. One of the measures taken by the government in order to integrate Native Americans into the new American society was the establishment of boarding schools for Indigenous children.
Native American boarding schools aimed to forcefully assimilate Indigenous youths into mainstream society and strip them of their customs and traditions. From 1860 until 1978, there were over 400 boarding schools in the country, run either by the government, the Catholic church, or private organizations (Mejia). The first off-reservation boarding school for Native American children, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, was founded in 1879 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and later became the blueprint for other institutions across the country (Blakemore). The philosophy of the Carlisle school and other government-funded organizations was “kill the Indian, save the man” (Blakemore). In 1891, the attendance of such schools was made compulsory for Indigenous children, who were forcefully removed from their families and forbidden to engage in their cultural practices (Blakemore). Boarding schools were located on and off Indian reservations, with most states having at least one such establishment.
The education provided by Native American boarding schools to Indigenous children differed significantly from the education received by their non-Native peers. Upon arrival, Native children were given new names, stripped of their traditional clothing, and given haircuts (Mejia). The school program focused on teaching children American beliefs and values and different trades that would make them marketable (Mejia). Native children were taught how to read and write in English, math, and history and converted to Christianity (Mejia). It is revealed that many students suffered from mental, physical, and sexual abuse in the schools, with reports of many deaths (Waxman). These practices were common in government, church, and private-funded boarding schools.
Overall, the boarding schools for American Indian students can be viewed as a symbol of the deep-rooted structural racism of non-Native Americans towards the continent’s Indigenous peoples and the disregard for Native cultures and traditions. The boarding schools failed in their purpose of assimilation of Native Americans into mainstream American society and further drove the divide between Indigenous peoples and the European settlers that lasts to this day.
Works Cited
Blakemore, Erin. “A Century of Trauma at U.S. Boarding Schools for Native American Children.” National Geographic, Web.
Mejia, Melissa. “The U.S. History of Native American Boarding Schools — The Indigenous Foundation.” The Indigenous Foundation, Web.
Waxman, Olivia B. “The History of Native American Boarding Schools Is Even More Complicated Than a New Report Reveals.” Time, Web.