Mbesa-Mikwanda 1
Precious Mbesa-Mikwanda
Colleen Beck-Kaplan
Native American History: HTY – 110HM
September 27, 2016
The Issue of the Indian Boarding Schools
Before America became a country we know today, there used to be people who lived and owned the land. These people became to be known by a variety of names such as; Indians or Red Indians, Native Peoples, American Indians, and Aboriginal despite them having different tribes and unique cultures from each other. In the pre-contact era, these people lived in harmony according to their tribes despite having territorial wars. A lot changed with the arrival of Europeans who saw an opportunity to displace the NativePeoples and have them acculturate and assimilate to the western lifestyle. One of the methods that to have the Native Peoples assimilate was to divide and rule by taking the Indian kids and placing them in boarding schools (Townsend and Nicholas).
The top issue with the Indian Boarding Schools came about as a way to force the Indians to assimilate to the mainstream American culture. Those who proposed the deal to send Indian children to boarding schools contended “that Indians must detribalize, become owners of private property, adopt Christianity, learn trades and skills to become self-reliant, assume the identity of “American”, and become U.S. citizens, by killing the Indian to save the man” (368). The Americans in their efforts to get the Indians to assimilate discovered that, taking the Indian child away from its parents and away from the Indian society and teaching him or her the American language, basic life skills including the Christian religion would be the easiest way to curb the “Indian Problem”. The Americans were determined to “kill the Indian and serve the man”because the Americans perceived the Indian way of life as animalistic and that they practiced paganism. The Americans worked very hard to abolish all traditions the Indians had. Christianizing the Indian was the biggest strategy that the Americans used to force the Indians to relinquish whatever cultural and spiritual beliefs they had. A List of Indian Offenses was formalized and it included traditional feasts and dances and even the channels Indian men followed to get married were all listed as banned practices. On one instance, chief Walking Buffalo was quoted as saying, “You whites assumed we were savages. You did not understand our prayers. You did not try to understand…(us)” (373).
Life in the boarding schools seemed to be tough for the Indian children who were never exposed to such life before. They were forced to live for four or more years without seeing their parents. “The children were forced to cut their hair and give up their traditional clothing. They had to give up their meaningful Native names and take English ones. They were not only taught to speak English, but were punished for speaking their own languages. Their own traditional religious practices were forcibly replaced with Christianity. They were taught that their cultures were inferior. Some teachers ridiculed and made fun of the students’ traditions. These lessons humiliated the students and taught them to be ashamed of being American Indian. The boarding schools had a bad effect on the self-esteem of Indian students and on the well-being of Native languages and cultures” (Museum). This is evidence showing how desperate the Americans were in their efforts of wanting the Indians to assimilate. However, despite trying hard as well to embrace the American way of life on the reservation sites, the white Americans would easily forget or ignore the Indians once met outside the reservation sites. This is to say that even though white people wanted so much to see the Indians as civilized, the Americans would still treat the Indians as savages regardless of how much change they have made. The Americans acted in a condescending attitude towards the Indians irrespective of their adoption of the American lifestyle. To back the point that the Americans did not really value the Indians as a human race, it is when they came up with the idea of taking Indian children from the reservation sites to boarding schools.
“Indian boarding schools were founded to eliminate traditional American Indian ways of life and replace them with mainstream American culture. The first boarding schools were set up either by the government or Christian missionaries” (Museum). The Americans wanted to see the Indians dressed in European attire and accept Christianity as their faith. The thing that is mind bugling is the fact that the Americans valued Christianity yet, they failed to follow the teachings of the religion. Christianity is known to be a religion that teaches love, compassion, sympathy, and togetherness. Matthew 9:36 says, “Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were troubled and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Common English Bible). As Christians, the Americans ought to be the first ones to feel the pain the Indians felt at the torture they went through from the white masters. “Jesus answered him, “The first all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31).
When comparing the teachings of the Christianity religion to the actions of those Christians who claimed that the Indians were pagans in their beliefs, questions arise as to whether these Christians really worked with the teachings of their religion in mind. The Americans terrorized the livelihoods of the Native people with wars, hunger, and deprivation of the necessary survival ways the Indians were accustomed to on top of showing condescending behavior. They took the Indian children to boarding schools away from their parents and if the parents showed some resistance, they were threatened by extreme measures such as taking away the only federal help as well as military interference. From a civilized mind, the actions that the Americans showed could be determined as unchristian like. Impressive, though, is the work that Henry Ward Beecher took on. As a preacher, in the 1850s also gained a reputation as an abolitionist(Clark).
Due to time and circumstances and despite having a humane insight, Beecher still had his own flows on how he, himself perceived the Indians. Beecher was once quoted as saying, "The common schools are the stomachs of the country in which all people that come to us are assimilated within a generation. When a lion eats an ox, the lion does not become an ox but the ox becomes a lion (Lainoff)”. Looking at the last statement, it is clear that Beecher was refusing to give the Indians any control because they were conquered and under the authority of white people. His statement is so powerful that he took the power and was proud about it that he had to proclaim how it was important that all people (Indians) who attended these schools had to assimilate to the American mainstream lifestyle. When what Beecher said is compared to what Sitting Bull (Teton Sioux) said, a gap is very visible between the two philosophies that the two sections had. Sitting Bull said, "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, certain wishes and plans; in my heart, he put other and different desires. Each man is good in the sight of the Great Spirit.
It is not necessary, that eagles should be crows (Eastman)."
The difference in the two philosophies is that the Indians are content with who they are and would love to continue being who they are and are also respectful of the differences the white man has to them. They Indians are appreciative to their Great Spirit for creating them the way they were created and know that if their god wanted them to be white or anything to that, the god would have made that possible himself. While on the other hand, the Americans through Beecher shows that, while they are content with who they are, they at the same time feel any other person ought to be like them. If other people are practicing different philosophical ideologies, the Americans find it wrong and they take it upon themselves to change the whole culture of a people.
In conclusion, the idea of the boarding schools had a bright intent of teaching people. All the Americans wanted was to make sure that the Indian children grew up to become responsible citizens. The type of citizens who could reason and be intellectual enough to own private property and prosper in the same way the white people would. However, the boarding school project started at a time when all the Indians could see from the Americans was torture and deceit. The project brought sorrow to families as it left mothers crying and fathers outraged for losing their children. The project was meant to diminish the value of the Indian culture by changing the names of the Indian children to those in English. They would be prohibited to converse in their natural language but rather in English alone. They would be fed food that was strange to the children and many children died in schools. The children would be gone for years without seeing their parents. So, with all the good intent there was in the introduction of boarding schools, the implementation was poor as it comprised hush treatments to both the parents and the children. As humans, our early childhood stage is very critical for survival and we usually need family to grow up strong. Having family is a means of safety and by taking these kids away from their parents, it meant they were not secure at all. This plus the fact that these boarding schools were run in a military fashion, projected themselves as torture institutions to the children. So, regardless of a positive idea, presentation and projection made the boarding schools look awful and a disgrace to the human race.
Works Cited
Clark, Clifford E. "Henry Ward Beecher." American National Biography; 10/1/2010, p1, 2p (1813-1887).
Eastman, (Ohiyesa) Charles A. "Sitting Bull - Lakota Chief and Holy Man." NATIVE AMERICAN LEGENDS (1918).
Lainoff, C.J. "Westward Expansion Presentation-Jacques and CJ." Prezi (2015).
Matthew. "Common English Bible." 9:36, Matthew. Compassion. N.D. Print.
Museum, National. "Boarding Schools. Struggling with Cultural Repression." National Museum of the Native American Indian (N.D).
Townsend, K.W. and M.A Nicholas. First Americans. A History of the Native Peoples. Boston: Pearson, 2013. Print.