Indian Boarding Schools

  Assimilation was a major topic after the Indian Wars. The whites wanted to make the Indians become more like white civilized people. The government thought of one way to make the Indians children assimilated at a young age, boarding schools. Most Indians thought of this idea as a time of abuse and lost culture. These schools did have an effect on the young Indians but most of the time the effect was not lasting.
  During the Civil War "day schools" were created. The goal of these schools were for the children to educate their parents into the "correct" white culture. But just the opposite happened, the parents obliterated and ended up teaching their children about their tribes. Finding out that these did not work, in mid 1870s boarding schools were officially created. Army officer, Richard Pratt formed schools based off an education program.
    There were over 100 schools on and off reservations. The armed police targeted Native Americans that were most recently hostile. Because of all racism public schools were not an option for Indians. They were  run by a  religious organization with government funds. One man that was taken to the boarding school,  looked back into his past and remembered the memories. "It was hurting her too, it was hurting me to see that. I will never forget. All mothers were crying." At such a young age Westermen had the idea that his mom just didn't want him, but once he saw her crying he left South Dakota upset just to come back a changed person. The idea set was to "erase and replace."
  "Kill the Indian save the man" was also a frequent saying people would hear around this time. It created a major transformation on culture. Many Indians have strong, sad  memories of  arriving at the school receiving a bottle of kerosene  Before they could do anything about it, their hair was shaved off. An Indians hair was a symbol of their pride and they felt like it was all being taken away. Once when a young Indian, with his new name Billy, came home his grandma greeted him with his traditional name. After Billy disagreed his grandma replied with the simple comment, "Then who are you?" The Indians were taught to hate who they were and were forced to believe the benefits of living in the White American culture. Many tried to runaway,but in the end most were caught and abused for trying to escape. In one scenario a child had to go to the hospital but the reason being that the child "ran into a wall" no questions asked.
  In my opinion the children had every right to try to run away. The living conditions were not equal to what someone living a normal lifestyle lives. Even though the Indians were fascinated by running water and electricity, the rest was not up to par. Most schools had the same architecture, landscape and regimen. They all slept on the floor or airbeds and would frequently get sick because they were living in such close quarters. They were not treated how they should have been.
  Their lifestyle was similar to the lifestyle at a military camp. They had  bell wake them up every morning around 5:45 am. The Indians would have to march everywhere they went and speak only English. They didn't even learn grammar and math. The girls were taught household chores and most of the boys were taught carpentry.  Even in  the 1960s teachers still saw their goal as civilizing American Indian students, not educating them. One child at the boarding school, Lucy Toledo, remembers some of the activities. "Saturday night is movie night...we watched Cowboys and Indians. Here were getting all out people killed and thats the kind of stuff they showed us."

This is a group of Indian boys on their arrival to the new boarding school

Indians children learning a song

This shows the Indians doing their everyday work

   Overall, I thought that the idea of the boarding schools was good, but it was not executed very well. In a decent amount of cases the students would rebel and go back to their tribes and become leaders. They didn't treat the students fair and failed to make them feel welcome. I think that if they succeeded in doing this, they would really enjoy what they were experiencing and want to learn more about becoming an American. Eventually these attempts to assimilate failed. People finally stopped caring and didn't give the government any support. As soon as the stories weren't as shocking the people lost interest.

Sources:
NPR
Washtington Lib
PBS