In the 1870s - early 1900s, the federal government forced Native American children to go to boarding schools away from their reservations and learn the white man's culture.
Native American Boarding Schools
Since most Native Americans could remember, rituals, traditions and activities stayed pretty much the same. Girls and ladies would plant, tend and harvest the crops, while men and boys hunted for meat. The children would play games and sled in the winter, while elders tended to the more serious business of helping tribal leaders. Yes, everything had seemed very similar until the white men came.
The white men had introduced Native Americans to horses. However, the white men did many different things compared to the rituals of the Native American tribes. According to the white men, children were to be seen not heard. Whereas the Natives saw children as important people who would take over one day. The average white man was a respected christian worshipping only one god, while Natives worshipped many. There were many differences between the two, and yet the Native Americans agreed to follow American laws and live under American rule.
Immigrants were coming to the U.S. and the Americans were needing more and more space for living. The U.S. government began to push Native Americans from their homeland on to small pieces of land called reservations. However, some Native Americans refused to leave their land. Some resisting Cheyenne warriors, attacked nearby miners and soldiers, only infuriating the government further. As a result, the U.S. government sent soldiers to one village where they opened fire on innocent Cheyenne people.
In 1874, white prospectors discovered gold in the Black Hills where a Sioux reservation was placed. Ignoring treaties giving the Sioux their land, thousands of miners began traveling to the Black Hills in search of gold and riches. The Battle of Little Bighorn, a Sioux victory, was fought there to force white miners to leave the Black Hills and the Sioux in peace. This battle would be the last major indian victory.
The Dawes Act, passed in 1887, was meant to encourage Native American children to give up their culture and become a citizen. Courts began forcing Native Americans to send their children to boarding schools or to face arrest. New arrivals in these boarding schools were striped of their long hair and jewlery and given military like uniforms plus a new name. From there, students were not allowed to speak their native language and when one was caught doing so their mouth was washed out or worse actions could be taken.
Girls were offered classes of sewing/needlework, and boys about farming/agriculture. Schedule for boarding school was extremely strict with harsh punishments for those who didn't follow the schedule. Each class or activity was separated by a bell called "a triangle". Students would sometimes learn "finger songs", songs with hand motions to go along with it, and have bands.
Some schools had outing programs that sent ladies to work half the day as a maid in a nearby household. Other programs like the outing program sent a child (no specific gender) to work half the day repairing uniforms, sheets, curtains, help to prepare meals (girls), carpentry, blacksmith, animal breeding, baking, and chopping wood (boys). If a student did well in boarding school, they were accepted into a high school program.
However, once a parent sent his/her child to boarding school, they lost all control over most decisions affecting the child. Requests for holiday leaves could be denied for almost any reason. Sometimes dorm staff even censored the mail students sent out. Several students tried running away from school and those caught were harshly punished. According to a former student, two girls caught running away, had their hands and feet tied together and were made to stand in the middle of the hallway. That way if they fell down falling asleep, they would be heard and whipped till they got up again.
Some students were unfortunate enough to experience physical or sexual abuse from their own teachers. Illness was spread easily through the crowded conditions and death was an occurrence. The boarding schools had poor diets, were overcrowded, had below standard medical help, and excessive labor of students. While the boarding schools took place, 20,000-30,000 Native Americans attended them.
According to former students, boarding school had a variety of effects, both positive and negative. One former student said that she preferred boarding school life to life at home. However, she liked boarding school better because she was beaten and abused at home and boarding school was a way to get away from all of her home struggles.
Some students reported that it was a great experience allowing them to learn about the outside world and make lasting friendships from different tribes. Others also said that it taught them discipline and independence. On the other hand, some former students reported very negative effects, some of which were lasting trauma, difficulty going back to their lives before boarding school, failure to learn potential skills, loss of culture, identity, and need to heal, loss of language, even community disruptions.
Years later, World War 2 was beginning, and America was in need of spies who could communicate in a language hard to figure out or understand. This need sent the U.S. on a search for Native Americans -- specifically Navajos -- who could still communicate in their original language. However, because of the boarding schools, young (or old) enough fluent speakers were very difficult to find. At the time of boarding schools, America had had no idea how much they would need the Native American’s language, and even less the the Native Americans themselves.it.