The “rightness” of Native American boarding school Essay

In the 1870s, the U.S. government enacted a policy of assimilation of Native Americans, to Americanize them. Their goal was to turn them into white men. Schools were an important part of facilitating their goal. In 1879, Richard Henry Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian School. It was the first school in which Native American children were culturally exposed to American ideology. The idea for the boarding school first came through treatment of Cheyenne warriors. In the 1860s, Americans were in the midst of a major western migration. Settlers were moving into the western region, pushing natives off lands, and in some cases, killing livestock. Warriors then took revenge on settlers and soldiers. General Sherman called for â€Å"the†¦show more content†¦Pratt then turned his attention to native children. He saw the example of the Hampton Institute for Negroes, which taught children industrial skills. He concluded that to transform natives, one had to start with the child ren. In 1879, the government consented to Pratt’s request. He went to Dakota Territory to find students for his new Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. Pratt determined the only way to change them was assimilation through total immersion. The school was established in an abandoned army post. The children wore military uniforms and cut their hair. In the first few years, the children suffered epidemics of cholera, influenza, and tuberculosis. As a result, they made a cemetery on the school. Lack of cultural diversity Ethnocentrism Social workers strive to keep the uniqueness of individuals and communities. The preservation of diversity honors the distinctiveness of individuals and communities. Boarding schools were genocidal to the cultural structure of Native Americans. They were forced to assimilate to the image of the white man: It disjointed family structure, dishonored their cultural differences and language. Children placed in these schools were deprived of learning their heritage. Pratt’s goal of humanizing Native Americans is the basis of ethnocentrism. Pratt like many Americans during this time believed American culture was the only and right way of life. Although most cultures have, tendencies ofShow MoreRelated Ongoing Injustice: The American Indians Essay3233 Words   |  13 Pagesthe effects of Christianity, and the crooked politics that took place are all examples of the injustices that were done to the indigenous peoples. The injustices and their effects are still occurring today and need to be made known to spare the Native Americans’ future from the tear stained stories of today. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;To prevent such reoccurrence there must be an understanding of the horrors that took place in the beginning. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;â€Å"The entire history of theRead MoreMarketing Mistakes and Successes175322 Words   |  702 PagesD program to do so. With its search engine, it raised advertising to a new level: targeted advertising. In so doing, it spawned a host of millionaires from its rising stock prices and stock options and made its two founders some of the richest Americans, just under Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. How did they do it? Starbucks is also a rapidly growing new firm—not as much as Google, but still great—and a credit to founder Howard Schultz’s vision of transforming a prosaic product, coffee, into