The reservation boarding school system in the United States (1870-1928) was perhaps the most comprehensive attempt to date to assimilate Native peoples into the expanding United States, billed as a way to educate native children by proponents (and thus prevent costly wars along the frontier and alleviate the republic of the obligation of feeding and clothing displaced Indians) and a way to culturally eradicate native traditions by detractors. The latter view was supported by the now famous quote by Capt. Richard Pratt that the United States should endeavor to “Kill the Indian, and save the man.” The now defunct educational system persisted for nearly 50 years, before it was discontinued on the grounds of its cruelty towards children, who were forcibly separated from their families and forbidden from speaking their native tongue or maintaining any of their own customs. The idea, as outlined by Pratt, was to civilize the native population in the same way that America has civilized the African. As opposition mounted at the turn of the century, the death knell for reservation boarding schools sounded in 1928 with the publishing of the Meriam Report, which roundly criticized the system for having unqualified and indequately compensated staff, poor health care and brutal conditions. Though it failed to obliterate the cultural traditions, the reservation school system began a trend that persists today: the gradual movement of children away from their own cultural traditions, songs and teachings. Elders see it as a key to the resurgence of the people.

Drop a comment