After the era of Reconstruction, America could again fully turn her attention to "The West". Having long been the subject of fascination, "moving west" again became the focal point of politics and the commoners' dream. But here again Americans faced an age-old problem: what to do with the natives?
We know that often violence was used to push off natives from their homeland and that practice was sure to continue. But for this week's blog, we are going to examine another method: Boarding Schools.
Watch this video about the attempt by the government to assimilate native tribes into a "mainstream American culture".
In the comments section, choose three of these questions to answer:
1) What motivation did Americans have for forcing native tribes into an agricultural lifestyle?
2) What does the word "assimilation" mean? Do you think there is one singular "American Culture" for people to be assimilated into?
3) Describe the Boarding School system. What shocked/saddened you in the video?
4) Do you think the Boarding School system wore down the native's desire to stand firm OR emboldened their pledge to defend their traditional way of life?
5) What was the Dawes Act? What were the consequences of this act?
6) Why do you think the Federal Government believed they had the right/authority to restrict native lifestyle the way they did?
2. Assimilation is the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another. It basically means trying to make people that believe one certain thing about a culture believe another culture's beliefs and customs. I don't think there is one certain "American Culture'' at the moment for people to be assimilated to. I think as you go back in history there were probably fewer beliefs and customs that people believed. Today, there are so many different religions and cultures in the United States by itself that there's no way there'd be only one type of culture that everyone believed. It would be hard to control that as well.
ReplyDelete5. The Dawes Act of 1887 altered the reservation system by dividing reservation land into allotments (land assigned to an individual/family for a specific use) for farming or ranching. 160 acres of land was allowed to every head of every household, 80 acres to every single parent, and 40 acres to every child. Even with the amounts of land everyone had, they still felt like they didn't have enough. If you stayed on your allotment for 25 years you would receive citizenship. Most people leased their land. There were only a few people who even stayed to qualify for citizenship.
6. I think the Federal Government felt like they could tell everyone what to believe because they feel in control (which is true). They obviously have a say in most things. I don't think what they were doing was right because not everyone wanted to go along with what the white Americans believed, but they probably didn't want to starve or get punished for not doing what was right. I also think the Fed. Government expected everyone to act in a similar fashion. They might have thought that it would make things more peaceful. In reality, it would only make things worse. No one would have anything good to say about what they were doing and they wouldn't want to listen to them again.
- Allie Halloran
3. The bording system was school experience for Indian children began in 1860 when the bureau of Indian affairs established the first Indian bording school on the Yakima Indian reservation in the state of Washington. The goal of these reforms was to use education as a tool to assimilate Indian tribes to the mainstream of the "American way of life" a Protestant ideology in the 19th century. By the 1880s, the U.S. Operated 60 schools for 6,200 Indian students, including reservation bording schools. This opposed the basic Indian belief of communal ownership, which held land for all people.
ReplyDelete5. I think that the bording system basically shut down their old way of life it wouldn't let them be their self. No one wanted to listen to what they would have to say they made them change everything about their culture to try to fit in into he white mans culture at the time. They could only learn 2 subjects during school Math and English and they could only do a certain amount of jobs during that time. Basically it wore them down and made them believe that this was the only way out of school
5. On February 8,1887, congress passed the Dawes act named from its author Henry Dawes. The law allowed for the president to break up the reservation land which was commonly held by the members of a tribe. Section 8 of the act specified groups that were to be exempt from the law. The Cherokees, creeks , Seminoles and Osage,Miamis and peonies and sacs and foxes. The land allowed to the Indians included desert or meat desert land for unsuitable farming
3. The Boarding school system was a way to convert Indian children into the "American ways of life". They were taken away from their families, and dispersed among 25 different schools far away from their homes. They weren't allowed to keep any of their personal belongings, and all of their things were destroyed. They only recieved an hour of free time, and never got to go home for the holidays. They were taught basis subjects like math and english, and were also taught about Christianity, since their culture was frowned upon. This was cruel, and violated their basic human rights.
ReplyDelete4. I believe that as children, the Boarding school system wore them down. At such a young age, it is very hard to look towards the future, and it is much harder to live away from loved ones. As the video stated, severe homesickness was common among the schools. I cannot even imagine being put into a school without any idea where I was, all while being so far away from home.
6. The federal government believed that they could do this because they believed since this was America, and they were American leaders, they could do whatever they wanted without excuses. They failed to realize that it was their land in the first place. Just because a certain group of people isn't like the rest of the country, doesn't mean they need to change. However, I feel that their lack of understanding for their culture also contributed to their desire to change them. The whole reason why Natives were so violent and hated us was because we had taken over their whole ways of life.(275)
2. to bring into conformity with the customs, attitudes, etc., of a group, nation, or the like; adapt or adjust and no I don't think that there is one singular American culture
ReplyDelete1. The motivation that they had for forcing agriculture on the natives is that they wanted to make it to where they can help with producing different goods for others
3. The boarding school system shocked me because it wasn't what it is today thy would destroy their customary ways and basically start a new life. But the boarding schools worked by teaching them agriculture and teaching them how to write and they were forbidden to speak their native languages
1. The cultural assimilation of Native Americans was an assimilation effort by the United States to transform Native American culture to European–American culture between the years of 1790–1920.[1][2] George Washington and Henry Knox were first to propose, in an American context, the cultural transformation of Native Americans.[3] They formulated a policy to encourage the "civilizing" process.[2] With increased waves of immigration from Europe, there was growing public support for education to encourage a standard set of cultural values and practices to be held in common by the majority of citizens. Education was viewed as the primary method in the acculturation process for minorities.
ReplyDelete2. the process of adapting or adjusting to the culture of a group or nation, or the state of being so adapted: assimilation of immigrants into American life. 4. Physiology. the conversion of absorbed food into the substance of the body.
2. Assimilation was the act of teaching the indians the way of the white man and making them become a white man. Indians were compared to an apple at times because of there appearance on the outside. Native americans were forced to follow the civilized person saying. Sitting bull refused to change into a white man.
ReplyDelete3. at a young age kids would be taken on a trip that could be up to 1500 miles long and the trip was to one of the 25 boarding schools. Their stuff would be taken from then, haircuts and clothes. Werent allowed to speak their language. They were taught american boy things and about 1 hour a day of free time. It shocked me how cruel we were to the indians for no reason. If they dont want to go to the boarding school then they shouldnt have to.
6. Well this just perfectly describes how the U.S. is. Stuck up and racist. Since we owned some of the land we though we had the right to just kick everybody else off of it and or make them do as we say. This couldve been done in a more civilized manner but americans cant take no for an answer.
The Americans motivation for forcing the natives into an agricultural lifestyle the would not need their land they own which they hunt on. People also saw the natives as savages so they thought they were doing the natives a favor
ReplyDeleteThe word assimilation means-"The process by which a person or persons acquire the social and psychological characteristics of a group" And no there is not a single American culture you can force people to chose and that is why America is so great.
The boarding system-not only did natives get their possessions taken but it was burnt and they had to lose their hair which the video said made most cry which is really sad.
The Dawes act-split native lands into 80-160 acre plots of land and the rest of the land the U.S. Took and sold it to natives who tried to farm the land and make a living but the U.S put them into debt and natives had to sell their land
The federal government I guess thought they were better because they called the native people uncivilized and savages I mean in my opinion no matter what a person should be able to pick their religion and culture because it's impossible to truly force this kind of stuff on people.(218 words)
2. Assimilation means turning something , one , or people into lifestyles resembling into those assimilating them . I do not believe there was one American culture because at the time there wasn't much racial diversity there wasn't as diverse American culture and diversity was being being "assimilated" into the one American culture at the time.
ReplyDelete5. The daws act of 1887 reinvented the laws of the natives rights to their reservations. Their land was taken and sold for low prices , and it was also less disturbed causeing ruin as they couldn't hunt as well , as they had been doing for a 1000 years . Due to this they would often lease their land , and leave not wanting to wait for American citizenship due to what they had done to them.
6. The federal government most likely thought that they had the right to restrict the natives lifestyle because of the ideology of conquest destiny . This ideology states that it was their destiny to restrict/take their land as they it was their destiny , and that they were helping the, by conforming them to the believed to be superior American lifestyle
2) Assimilation is the procedure of when a minority group changes to grow and adapt usually to customs and attitudes of the dominate culture that rules over them. I don't think America has one specific culture, people come here to be diverse and to have that freedom and liberty that other countries do not have. Our country is great because we allow people to have freedom and decide what culture they want to follow whether it's their family background or even just wanting to follow customs.
ReplyDelete3) The boarding system was rather cruel towards Natives and it made me realize how much of a change our nation is today than back then. It shocked me that their possessions would be taken away and completely destroyed by burning them. I can't even imagine something like that happen in present day but back then, people may have taken that as a normal thing and accepted it. It's good to know that we've developed and moved on from that as a country.
4) I think the boarding system probably did wear down the natives and discouraged them to fight for their customs and culture. Eventually over time of you get what is close to you stripped away and taught this new way of life it may change a lot of them and wonder if their culture should be carried out. But I bet a lot of natives still held true to their culture no matter the cost or what others thought of them. But I bet it was difficult to stay strong on that situation.
(262 words)
-Matthew Mettendorf
2. Assimilation is when a minority group changes. It grows and adapts to customs. America has so many different cultures. We have freedom and liberty that don't make u choose one thing.
ReplyDelete3. The boarding system was so cruel. The natives couldn't go to school and if they did they weren't taught the best. They were excluded from a lot of things. There stuff was taking away and burnt. But most of them stayed with there customs.
4. The boarding system probably did wear the natives down. Over time you have everything stripped away. I bet it was super hard to stay strong when u were having everything taken away like it wasn't even yours.
1) Their motivation was simple: Greed. The Americans wanted the land, and were going to get it using any means necessary. Forcing the Native Americans into a agricultural lifestyle was simply a side effect of taking most of their land, and assigning them to tiny plots of land.
ReplyDelete2) Assimilation: The process by which a person or persons acquire the social and psychological characteristics of a group
No, I do not believe there is a singular "American Culture", because America in and of itself is a melting pot of hundreds of types of people from hundreds of different cultures all over the world. There is little to no unity or commonly held belief between all Americans, even the meaning of the constitution is hotly debated. Assimilation would simply be adding one more "flavor" to the giant "soup" of American culture.
5) The Dawes act of 1877 gave the President of the United States the authority to survey Native Americans' tribal land and divide it into fixed reservations.
The result of this act was many-fold.
One, the Natives, once nomadic now had to settle in one place, and practice agriculture to get food and money.
Two, settlers now had miles and miles of formality Native land to buy and own.
Three, America gave itself authority over the Native's government, including the right to refuse their individual freedoms.
1. Assimilation means to accept or adopt another culture as your own. The term "American culture" just sounds wrong. Wasn't the whole point of America so that people could live how they wanted? Saying that America is defined by one certain culture kind of breaks the rules (metaphorically speaking) of what America was was meant to be.
ReplyDelete4. It all depends on who you asked. If you were to ask a child attending a boarding school, it was probably really hard to be away from your family and be at a strange place for years at a time. However, if you were to ask some adults, it probably really made them angry. I know I would be furious if the government thought they could just take my children away from me and send them to live at some school just because they thought my race was inferior. Looking at it from their view, I would be more than ready to stand up against the government.
6. If I could sum up American history in just a few sentences, I would talk about how America loves giving themselves authority over things they have no business in such as Native American lifestyle. After all, native Americans were here first and did their best to welcome us. But we think we have the right to bully them just because they know we could go to war with them and win.
First Post: Allie Halloran
ReplyDeleteBest Post: Jesse Ruefenacht