EQ: What Is Deculturalization?

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M1 EQ: What is deculturalization? How does it function historically and in the present? When a student learns about America’s history, they learn about how America came to be and the struggles our country faced. I learned about some struggles but throughout this module, my eyes were opened to the unsettling way America came to be. When the settlers came to America, they were faced with a level of uncertainty but felt that it was their duty to bring civilization to the Western world (Spring, 2013). They felt that the best way to bring civilization was to deculturalize the Native Americans, and then teach them to have the same beliefs as the settlers. “Deculturalization is the educational process of destroying a people’s culture (cultural genocide) …show more content…
In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the English Colonists became invested in “civilizing” Native Americans. To the English Colonists, the Native Americans were “permissive with raising their children”, “lazy”, “filthy”, and were “offended by the power of women in the clan structure” (Spring, 2013, p. 12-14). These were all reasons the colonists wanted to completely deculturalize the Native Americans, and make them have the same ideals, work ethic, desires, and structure of government as the Colonists. The colonists utilized education, but then would build trade houses on the Native Americans land to deculturalize them, and promote them to have the same ideals. This would then lead to their desire for wealth, and make them want to sell the land to the United States, but around this time, the Native Americans realized it was vital for them to become “literate” so they could communicate with the new government (Spring, 2013). While I was reading this, it reminded me of my sister and how I would spell things so she would not be able to understand. It was like I had the power to keep her in the dark, but she soon became determined to learn to spell and read so she could understand. I related her frustration to a lesser version of what the Native Americans …show more content…
This was until some of the Native Americans showed extreme resistance. He then proposed moving the “five” civilized to the west and requiring their children to attend school, but there was also missionary educators. Presbyterian missionaries were the most successful out of all the religions in converting the Native American’s to Christianity (Spring, 2013). These missionaries believed for the Native Americans to reach “true happiness” they would have to endure complete deculturalization (Spring, 2010, p.

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