Indian Boarding Schools

In six hundred years only traces of three languages in the world as we know it will remain. Everyone will be forced to learn a new, alien language, and be punished for using any language of the old world. Individual cultures will be lost, and generalized, as the world’s languages die out one by one. This is what happened to most Native languages through colonization and westward expansion. Three native languages are “expected to survive into the middle of this Century”3. Immersion schools are a big part of protecting the remaining Native American languages and the culture that goes along with them. From the Civil War to the late 20th century it was illegal for Native Languages to be taught in schools; even still today there is some controversy regarding if immersion schools teach students enough in English. Immersion schools are an important part of Native communities today, as language is an essential part of maintaining …show more content…
Indian Boarding Schools were often operated under the idea behind Pratt’s infamous quote, “Kill the Indian in him, save the man”2. Native American students’ opinions on Indian Boarding schools tends to be overwhelmingly negative. Students were forced to abandon their native languages and were often severely punished and beaten if they spoke anything language besides English8. Some alumni of Indian Boarding schools, such as those interviewed in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma’s video, have chosen to portray their time spent at the schools as positive1. No matter how the experience was for the Indian Boarding School alumni, Indian boarding schools forced Natives to assimilate to the American language and culture, thus causing a widespread loss of fluency in Native