Native American Boarding Schools Research Paper

Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Native American children were being taken from their families and placed in boarding schools. Both of these documents revolve around these boarding schools. Both documents; though, show the boarding schools as good things, even though they were not. Indian boarding schools were built to transform Native Americans, destroying their identities, eradicating Native religions, customs, and traditions and demolishing Native languages. The first document is a picture of young girls at a boarding school. The picture is of young girls at St. Benedict's Mission, White Earth Indian Reservation. In the picture the young girls are dressed in dresses and long sleeves. The young girls are showing off …show more content…
The goal of the Indian schools were to place Native American children in institutions where all their traditions would be replaced by traditions that the government thought were appropriate. Children were removed from their families and placed in Indian boarding schools. The boarding schools were built far away from Native American reservations. The government did not want the children to have any access to their old lives (Brainwashing and Boarding Schools). The children were even taunted if they missed home. Parents were not allowed to visit the schools and children were not allowed to leave, even during the summer. The government believed that since the children were removed from their families at an early age, they would not remember any of their old traditions and that they would be immersed in the “right” culture (Brainwashing and Boarding Schools). By doing this, the children would be immersed in the culture of the dominant society the white people society. Students were taught that the Indian way of life was inferior to the white way. They were taught that they were being raised for a better