Deculturalization and the Claim of Racial and Cultural Superiority and The Indian Boarding Schools
Chapter 1: Deculturalization and the Claim of Racial and Cultural Superiority by Anglo-Americans
The Indian Boarding Schools
By: Michele Bollinger
In the focus on the Indian Boarding Schools, Bollinger paints a horrific yet real picture of how Native American children were taken from their families and forced to become “civilized” in a white society. Bollinger states, “The goal of these schools was to aggressively strip Indian youth of their cultural traditions, language, and religious beliefs. The approach to education was not grounded in an understanding of child development or academic instruction--but rather racism, Christianity, and military discipline” (72). As an educator who works daily with young children, this approach to school deeply saddens me. Isn’t education suppose to give better opportunities in life, not erase one’s identity and culture? In a previous text we read called Identities and Social Locations: Who Am I? Who Are My People? the question “are you one of us or not?” reminds me of how the European Americans felt about the Native Americans. Since the Native Americans were not one of them, they were considered inferior and received physical and emotional shaming for who they were. The European Americans forced the Native Americans to completely change their identity physically, mentally, and emotionally. I am wondering how our society today still forces people, like the Native Americans, to conform and change who they are to meet a certain social standard or identity.
This Youtube video called Indian Boarding Schools clip helped me to have an even deeper understanding of what life was like for Native American children in the Indian boarding schools. School was suppose to be a place of learning but instead for the Native Americans it was a place of torture where your whole way of life was literally take away from you. I can’t even begin to imagine how scary and confusing life must have been like for Native American children. The negative impacts on these children within government run boarding schools was life altering. Both Bollinger and the Youtube video show how children are removed from their families “where they are to be remade into white kids.” Not only were these children remade into something else, their relationships with their families were destroyed. Instead of getting an education, the Native Americans had their lives wiped away.
Author: Joel Spring
In chapter 1 of the book Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality, author Joel Spring explains how cultural and racial issues were a major part of American history. Spring starts by describing how different groups of people, particularly Native Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans, were stripped of their culture and considered racially inferior. Education policies also reflected the views of the Anglo-Americans, who were the superior. Schools were designed to “destroy Native American cultural and linguistic traditions and replace them with the English language and Anglo-American culture” (1). African American slaves “were denied educational rights altogether,” (1) or were subjected to educational segregation once they were free African Americans. Similarly, Asian Americans were either denied an education or forced to attend segregated schools.
As Spring points out, change in culture also relates to a change in the way families were organized. Many Native American tribes were organized by clans and Europeans wanted to change the clan system into a family structure where the father has all the power. In the Native American culture, women became leaders and were considered people of power. In this chapter, Paula Gunn Allen explains these changes as “the replacing of a peaceful, non punitive, non authoritarian social system wherein women wield power by making social life easy and gentle with one based on child terrorization, male dominance, and submission of women to male authority” (11). It seems as though the culture of the Native American family was turned upside down and inside out, and for all the wrong reasons.
Reading about Native American culture makes me think the Anglo-Americans should have learned a lot from the Native Americans and their ways of life as opposed to destroying their culture. The sense of sharing that the Native Americans valued really struck me as a beautiful way of taking care of others. “If another tribal member needed food or assistance, others gladly gave their time and food” (9). I am wondering how the Native Americans’ way of life could be helpful within all our communities in poverty even today. Instead of the rich getting richer, how about thinking like the Native Americans and find ways to support one another’s needs?
Spring sums up the meaning behind his book when he states, “this book can serve as both a warning and a guide to all nations engaged in the education of multiple language and cultural groups” (2). In other words, the “warning” educates about inhumane practices and policies of the past, and this book can be used as a “guide” as to how to not make the same mistakes in our future. We have certainly made gains but issues of race and cultural conflicts are still prevalent in our schools and in our lives today in 2018. I like to think that we teach multiculturalism in our schools and the importance of understanding and valuing our differences in culture. But, I know we still have a long way to go!
In chapter 1 of the book Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality, author Joel Spring explains how cultural and racial issues were a major part of American history. Spring starts by describing how different groups of people, particularly Native Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans, were stripped of their culture and considered racially inferior. Education policies also reflected the views of the Anglo-Americans, who were the superior. Schools were designed to “destroy Native American cultural and linguistic traditions and replace them with the English language and Anglo-American culture” (1). African American slaves “were denied educational rights altogether,” (1) or were subjected to educational segregation once they were free African Americans. Similarly, Asian Americans were either denied an education or forced to attend segregated schools.
As Spring points out, change in culture also relates to a change in the way families were organized. Many Native American tribes were organized by clans and Europeans wanted to change the clan system into a family structure where the father has all the power. In the Native American culture, women became leaders and were considered people of power. In this chapter, Paula Gunn Allen explains these changes as “the replacing of a peaceful, non punitive, non authoritarian social system wherein women wield power by making social life easy and gentle with one based on child terrorization, male dominance, and submission of women to male authority” (11). It seems as though the culture of the Native American family was turned upside down and inside out, and for all the wrong reasons.
Reading about Native American culture makes me think the Anglo-Americans should have learned a lot from the Native Americans and their ways of life as opposed to destroying their culture. The sense of sharing that the Native Americans valued really struck me as a beautiful way of taking care of others. “If another tribal member needed food or assistance, others gladly gave their time and food” (9). I am wondering how the Native Americans’ way of life could be helpful within all our communities in poverty even today. Instead of the rich getting richer, how about thinking like the Native Americans and find ways to support one another’s needs?
Spring sums up the meaning behind his book when he states, “this book can serve as both a warning and a guide to all nations engaged in the education of multiple language and cultural groups” (2). In other words, the “warning” educates about inhumane practices and policies of the past, and this book can be used as a “guide” as to how to not make the same mistakes in our future. We have certainly made gains but issues of race and cultural conflicts are still prevalent in our schools and in our lives today in 2018. I like to think that we teach multiculturalism in our schools and the importance of understanding and valuing our differences in culture. But, I know we still have a long way to go!
The Indian Boarding Schools
By: Michele Bollinger
In the focus on the Indian Boarding Schools, Bollinger paints a horrific yet real picture of how Native American children were taken from their families and forced to become “civilized” in a white society. Bollinger states, “The goal of these schools was to aggressively strip Indian youth of their cultural traditions, language, and religious beliefs. The approach to education was not grounded in an understanding of child development or academic instruction--but rather racism, Christianity, and military discipline” (72). As an educator who works daily with young children, this approach to school deeply saddens me. Isn’t education suppose to give better opportunities in life, not erase one’s identity and culture? In a previous text we read called Identities and Social Locations: Who Am I? Who Are My People? the question “are you one of us or not?” reminds me of how the European Americans felt about the Native Americans. Since the Native Americans were not one of them, they were considered inferior and received physical and emotional shaming for who they were. The European Americans forced the Native Americans to completely change their identity physically, mentally, and emotionally. I am wondering how our society today still forces people, like the Native Americans, to conform and change who they are to meet a certain social standard or identity.
This Youtube video called Indian Boarding Schools clip helped me to have an even deeper understanding of what life was like for Native American children in the Indian boarding schools. School was suppose to be a place of learning but instead for the Native Americans it was a place of torture where your whole way of life was literally take away from you. I can’t even begin to imagine how scary and confusing life must have been like for Native American children. The negative impacts on these children within government run boarding schools was life altering. Both Bollinger and the Youtube video show how children are removed from their families “where they are to be remade into white kids.” Not only were these children remade into something else, their relationships with their families were destroyed. Instead of getting an education, the Native Americans had their lives wiped away.
Hi Lauren, I agree with you in terms of "Anglo-Americans should have learned a lot from the Native Americans and their ways of life as opposed to destroying their culture." I liked the way they look at accumulating property. They don't kill more animals than they need. Today, human happiness is mainly depended on materials and this excessive importance we attach to money and other goods is actually making us unhappy. I also liked the role of women. Native American women are free, respected and productive in society.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right about teaching multiculturalism. It's a method that can keep us from viewing our students as "the other," or from pitting one group against another. And it's diametrically opposed to Lieutenant Pratt's vision of "Kill(ing) the Indian. . , and sav(ing) the man." Thankfully, that sort of attitude just doesn't fly anymore. I guess it's up to us (and those like us) to remain vigilant and keep such points of view out the classroom.
ReplyDeleteBrent -- I'm not so sure that this attitude has died off. It might have changed, but I think techniques of deculturalization persist in our current education system (as documented in Precious Knowledge is one example). That is, a chief function of schooling remains assimilating "the other" into the norms and values of middle class white America -- which requires "killing" or maybe erasing cultural and linguistic practices and social relations.
DeleteYour post makes me wonder: Are schools today still predominantly places “where they [youth of color, Indigenous youth] are to be remade into white kids”?
ReplyDeleteIf we look at current struggles over curriculum and pedagogy, and if we look at dominant forms of assessment and content materials, I think the argument could very well be made that schools are indeed performing an assimilationist function, with whiteness as the norm. There are exceptions to this of course and we must look to those educators for guidance!