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Impact of Forced Assimilation & Abuse in Indian Boarding Schools, Thesis of Microbiology

The experiences of native american survivors of boarding schools, where they were taken from their families and subjected to cruel and abusive behavior. The film 'indian school: stories of survival' details how these schools aimed to erase native american culture and traditions, causing long-lasting impacts on generations. Various forms of abuse, including physical, emotional, and sexual, and the effects on parenting skills and self-identity.

Typology: Thesis

2021/2022

Uploaded on 03/15/2022

daviathedon
daviathedon 🇺🇸

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Throughout the film, “Indian School: Stories of Survival,” they confronted and discussed
the policy that allowed Indian children to be taken from their village and home, where they
endured cruel abusive behavior. The Indian School survivors rekindle the emotions of being
taken away from their families to boarding schools because their parents were forced to send
their children off to Indian boarding school where they “kill the Indian, save the human,” which
caused traditional family values to be broken. Several generations attended Mt. Pleasant
Boarding School, they weren’t taught to be parents but to merely be domestics, bakers, farmers,
and servants, this caused a lasting impact on many generations due to them not living in a home
environment.
The film goes into detail about each boarding school which wasn’t all governmentally
operated, most were religious white operated ones, the school's mission was to make Indian
culture practices and beliefs “non-existent” and how these schools used brutality and abuse to do
so. The knowledge of what the Native Americans had to endure at such a young age dispenses an
understanding of how their cultural was largely impacted and their downfall changed, it informs
how these events formed into what it has now in present day Native American lifestyle. They
were trained for low level jobs and to not question authority, they worked all day, sharing a
dormitory, and beatings. The Native students were constantly criticized and one of the Indian
school survivors' recalls being slapped for questioning Columbus’ discovery of America.
The government forced Native Americans from their culture, ancestral lands, and
restricted them to reservations, most people today don’t know that the American government
attempted to unify the growing country by attempting to assimilate Native American adults
would be no benefit. This forced teaching of Native American children to speak English, to dress
and wear their hair like the ideal “American” and to think like one, this strike lack of self-
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Throughout the film, “Indian School: Stories of Survival,” they confronted and discussed the policy that allowed Indian children to be taken from their village and home, where they endured cruel abusive behavior. The Indian School survivors rekindle the emotions of being taken away from their families to boarding schools because their parents were forced to send their children off to Indian boarding school where they “kill the Indian, save the human,” which caused traditional family values to be broken. Several generations attended Mt. Pleasant Boarding School, they weren’t taught to be parents but to merely be domestics, bakers, farmers, and servants, this caused a lasting impact on many generations due to them not living in a home environment. The film goes into detail about each boarding school which wasn’t all governmentally operated, most were religious white operated ones, the school's mission was to make Indian culture practices and beliefs “non-existent” and how these schools used brutality and abuse to do so. The knowledge of what the Native Americans had to endure at such a young age dispenses an understanding of how their cultural was largely impacted and their downfall changed, it informs how these events formed into what it has now in present day Native American lifestyle. They were trained for low level jobs and to not question authority, they worked all day, sharing a dormitory, and beatings. The Native students were constantly criticized and one of the Indian school survivors' recalls being slapped for questioning Columbus’ discovery of America. The government forced Native Americans from their culture, ancestral lands, and restricted them to reservations, most people today don’t know that the American government attempted to unify the growing country by attempting to assimilate Native American adults would be no benefit. This forced teaching of Native American children to speak English, to dress and wear their hair like the ideal “American” and to think like one, this strike lack of self-

character. They weren’t given the chance to learn their culture or embrace being an Indian. The daughter of an Indian school survivor stated her mother conversating about a time a boy was kicked down the stairwell by the “schoolmaster” because he said something quick in his Indian language. Her mother insinuated that the young boy was killed, because she never seen him again and there was a little cemetery in the woods. The use of leather straps, straps with buckles, and bags of kidney beans were part of the “disciplinary” process, and these various forms of abuse were by the hands of the teachers. A survivor remembers the event that occurred when it was her birthday, she was beaten for crossing a fence and another was caught after running away from the school, his consequence caused him to get beaten in the elevator and sent to the hospital. Young girls were being sexually abused by a maintenance man and priest; the administrators told rape victims that they were imaginations. The daughter of an Indian school survivor died after a self-inflicted abortion. Boarding school students received institutional parenting; they grew up into adulthood with little to no parenting skills. In conclusion, many people in the US are uneducated and foolish to the things that the government has conjured up to build this “American dream” and “Make America great” façade. If we force a one-sided American society, we could drastically disrupt the importance of being different in America; as well as the dynamics of one’s culture. I don’t believe that the schools were successful in their efforts because all they did was cause trauma, pain, and history to their culture. Addressing similar issues like Mt. Pleasant Boarding School and being more outspoken of the events that occurred can shine light on how America really is.