Analysis Of Alexie Sherman's 'Indigenous American Education'

Indian Boarding Schools, which began in the late 1870’s, were started to transition Native Americans from their traditional cultures and transform them into American citizens. By the 1900’s, there were 147 day schools on and off reservations in the Great Plains. Day schools were first built before the government decided that the children needed to be removed from their Indian lifestyle in order for total assimilation to occur. The first off-reservation boarding schools appeared around 1884 in the Great Plains. By 1890, 25 federal off-reservation and 43 on-reservation boarding schools were operating nationally. Many Indian families chose to send their children to boarding schools because there were no other schools available. After $45 million had been spent and 20,000 Indian children had been put into schools, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs William Jones put emphasis on the importance of utilizing existing boarding and day schools more effectively. Jones declared that the Indian children had shown little evidence of assimilation and introduced the idea for a hierarchy of schools in order to “provide the greatest opportunity for assimilating the best students with the greatest potential for surviving in the white world” (Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, par.8).

Throughout our lives, we are challenged by others to fight injustice, both by treating others fairly, and speaking up when others treat us or people around us unfairly. This is not always easy to do, but we typically think of ourselves as good people who try. We tell ourselves that if everyone acted in the same way, the world would be a better place. In Sherman Alexie’s short story, “Indian Education,” he discusses the different stages of a Native Americans childhood compared to his white counterparts. He is describing the schooling of a child named Victor, in an American Indian reservation, grade by grade. He uses a few different examples of justice and injustice, which could be seen in completely different ways, expressing different feelings. Growing up, Victor faces discrimination from white people, who he portrays as evil in every way, to show that his childhood was filled with anger, fear, and how difficult life was for Victor growing up on a reservation. Racism and bullying are both used throughout the short story between Indians and Americans. The Indian Americans have the stereotype of being unsuccessful and always being those that are left behind.

Our Spirits Don’t Speak English provides insight into Indian boarding schools in the United States. Children of Indian tribes were mandated by the U.S. government to attend boarding schools. The purpose of these schools were to educate Indians in Western ways and language; thus, making these children “civilized.” From a trauma lens, children of these boarding schools could be viewed as victims. Indian children were forcibly removed from their homes and stripped of their Native American identity. Upon arrival, Indian children were forced to cut their hair in the Western fashion and were only allowed to wear European-style clothing.

The relationship between Native Americans and the United States has always been troubled; moreover, when white settlers expanded westward, Native American’s life style was forever changed. Violence occurred when the Mormon settlers encroached onto Indian land, causing a chain of events that lead to the horrific Bear River Massacre. Along with violent interactions, the US government wanted to integrate the Indian tribes into the American way of life. One way the government tried to civilize the Indians was through boarding schools where children were forced from their homes to learn how to be a white person. Even though children were mistreated, they learned life skills in their classes and how to be independent.

For over one hundred years, the United States and Canadian Governments forced indigenous peoples of their land to abusive boarding schools, where children as young as the age of two, were ripped away from their families, in an attempt to terminate indigenous cultures from their land. These schools were the government's way of “killing the Indian, and save the man.” The governments of the United States and Canada similarly believed they could end the different cultural habits of the Indians, and help themselves by teaching them blue-collar, low paying jobs that were undesirable by white people. America should grant reparations to the survivors of their Indian Boarding Schools to

This book has been a really helpful source of information on Indigenous peoples in the U.S. It beginning chapters were useful for information on the area category, and the last few chapters discuss U.S. government intervention onto reservations in an attempt to make positive change. However, even though their intentions of increasing Native education in the mid-1900’s, their ways of carrying out such “help” was oppressive and demeaning. These chapters, among other policies, discuss Native American boarding schools where teens from tribes were brought to schools, and there were forced to learn European norms in an attempt to diminish their traditional culture. This resources shows that even in the modern day, not all aid is helpful and intentions can be multifaceted.

Previously, government agents, missionaries, and educational reformers such as Pratt employed various enticements and coercions to compel Indian parents and tribal elders to enroll their children in the new boarding schools. Benefitting from two hundred years of sporadic efforts to civilize Indians, the schools proposed “to change them forever,” as one superintendent in Oklahoma declared regarding his Kiowa students. Success was contingent upon separating children as young as practicable from the contaminating influence of their tribes. To the often-repeated maxim that the “only good Indian is a dead one,” Pratt countered, “Kill the Indian in him and save the man” (Warren,

Colin G. Calloway called the enforced European-style education of Native American children “the educational assault on Indian children” (383). Native American children were taken from their homes to be raised and educated in boarding schools in an effort to make them better members of European-American society. In 1880, the Board of Indian Commissioners wrote that “as a savage we cannot tolerate him [Native Americans] any more than as a half-civilized parasite, wanderer, or vagabond. The only alternative is to fit him by education for civilized life” (as cited in Calloway 383). The board did not hide their use of education as a way of destroying Native American culture and/or making it into

When the Europeans immigrated to North America they established the Indian Bureau in the War Department due to the Indian Problem who main goal was to manage the Native Americans. Disease was a huge epidemic it caused tremendous amounts of Native people to die due to no immunity to the diseases. The federal government began the Indian Removal of the Native tribes. From that, the federal government created the boarding schools where they were enculturated by religion, language, physical features, clothing, and vocational education. The Dawes Act contributed to 90 million acres of land loss to Native tribes. The 1982 Merian Report contributed to changing the school system. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 began with assimilating the Sioux nation into the European way of life which effected their health and overall welfare. The Europeans used the education system to assimilate them into their culture and language. Due to the assimilation it affected the Sioux people through the NCLB act. In order to decolonize our people the education system needs respect and to add our cultural side into the pedagogy. In order for Native students to be successful in school they need to acknowledge how important it is to learn our culture in schools. The U.S. Indian office supported the schools to be culturally sensitive and began educating teachers to teach in Native schools. Alaska has experienced the assimilation through boarding schools. Stephen talks about his experience as an educator and

Despite the breaking up of Native American reservations being the top priority in “domesticating,” re-educating them was seen as the final and most important step to help the Indians assimilate into white American culture and lifestyle. Native American children were to stop speaking their native languages and become English-speaking citizens of America, according to Merrill Gates. The Native Americans were referred to as savages that could not be handled by the American settlers, so it was then declared that it was the white man’s job to educate all Native Americans in order to make them civilized.

Many underprivileged groups such as, African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, just to name a few, often struggle to flourish within society due to lack of resources and lose their identity in assumption of their “inadequacy”. Sherman Alexie, a Native American activist, reveals the effects of poverty through the life of Victor, a young Native American living in a reservation, in his short story, “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”. Victor, right after he lost job, was notified about his father’s passing. Unable to have the sufficient funds to retrieve his father’s remains from Arizona, he travels alongside his former childhood friend, Tomas Builds-the-Fire. Their journey initially begins with a broken identity, but it brings awareness of how they were able to redefine whom they were despite of their critical situation. “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” depicts the harsh reality of the Native American’s poverty due to lack of resources, resulting in emotionally straining them and bringing social corrosion.

According to Meza (2015), effects from the United States’ attempts to accommodate, assimilate, and terminate the Indian are still being felt today. Many traditional Native American languages have become extinct, and the future tribal leaders are struggling to perform at comparable levels with mainstream American students. The upcoming generation does not know their traditional culture or language. This threatens tribal sovereignty (Mesa, 2015). There are differing opinions regarding the United States’ legal responsibility for Indian education. The Supreme Court has continually held that Indian tribes are “domestic dependent nations.” However, Congress and the President agree the federal government is responsible for the education of Indian students (Meza, 2015). To date, there have been over 150 treaties between tribes and the United States.

Commonly referred to as the American Indian boarding schools, these schools came into existence in the late eighteenth century but later experienced increased presence in the Indian American community during the nineteenth century (Judy & Bennett,1986). Indigenous peoples view the introduction of residential schools as one of the most painful chapters in the history of their culture. Several studies carried out a by anishanaabe affiliated outfits have indicated that

Commonly referred to as the American Indian boarding schools, these schools came into existence in the late eighteenth century but later experienced increased presence in the Indian American community during the nineteenth century (Judy & Bennett,1986). Indigenous peoples view the introduction of residential schools as one of the most painful chapters in the history of their culture. Several studies carried out a by anishanaabe affiliated outfits have indicated that

This however, may change. In the past years, the Obama administration has recognized the problem with Native American education and has allotted an additional 150 million dollars to the Bureau of Indian Education. This organization oversees 200 schools and 40,000 Native children. The added funding can be used to repair schools, construct new ones, and improve the education of Native students all around. What the allotted money hopes to fix is the amount of advanced placement courses available in Indian schools. Only about 76% of Native American students have access to advanced placement courses, this number is much lower than white students (91%). While modern day Native American schools certainly have their issues, Indian boarding schools in the past were downright appalling. In the 1870s the United States began sending Indian children to boarding schools, these schools had one goal, to