Indian Peace Policy

Boarding School Seasons by Brenda J. Child offers a look into the boarding school experiences of many American Indian students. Child favors unpublished sources such as letters to give an uncensored inside look into boarding school experiences. However, she also includes other sources such as school newspapers, oral history collections, photographs, biographies, United States government publications, and annual reports. Government boarding schools were created to help the American government gain more control over Indians and to push the Natives to adopt the white ways of life such as language, skill, and education. While integration was the ultimate objective, Child sets out “to show that even with the challenges of cultural assimilation and a devastating land policy, American Indian people, even children, placed limits on assimilation and also defined and shaped the boarding school era.” (viii) The boarding schools designed to tear American Indian families apart did not succeed in isolating children from their tribes, but created bonds and

In the late 1800s, Captain Richard Henry Pratt set out to “Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.”(A Plea to “Citizenize” Indians). The goal to erase Indian cultures and replace it with white American culture was sought to be achieved through boarding schools. Pratt was the creator of the first Indian boarding school: Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. These government-funded boarding schools would take children from their homes on reservation, often for them to not see their family again until they are grown(lecture). Pratt’s goal was to eliminate the Indian culture and incorporate the Indian people into the more “civilized”(Marr) American culture. This meant forcing the Indian students to speak only English and to give up all cultural traditions, religions, names and take up Christianity and American sounding names. Students were put into these boarding schools with little or no contact with their families for “eight to nine months of the year” (Marr). These schools operated with minimal funds, so the education was very insufficient. It was clear from the beginning; the actual goal was not to give quality education for the Native American children but to get rid of the Indian culture.

In 1876, residential schools became an obligation to every Indian kid. They were forced to say their last goodbyes to their families. Over 150 000 students were forced to attend these poorly built and equipped

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).

During Westward Expansion, white settlers saw the Indians as a hindrance to civilization. Therefore the mindset of settlers were to convert Native Americans into white culture. To begin assimilating, the government should, “cease to recognize the Indians as political bodies,” adult male Indians should become a citizen to the government, Indian children shall be taken away and “be trained in industrial schools,” and Indians should be, “placed in the same position before the law.” Assimilating Indians wasn’t a simple teaching of a new culture instead, it was brutal. The boarding schools were merciless towards the Indians, mainly because they wanted to force Indians to drop their culture. Native Americans were obligated to change and lost their

"The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards Indians, their lands and property shall not be taken from them without their consent, and in their property rights and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed." Thus Thomas Jefferson describes U.S. policy towards Native peoples concisely, and with the proper grace of a Virginian gentleman. No ambiguity or contradiction seems to exist in Jefferson's words, and nothing but good will towards Native-Americans seems to be instilled in Jefferson's rhetoric. But in observing Jefferson's curt follow-up to the statement above, "unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress," a turnabout appears, leaving one at a loss as to a tangible United States

Boarding schools were an issue that plagued both Native Americans and Inupiats. As conveyed by the writings of Mary Crow Dog and other Native American figures, we see how the effects of such schools were devastating to the native population. Boarding schools wiped Natives of their language and culture, teaching young children to be ashamed of what makes them unique. Pupils would return from their long stays at boarding schools, unable to speak to their own family, resulting in an isolation between themselves and their community. Over the years, generations would eventually lose most of what makes them native and, for the most part, their culture slowly faded away. It seems that the Inupiat people faced a similar fate. Inupiat children were forced to learn by Western standards, eventually forgetting their crucial survival skills, language, religion and other unique aspects of their culture. However, we are exposed to a more positive outlook towards boarding schools in the book, Fifty Miles from Tomorrow, where William Hensley says he enjoyed his boarding school

On April 10th, 1869, the United States Congress established the Board of Indian Commissioners. This establishment authorized the President of the United States to organize a board of ten or less people to oversee all aspects of Native American policy. The Board of Indian Commissioners was a committee that advised the United States federal government on Native American policy. The committee also had the purpose to inspect the supplies that were delivered to Indian reservations to ensure that the government fulfilled the treaty obligations to tribes. President Ulysses S. Grant wanted to come up with a new policy, which would be more humane, for Native American tribes. The policy would be known as the Peace Policy, which aimed to be free of political corruption. The Peace Policy was prominent on Native American reservations, where Christian Churches and the Office of Indian Affairs, would provide Native Americans with moral Indian agents who would establish churches and schools, teach agriculture. Therefore, creating the sense of “civilizing” and/or “Americanizing.” Within the Board of Indian Commissioners, annual reports were commenced. One of these reports, The Seventeenth Annual Report of the Board of Indian Commissioners of 1885, is an extremely contradictory document, which attempts to dismantle traditions, treat Native Americans in an inhumane manner, and regress any progress the United States government had with Native Americans.

Developmentally, the Indian policies changed from civilizing the Indians away from their traditional lifestyle to removing them from their land, to west of the Mississippi river. Thomas Jefferson and his administration met with Native leaders to discuss his proposals, which included lessons in English and Arithmetic (U.S. Indian Policy). Madison, after Jefferson’s failure, took on the attempt to make the Natives farmers, and protect them with the U.S. army as they transformed in the east (Madison’s American Indian Policy). James Monroe brought forth voluntarily movement of the Natives west of the Mississippi where they would be civilized away from the American people and have a funded education on Christianity. This alteration in policy was encouraged by the desire for land and U.S. expansion. Under Monroe, the Indians were being taught the ideologies of Christianity in government-funded schools (James Monroe and the Indians). Through the Monroe administration, expansion of the U.S. was continuing to prosper, but it was also the beginning of the removal of Indians into the west that happened through

The Native Americans also lost their old cultures throughout time. In 1860, Americans created the first boarding school for Indians. The government forced many families to put their kids into the school. At the school it was mandatory to learn english, American ways of living, religious training for Christianity, change names to American names, and wear proper clothing. Americans thought if they were taught the religious beliefs of Americans everyday, they would soon believe in Christianity and forget about their old culture. Their end goal was to completely demolish the Indian culture. One boarding school then turned to sixty schools for 6,200 Indian students all learning the same things. In order to change the kids from Indian to American,

In 1820, the United States made plans for a large scale system of boarding and day schools Noriega, 377). These schools were given the mission to, "instruct its students in 'letters, labor and mechanical arts, and morals and Christianity;' 'training many Indian leaders'" Noriega, 378). In the case of boarding schools, Native American children would be forcibly stripped from their homes as early as five years old. They would then live sequestered from their families and cultures until the age of seventeen or eighteen (Noriega, 381). <br><br>In 1886, it was decided, by the United States federal government that Native American tribal groups would no longer be treated as 'indigenous national governments.' The decision was made, not by the conjoint efforts of the Native American tribes and Congress; but, by the "powers that be" the United States Legal System. This self-ordained power allowed Congress to pass a variety of other laws, directed towards, assimilating, Native Americans, so that they would become a part of "mainstream white America" (Robbins, 90)<br><br>By this time the United States Government, had been funding over a dozen distinct agencies, to provide mandatory 'education' to all native children aged six through sixteen. Enrollment was enforced through leverage given by the 1887 General Allotment Act, which made Natives dependent on the Government for

The BIA and mission schools usually were run with an Anglo-conformity assimilationist approach. Intensive efforts were made to destroy Indian ways. Some boarding schools were being replaced by day schools closer to home, and a bilingual policy was being discussed by white government officials. Enforced acculturation has been a recurring issue in BIA and local public schools, where white administrators and teachers have frequently blamed educational problems on cultural differences and thus emphasized the contrast between the often collective values of Indians and the intense individualism of most white Americans. Many white teachers have attempted to make their pupils “less

The main goal of boarding schools was to civilize Native Americans. The federal government wanted to solve “The Indian Problem” by assimilating Native Americans into white culture and felt that education

In the early years, George Washington believed that the best way to solve the “Indian Problem” was to simply “civilize” the Native Americans. The Goal was to convert them to Christianity, learn to speak and read English and adopt European-style economic practices like Individual ownership of land and other property. Some of the Tribes embraced these customs and become known as the “Five Civilized Tribes”. (www.history.com)

Being a land locked country surrounded by India and China, situated along the southern slopes of the Himalayas Nepal feels interference of India in her domestic politics and in foreign policy making which indicates determinants of her foreign policy are not amply helpful and capabilities of her foreign policy rather renders Nepal an absurd fear-psychosis position against India keeping her long away from world politics for hundreds of years. Her geo strategic location makes her vulnerable and dependent on India. Their foreign policy decision making pivots the two next door neighbors having geo political constraints. Given that there is China-preference in their sentiment, however, Nepal acts like a puppet in India’s hands in her decision making. Nepal is one of the best examples of being restrained by God given geo-demographic, geo-positional, socio-cultural realities. Albeit, Nepal succeeds in preservation of autonomy, protection of national sovereignty, territoriality, maintenance of rule of laws, preservation of human rights and equality, building friendship with neighbors, bringing foreign currency to boost up economy and keeping rising position in the central Asia.