When the English-speaking Europeans began their invasion of North America, they viewed Indians as “savage,” “wild,” and “barbaric.” These English-speaking Europeans viewed themselves as superior to Indians in all ways and were often astounded to find that most Indians did not want to become like them. During the nineteenth and much of the twentieth centuries, … Continued
The Genoa Industrial Indian School was started in 1884 in a one-room school that had been originally built for the Pawnee before the tribe was removed from Nebraska to Oklahoma. The school had an initial enrollment of 74 students. Over time, the school would grow to have an enrollment of nearly 600 students from 10 … Continued
In 1892 the army abandoned Fort Shaw, located 24 miles west of Great Falls, Montana . The Indian Office (later known as the Bureau of Indian Affairs) took over the facility and began to convert it into the nation’s fourteenth boarding school. Fort Shaw had been established following the Civil War to protect American settlers … Continued
During the nineteenth and part of the twentieth century, American policies regarding Indians focused on assimilation. Under these policies, the American government sought to destroy Indian cultures: their religions, their languages, their manner of dress, their government, their traditional economies, their traditional families, and anything that might be considered Indian. Individual Indians were to assimilate … Continued
If you find typos here, it’s because my hands are trembling in fury over the keyboard as I write this. That comes from reading Part 1 of National Public Radio’s three-part report on yet another round of cultural genocide against the Indians of South Dakota. What it amounts to is state-sanctioned kidnapping. You can read … Continued
( – promoted by navajo) In 1871, the United States governmental policies toward American Indians changed from dealing with tribes as nations to focusing on the assimilation of individual Indians. Assimilation was, and still is, based on a viewpoint that sees immigrants coming to the United States and then become “good” Americans by learning English … Continued
