Assimilation By Education
The U.S. government wanted to assimilate American Indians into the culture of white citizens. In the 1860s, day schools for Indian children were attempted, but the government felt that only seeing kids in the day was not effective. In 1879, they found a solution: American Indian boarding schools. The idea was that if American Indian children were heavily influenced when young, conditioning would stay with them and spread to their families, communities, and children.
"Day schools were inexpensive to build and operate, but many educators thought them fundamentally flawed because teachers saw their students for only a portion of the day" ("Indian Boarding Schools").
"If it be admitted that education affords the true solution to the Indian problem, then it must be admitted that the boarding school is the very key to the situation. However excellent the day school may be, whatever the qualifications of the teacher, or however superior the facilities for instruction of the few short hours spent in the day school is, to a great extent, offset by the habits, scenes and surroundings at home — if a mere place to eat and live in can be called a home. Only by complete isolation of the Indian child from his savage antecedents can he be satisfactorily educated, and the extra expense attendant thereon is more than compensated by the thoroughness of the work." - John B. Riley, Indian School Superintendent |