The end the the West Wars in 1800 signaled a sudden stop to physical attacks and woke Americans from their long held belief that the vanishing Indian was a real issue. The resulting mobilization led to a variety of groups calling for Indian reform at the individual and tribal level. This flurry was accompanied by an unusual goal: saving the Indians through assimilation into American society. The phrase ‘kill the Indian, save the man’ comes from the growing concern over Indian rights in the late 19th century. Indians in this period were indeed facing a dire situation as they were pushed onto reservations and forced to adapt to the white world.
The plan failed in the end as Indians became more dependent on the U.S. for rations and supplies. Indians began to disappear at a rapid rate. Captain Henry Pratt, a radical thinker, was required to recognize that the most efficient way to change natives’ situation would be through education. By doing so, they could be separated from reservations forever and then assimilated into white culture. It was not without its disadvantages that the Indian education mandate for all children was implemented. However, the negative effects outweighed any positive ones. Many Indians, though successful, could not blend into the white culture or reclaim their heritage. Instead, they were forced back to their reservations. Even though the Indian boarding-school system seemed progressive, there were many negative consequences that the natives still feel today. The Indians lost their cultural and tribe identity because of this. After the failure of Dawes Allotment Act of 188, which aimed to take’surplus Indian land’ and encourage farming, the natives’ lands were further consolidated and poverty continued. Captain Richard Pratt tried his best to assimilate Indians by giving them white clothes and shaving their hair. This was the first step in a process that would eventually lead to a better integration of Indians with American society. Carlisle Indian School became the model for assimilation and reform of Native Americans. These schools were designed to keep Indians away from “contaminating”, or negative, influences like their parents, families, and friends. While this reform may have looked like a positive step for whites, it was actually a desecration of Indian values and beliefs. Teachers and administrators in this school used a uniform, straightforward approach. Indian children were required to wear new clothes and hairstyles in order to satisfy the standards of white men. Luther Standing Bear was a reform critic who saw these changes as a transition into a foreign culture. . .Of Course, Our Hair Was Cut. . Indians who were not converted to Christianity were given Anglo Saxon surnames in an effort at eradicating their pagan practices. The American Experience shows how children are forced to obey Christian principles like daily prayer and obedience. The schools took many measures to convert natives, including religion. Language was the most devastating blow. It has separated generations of children from parents. It was essential that Indians learn to read and write. This had a double edge for them. It was a positive thing for natives, as it enabled them to communicate with American citizens and potential employers. Wolf Chief used his writing ability to advocate native rights for his Hidatsa tribal group. (Calloway, 390) The majority of Indians who learned English lost their tribal languages and the barrier they created between them. In boarding schools, Indians were taught American history in a way that “distorted or ignored Indians’ role.” Indians’ education was also divided by gender. Men were taught the standard skills of a trade, while women were instructed to perform domestic duties. The combination of physical and mental education had a dramatic impact on Native Americans and their senses of identity. The effects of a progressive schooling were a major negative factor for most natives. In examining the positives of the boarding-school experience, one can see that many Indians made the transition successfully from being’savages’ to becoming ‘civilized’, which was their teachers’ and administrators’ main goal. The natives also had the opportunity to use their skills in order to educate and help their own family members. Wolf Chief, for example, used his writing and language skills to protest U.S. policy and bring about change in his tribesmen. Charles Eastman is a prime example of how white reform has changed the Wahpeton-Dakota man’s life. Eastman’s father encouraged his son to embrace white culture with the same intensity as if he were going into combat. “I will expect you to win.” (Calloway 382) After completing boarding school and college, Eastman became an advocate for cultural exchanges. He believed Americans and Indians had much to teach each other. Although the boarding-school system was a success, it’s important to note that natives sent there were often either misled by the school or lost in the culture of their new home. Schools were plagued from the start by illness, an Indian social phenomenon that dates back to centuries. In the early days of boarding schools on and off reservations, tuberculosis and smallpox were common. This had a devastating impact on students and families. In the Haskell Indian School Cemetery, between 1885 and 1914, 100 Indians representing 37 different tribes died. Children who couldn’t stand boarding schools often found themselves unable to fit into either of the societies. The blanket Indian was a term used to describe natives who continued to follow the ‘old way’, or the customs and traditions that were their norms for centuries. Indians returned to tribes in search of this “blanket” after completing formal education. For some, like Plenty Horses, it was near-impossible. Plenty Horses was charged with shooting an army official during the Ghost Dance Revival of 1890. He said at his trial that the reason he shot an army officer was “to make myself a home among my people”. Now I am one with them. After school, Plenty Horse returned with countless natives to their reservations. Their lives continued in a certain way on their reservations. The outside world of white men was continuing to cut off their connections to their old ways. Though the basic goals of boarding schools in the 19th and 20th centuries seemed well-intentioned at first, their policies created a barrier for Indians of that generation to their old languages and customs. They are still struggling to regain them today. Though the goals of the schools were to “kill Indians and save men,” it did not work for all natives. Charles Eastman and Wolf Chief, among others, found it effective. But it caused much discontent to those it wished to convert. Natives like Luther Standing Bear modified his formal schooling to protest the Indian boarding-school system. He claimed that this would only kill the Indians’ legacy and that an ideal’school’ would allow them to exchange ideas and languages, but not copy. Each Indian child was taken from his tribe and forced to grow up under the influence and education of white people. Indians not only had to learn English without regard for their native tongue, but were also forced to accept Christianity and learn a distorted view of the past that ignored the natives’ role in domestic affairs. Tribes still struggle today to maintain their links with their old languages and customs. While it is true that the Indian resistance to land loss ended in the late 19th Century, the boarding school system continued this trend, and the Indian identity was never fully recovered.
