Indian Boarding Schools

In 1860, the first boarding school for Native American children was established with the intent of reshaping the lives of those children to strip them of their native identities. The tribal languages, customs, and dances were replaced with white American customs. Their long braids were cut off and they were taught the history of white Americans from the white American point of view and their native histories were erased. 20 years after the initial establishment of these Indian Boarding Schools, the United States was funding over 60 other campuses with the intent of erasing the native culture. The customs and lifestyles of the Native American people were considered "savagery" and the children were punished for relapsing into any of their previous customs. The children were beaten for their behavior, speaking in their natural languages and acting at all like they were raised. Family relationships were destroyed as the culture was maimed. Those who had remained on the reservations maintained their religion and language, and when their Americanized children returned from the brutal torture they endured away from home, they had lost their relationships with their parents. The white Americans attempted to train and place the Natives into industrial jobs in the midst of white society. Outside of the reservation they would always be looked at differently, and they would always be forced to change by the white-dominated society that regarded them with no respect.