Indian Schools -Week 7

In the past week of American Studies, we learned about the hardships the Native Americans went through and all the events that took place during the time period. We studied two documents written by Native children narrating the events that took place in the Indian Schools. Indian Schools were a program that established schools for Native children to board in and learn American culture and values. We had a discussion on whether or not sending them to the schools was acceptable or not. I felt it had both benefits and drawbacks, each corresponding to one of the documents. The first document laid out some benefits to the establishment. It was only temporary, and going there did not necessarily mean you had to lose all of your previous cultures and values, you just had to keep them low for that time being. But, the second narrative highlighted how hard it was for them to adapt to a whole new culture and how they had to obey without any resistance. If the child was willing to learn a new culture and not be punished for resisting, their experience wouldn't be as bad as a Native child who resisted the learning of the new culture and had to experience hardship in their stay.