Contemporary American Indian History

Indian Education

Tribal Education

Indian children were educated for thousands of years prior to Europeans.  Through oral tradition and instruction, tribal leaders and family members worked with their children so that they were able to learn about subjects such as medicine, mathematics, geology, art, astronomy, agriculture, music, dance, marine biology, amongst other traditions such as proper behavior and respect for history, laws, and rules.¹⁴ The idea of schooling the Indians began with the Spanish and French priests of the colonial era who were interested in Christianizing those they encountered.¹⁵

Schooling

Reformers determined that older generations were unable to be taught/civilized – education was wasted on them.  It was better to work with the young.  Education would also “quicken the process of cultural evolution”.¹⁶  White civilization had taken hundreds of years to get to this point, if Indian students entered and attended school, they would have the same advantages as white children in school – enabling their race to skip the ‘in between’ that the white civilization had endured.  Economically, educating Indians made sense.  Indians would become self-sufficient and able to provide for themselves.¹⁷  For these reasons, educating the Indian began and so did the assimilation process. 

There were three school models used in the assimilation process of young Indians.  At first, reservation day schools were used.  These were located on the outskirts of the reservation lands. While they were in existence, these schools primary focus was on the English language instruction.  These schools were fairly inexpensive to run and had the least opposition from parents since students returned home on a daily basis.  At first, reformers believed that when the children returned to their homes they would teach their families about what they had learned.  However, this was not the case – it was not enough to change the ways of the older peoples in the indigenous communities. “‘It must be manifest to all practical minds,” one agent observed in 1878 ‘that to place these wild children under a teacher’s care but four or five hours a day, and permit them to spend the other nineteen in the filth and degradation of the village, makes the attempt to educate and civilize them a mere farce.’”¹⁸ 

In the late 1870s, reservation boarding schools began to show some progress with assimilating students.  These schools, usually located near agency headquarters, allowed for students to remain in the care of the teachers and administration for eight to nine months out of the year.  With the extended time, there was more control over the students.  The curriculum included a half-day of English instruction and a half-day of gendered industrial training. Additionally, the teaching of civilized ways such as personal hygiene and manners were included. There were still obstacles the school administrations faced such as families visiting often included even moving their living quarters closer to the school!  They would visit their children to speak in the native language and drop off food.¹⁹  Furthermore, there were noticeable “relapses” when returning home – the tribal influences were too strong. 

“In 1889 the U.S. commissioner of the Indian Affairs declared, ‘We must either fight Indians, feed them, or else educate them.  To fight them is cruel, to feed them is wasteful, while to educate them is humane, economic and Christian.’”²⁰  He suggested off-reservation boarding based on the model that Richard Pratt developed with prisoners.