Immigration reform and restriction were volatile issues, with the demand for “Americanization” of all immigrants. Women’s suffrage, prohibition, child labor, and health reforms on businesses were all part of the public discourse. The country saw an explosion of social welfare laws. The years during the existence of the Carlisle Indian School, known as the Progressive Era, were tumultuous ones for the United States. The effects of it are very real and people feel them all the time today, and I think that’s a sign that we haven’t really dealt with it as indigenous people.” “Many of us don’t even understand it, in that perspective. “Many of our people are suffering, and they don’t realize that they are suffering from the boarding school syndrome,” says Amanda Blackhorse. It was so ineffective that it did not train us to become confident in the white world, and it took us away from our own culture, so much so that we weren't even competent as Indians anymore.” “It caused historic trauma among most of our people, including myself, to this day. “It was very destructive,” says Forrest Cuch, owner of Full Circle American Indian Consulting and the former director of Indian Affairs for the state of Utah. The results of the assimilation practices in all boarding schools were long lasting. These anecdotal stories tell the greater story of losing the culture they once knew. They talked about not having enough to eat, military drills, and marching in uniform. Some would try to run away, only to be caught and brought back. Students talked about their loneliness, about being away from their families. A teacher at the time felt that it was “the policy of the Indian Office to buy the very cheapest” shoes. Some students appreciated the running water and having new shoes. But there are also accounts of positive aspects. Children from different tribes could only communicate to each other through English, reinforcing the elimination of native languages. In Sally Hyer’s book, One House, One Voice, One Heart: Native American Education at the Santa Fe Indian School, many turn-of-the-century students at the Santa Fe school recount being frightened overwhelmed by their experiences. The Dawes Act was one of many official processes put into place to “kill the Indian, save the Man.” By 1900 Indians had lost 60 million acres of reservation land. Reservation land was distributed to individual families from the communal tribe or nation in an attempt to force Indians to farm, and to model the western family land ideal. The policy of assimilation reached a low point with The Dawes Act of 1887. “If we can assimilate these Native Americans into the dominant culture then they have no need for reservations, they’re going to migrate into urban areas and there will be no need to maintain tribal lands, because they would have lost their culture, the language, all ties to what they held so sacred…and that was the land.” “Early assimilation policies were to steal Native American land,” says Christy Abeyta, Superintendent at the Santa Fe Indian School. “And it was the last option to go for the children.” “I think that was a time when the government really felt like they could deal with the so-called ‘Indian problem,’" says Amanda Blackhorse, a Navajo who is a social worker from Arizona. The famous quote “Kill the Indian, save the Man,” is attributed to Pratt. history when the policy toward Native Americans was usually one of forced removal and even extermination, the idea of assimilation, was considered progressive. In essence, they were being groomed to resemble their white captors in an effort to “civilize” them. Upon arrival, the captives were forced to cut their hair, dress in military uniforms, and learn English. Together they captured 72 men from the Caddo, Cheyenne, Comanche, and Kiowa Nations, and transported them to Fort Marion, Florida. The boarding school concept can be traced to Civil War Army Lieutenant Richard Henry Pratt, who led a unit of Buffalo Soldiers near Oklahoma. The school also shows a potential path forward from a troubled past. One school in particular, the Santa Fe Indian School, today serves as a microcosm of American Indian education and the history of tribal culture since before the Civil War. Somewhere along that spectrum is the story of American Indian Boarding Schools.
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