I thought this was a great peice of literature that gave me a look into a part of American history that I never knew before. The boarding schools brought about a lot of different things. It brought hardships, breakup of families, violence, education, skills of the white world, inter-tribial marriages, bilingual teaching materials, the preservation of native cultures (including religion), and the end of military trappings. I believe that this is an important part of American history. Do you think that th history ofIndian Bording Schools should be talked about in public schools?

In a word, yes. I do think that more should be taught in schools about North American Indians. I would love to see a real unit on the different cultures and the history. But to do this, then the educational system would also have to discuss things like American concentration camps and mass sterilization of minorities and the poor. This would cause students to have a poor opinion of our government and it’s policies and the goal of education is to create citizens. And to be completely honest, citizens on a whole do not think for themselves, and they do not challenge the government.

I also think the history of Indian boarding schools should be talked about in public schools. However, it shouldn't be one-sided. By this I mean teachers shouldn't just teach about how Native American were victimized (how children were forced away from their families to attend boarding schools)- they should also teach about how Native Americans fought to maintain their cultural identity.

It is also important for students to question why this happened. Does it all come back to how white people view white culture as the norm? -that, in order to help African Americans, or Native Americans it is necessary for "them" to act like "us". Is assimilation a good or bad thing?

Assimilation has an extremely negative connotation in my opinion. When I hear the word assimilation, I think of a one-sided imposition of a dominant culture upon a non-dominant culture. Cultural appreciation precludes assimilation, so in order to appreciate a culture one must be willing to appreciate the culture as is and as a future reality. In this way the cultural appreciation and education should be a two-way realtionship in which the dominant and non-dominant cultures should learn and appreciate each other while also protecting each others future.

I definitely think this should be taught in schools. I know I have never learned of Indian Boarding Schools, at least as i remember. This article was an eye opener. I knew that white's use to treat Native Americans as slaves and had them work for low wages but wasn't exactly aware of the boarding schools just for them. It is not surprising to me that Americans did this. It is also not surprising in how each child could have had a total different experience living at their "extended family" homes, because so many people looked at them with different thoughts of possible love or possible hatred.