Indian Boarding Schools: Keeping The Culture Alive

One of the most devastating threats to individual Native cultures was the establishment of government-run boarding schools. Whether these were small on-site reservation locations aimed at the younger tribal members or one of the many "Carlisle" Indian schools scattered throughout the country, the United States Congress and Bureau of Indian Affairs' program for education pursued a policy of total assimilation into mainstream society by disassociating the children from all things inherently Indian - in effect, erasing all connection with traditional cultural systems and values. This unfortunate saga of the American Indian boarding schools has been included in US primary and secondary curriculums only in recent decades, relegated to a few scant paragraphs. In truth, the story continues to be written. Many Indians are still trying to reconcile their lives as tribal members with their lives as part of 250 million other Americans, and many struggle with a disconnected tribal heritage, striving to recover what was taken from them.