Landis, Barbra.
"Carlisle Indian Industrial School History." Epix. Last modified
1996. Accessed
October 24, 2016. http://home.epix.net/~landis/histry.html.
From the moment Europeans stepped foot on North
American soil, the native peoples of this land have been treated without
respect, social standing and often have not even given basic human rights. However, this era in particular,
delivered the final blow to the North American Natives. Multiple acts of government
legislation as well as social and military action in the late 18th century
ended the sovereignty of the Native Americans and forced the Americanization of
Natives by taking their land and destroying their customs, religion and way of
life. Native Americans, the first occupants of this great land, deserve
so much more. The above source looks at the history of the Carlisle Indian
Boarding School and its impact on Native Americans. The school, which was opened in 1880, had one
purpose in mind, “Kill the Indian, Save the man”. That was the motto for the
United States domestic affairs with Native Americans for many years. The idea
behind what they were practicing was to take Native American babies and
children from their parents and homes and to raise them as “normal” American
children. The children were often beaten and starved to get any traces of their
religion, language, customs, and way of life out of their head. Essentially the
United States government committed cultural genocide.
Walker, Richard.
"From ‘Encouraged’ to ‘Mandatory’: Schools Must Teach Native History in
Washington Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/05/12/
Encouraged mandatory schools must teach
native history Washington 160325." Indian
Country. Last modified May 12, 2015. Accessed October 24,
2016
This second source is about senate bill 5433 which
makes it mandatory to teach Native American history and governance practices in
Washington State public schools. Perhaps
the greatest atrocity that the Native American peoples have faced is that the
history of these people and how they have been treated is not known. They are
dust in the wind. Not only have these people been disgraced, slaughtered, and
dehumanized, but now they are not even remembered. Hopefully this law will
change that. This brings up another question that my reaserch paper will address,
“How can we teach about Native American history while being, sensitive,
culturally aware, and somehow managing to teach the version of Native American
history that is not twisted by our society and those that wrote it”. This is
important because thousands of years of history have happened before white men
ever came to the Americas, in order to have a full understanding of our nation
and why we do what we do today, we need to understand those that came before
us.
