This class covers some pretty heavy topics, however, I found the topic we are currently covering to be exceptionally impact my feelings toward Native Americans. Before taking this class I had no clue about the formation and forced attendance of the boarding schools that native american children were forced to go to far away from their families.
I found the article about Chanie most emotional because as an older sister, I think about my brothers in this situation. Many of my brothers are young and just starting to enter the school system. I cannot image them going through any kind of similar boarding school like these native children went through. I felt that Chanie’s story was horrible, and sad, but it also told the story of so many other native children that attempted to run away and did not survive. Jen McClung even mentioned that many of these boarding schools had cemeteries attached to them. This is a pair that should never be put together.
I had a hard time adjusting to college life being away from my entire family, all of my friends, in a strange place, not knowing anyone. I cannot even imagine facing all of this on top of everything else the native children endured and struggled with during their time at these boarding schools.
blengel July 13, 2018
Amanda,
I too think the boarding schools were a terrible thing. The way the government saw it as a good thing just made it worse. They thought it was good to make the Natives into white men, but in reality it just caused more problems for everyone. They still were discriminated against because they still didn’t look white. Then they would go back to reservations, but no one would accept them because they seemed to white. I also can’t imagine having a cemetery by my school. That’s so terrible. That would be so scary to be walking around school and seeing the graves of your classmates. Boarding schools were just another form of genocide and should have never been a thing.