The History of America’s Indian Boarding Schools: Ep 12 of Crash Course Native American History

Key Concepts:

• Assimilation: Absorbing Native Americans into American culture.
• Boarding Schools: Federally run schools designed to erase Native identity.
• Allotment: Dividing reservation land into individual parcels.
• Dawes Act (General Allotment Act): Legislation enabling allotment.
• Blood Quantum: Measuring tribal membership by fraction of tribal blood.
• Cultural Genocide: The systematic destruction of a culture.
• Tribal Rolls: Lists of every member of a tribe.

1. Introduction: Apology and Historical Context

• In 2024, President Joe Biden formally apologized for the U.S. federal policy of forcibly separating Native American children from their families and placing them in boarding schools for over 150 years.
• The apology received mixed reactions, with some Native people expressing relief at the acknowledgment, while others, like Rosalie Whirlwind Soldier, emphasized that "Sorry is not enough" due to the destruction of a whole generation and their future.
• The video sets the stage in 1883, highlighting the dire situation for Native Americans after generations of broken treaties, wars, and forced removal.

2. The "Indian Problem" and Assimilation

• The U.S. government faced the "Indian problem," which was the existence of Native people and their control over land desired by settlers.
• Traditional methods of dealing with Native Americans (treaties, war, removal) had been exhausted.
• The new approach was assimilation: absorbing Native Americans into American culture.
• "Friends of the Indian" advocated for assimilation, believing it would solve the "Indian problem" by making Native people live and think like settlers.
• Richard Henry Pratt's philosophy: "Kill the Indian, save the man," epitomized the assimilationist mindset.

3. Boarding Schools: Erasing Native Identity

• Richard Henry Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in 1879, the first federally run, off-reservation boarding school for Natives.
• Native children were forcibly taken from their families and sent to schools far from home.
• They were forced to abandon their cultures: clothing, languages, religion, and names.
• Defiance was met with beatings, and many children suffered malnutrition, disease, and abuse.
• Luther Standing Bear, an Oglala Lakota who attended Carlisle, criticized the schools for promoting imitation rather than genuine exchange and development.
• Hundreds of Native children died at these schools.
• Some parents willingly enrolled their children, while others were forced, with some schools requiring complete custody relinquishment.
• Resistance occurred, such as the incarceration of nineteen Hopi men at Fort Alcatraz for refusing to send their children to boarding schools.
• Zitkala-Ša, a Yankton Sioux writer and teacher at Carlisle, criticized the superficiality of the education, questioning whether it led to "real life or long-lasting death."
• Pratt dismissed her writing and fired her for speaking out.

4. The Dawes Act and Allotment: Land Ownership as Assimilation

• Senator Henry Dawes believed land ownership was key to assimilation.
• In 1887, Dawes and Alice Cunningham Fletcher co-drafted the General Allotment Act (Dawes Act).
• The Dawes Act authorized the president to divide reservations into individual allotments of up to 160 acres.
• The goal was to split up tribes and open more land to settlers.
• U.S. citizenship was offered to those who accepted an allotment and relinquished tribal citizenship.
• The Omaha Nation experienced allotment before the Dawes Act.
• Principal Chief Ongpatonga (Big Elk) foresaw the collapse of the Omaha way of life due to allotment.
• The Yankton Sioux resisted allotment due to poor land quality but were forced to comply.
• Non-allotted land was declared "surplus to Indian needs" and sold to non-Native settlers.
• Native nations lost two-thirds of their land (from 138 million acres to significantly less) between the Dawes Act and the end of allotment in 1934.

5. Consequences of the Dawes Act: Tribal Rolls and Blood Quantum

• The Dawes Act led to the creation of tribal rolls, which listed every member of a tribe.
• Blood quantum was introduced as a way to measure tribal membership, based on perceived "Native" appearance.
• Mixed-race individuals were assigned lower blood quantum, granted immediate U.S. citizenship, and given full control over their allotments.
• Those with higher blood quantum were deemed "incompetent" and subjected to a 25-year waiting period before gaining full control.
• Many Native people were forced to sell their allotments due to property taxes.

6. Legacy of Allotment: Checkerboard Ownership and Fractured Land

• Allotment resulted in a checkerboard pattern of land ownership on reservations, with tribal, individual Native, and non-Native parcels intermixed.
• The Nez Perce Reservation, for example, has only 13% of its 785,000 acres owned by the tribe or tribal members.
• This fragmented ownership hinders large-scale activities like farming, ranching, and traditional practices.
• Land ownership became increasingly divided among descendants, leading to hundreds of owners for single allotments.

7. Lasting Impact of Boarding Schools: Cultural Genocide and Healing

• Dr. Denise Lajimodiere described boarding school policies as "cultural genocide."
• Her relatives, including her parents, experienced abuse in boarding schools, such as punishment for speaking their tribal language.
• Survivors emphasize that "language is medicine" and "culture is treatment."
• Efforts to revive traditional languages and cultures are underway in tribal nations.

8. Conclusion: Resistance and Reclamation

• Assimilation and allotment resulted in catastrophic losses of culture and land for Native nations.
• Despite resistance, these policies left lasting scars.
• Tribes are now actively working to reclaim their cultural identities, revive their languages, and heal from generations of trauma.
• The next episode will discuss the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, which aimed to restore power to tribes.