A BRIEF DISCUSSION OF COLONIZATION AND BOARDING SCHOOLS

I'm coming back to the idea of colonization, which is defined as the "cultural exploitation" that occurred with European/American expansion. European/American colonization drastically altered the societies it colonized, as it sought to 1) control 2) exploit 3) subjugate both Indigenous populations and their land and resources. 

We can also understand colonization through the attitudes and beliefs that colonizers had about Indigenous peoples. Many believed that because Indigenous people were different from European and Euro-American people, they were inherently inferior. This process is called "othering," "the Other" being anyone who basically wasn't white European/American/Westerner. The underlying mentality of "the Other" was that Indigenous people were "uncivilized" and thus were "savages" and needed to be "civilized." They could be "civilized" by giving up their identities as Indigenous people and assimilating into Western society. 

Not only did the government view Indigenous peoples as inferior, the U.S. government considered Indigenous communities as being “in the way” of its expansion and progress. As the U.S. moved West, the government’s primary goals were land acquisition and resolving “the Indian problem" and it attempted to accomplish these goals through violence, relocation, assimilation, and termination.

In it's push West, the government forced many Indian communities onto reservations and more often than not, these reservations were located on barren land, unsuitable for cultivation or hunting. The reservations were often located on land that the government did not want. Reservations still exist today throughout the U.S., with the Navajo Nation (Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah) being the largest.

The government also aimed to “civilize” Indigenous communities via assimilation into the dominant culture, especially through boarding schools. Richard Henry Pratt (1840-1924), founded of Carlisle Indian Industrial School at Carlisle, Penn., Because of his views, many view Pratt as an agent of cultural genocide. Many American Indian/Alaska Native children were sent to boarding schools, where they transformed the children by cutting their hair and dressing them in white attire, in an attempt “kill the Indian, save the man.” The images below show a "before and after" photo of a boarding school student.

Many boarding school children experienced physical, psychological and sexual abuse at the hands of authority figures. Children were punished for speaking their language and punishment ranging from having their hands whacked, having their mouths washed with soap, to being locked in closet. Former boarding school students often refused to teach their children their traditional language after being punished, resulting in loss of language in subsequent generations.

I had mentioned that my aana (grandmother) attended a boarding school at White Mountain. Students at White Mountain were punished for speaking Inupiaq and many didn't pass down Inupiaq to their children, which is why many of us do not speak Inupiaq. I will add that my aana has a 10th grade education and my taata had a 3rd grade education. It's interesting to note this because my aana did not teach Inupiaq to her daughters but my taata spoke Inupiaq to his sons, so much that my uncle, their youngest son, speaks Inupiaq very well! 

I will talk more about history of colonization and I also want to mention that I will be discussing the idea of "culture" and why I am so concerned with culture and how colonization affected Indigenous cultures. I know that some people might say to all of this, so what? So what if we were assimilated? So what if we lost our languages, traditions and customs? After all, assimilation is inevitable right? I will get to these in a bit!