During World War II, over 500 different tribal languages were used across the United States and Canada. "Today...only 183 tribal languages are being spoken" (Headlee, Celeste). In the next forty years, that number is expected to drop to 20; this is because the other 163 languages are all spoken by elders and seniors. 

From the 1870s to the 1970s, the United States federal government established over 350 Native American boarding schools that were all tools "used to assimilate” (Truer, Anton). Though people have been - and still are - making an immense effort to shut these schools down, the impact they have left on the Native American communities will remain forever. 

Casting the First Stone: Carlisle Indian Industrial School

It wasn’t easy to be a Native American child at that time. Government officers would force children to leave their parents and “they'd get a makeover on day one” (Headlee, Celeste) at their new school. People would burn the Native American children's traditional clothing and cut off all their long braids.

The first and most infamous of these gruesome schools was the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. The Carlisle Indian Industrial school was created by Richard Henry Pratt in 1879; when establishing this school, he famously stated, “Our goal is to kill the Indian in order to save the man,” (dickinson.edu). Not only did Carlisle spark hundreds of other Native American boarding schools to form, but it also affected Native American families back at the reservations very deeply. "From the generational impact of trauma to the loss of cultural identity, many Natives today still feel the pain of Carlisle," (carlisleindianschoolproject.com). The Carlisle Indian Industrial School closed in 1918, but its legacy, and that of the many boarding schools modeled after it, continues to traumatize Native American families today. Out of all 350 or so boarding schools, Carlisle was one of the most notorious Native American boarding schools, along with the harshest of them all: The Thomas Indian School. 

Severe and Bleak: The Thomas Indian School

The Thomas Indian School, also known as the Thomas Asylum of Orphan and Destitute Indian Children, was established in 1855 by missionary Asher Wright in Erie County, New York. "It was a place of discipline, not love," Reginald Crouse, a Seneca Native American, said; "They tore us away from our own culture. If you spoke the Seneca language there, you got punished". 

The Thomas Indian School mainly targeted the Seneca tribe. These Iroquoian-speaking people were stripped of all their traditions and language. "The school was a place of painful learning experiences that left a bitter mark on the 7,000-member Seneca Nation" (Herbeck, Dan). Before it closed in 1956, The Thomas Indian School was up and running for more than one hundred years. However, other boarding schools still remain to this day.

Memories of the Past: “Vestigial Remnants”

According to the DOI (Department of the Interior), the BIE (Bureau of Indian Education), and the United States government are currently still funding four Native American boarding schools. Even though “they're not beating people for the speaking of their tribal languages anymore, they've kind of survived as a vestigial remnant of this experience” (Headlee, Celeste).

For instance, in Ramona Charette-Klein’s case, she still “recalls a constant feeling of loneliness,” (Jones, Rueben) even after more than 70 years. Charette-Klein grew up in North Dakota, but was taken away to a boarding school when she was seven. “I was among strangers, I was scared. I remember hearing other kids cry at night,” she said. She described how she was always hungry, and how the people at her school beat her up. “There’s a difference between being alone and being lonely. That was lonely,” Charette-Klein reflected.

A Fresh Start

As a whole, these boarding schools have torn apart families and killed over 4,000 children (rsc-src.ca) - and counting, as government officials continue to search for both marked and unmarked graves -, but in a way, they have also brought more awareness to this topic. Everyone used to think they were helping the Native Americans by forcing them to learn English and forget their tribal language. Now, we realize that was not the case. 

In the last 20 years, the United States government has undergone significant changes and improvements. For example, one improvement was that Native American upstanders all across the U.S. have started to establish tribal immersion schools. But “simply teaching an indigenous language for one class period per day cannot accomplish fluency, nor can dictionaries and audio recordings. Only immersion can effectively create fluent speakers; only fluent speakers can revive an endangered language,” (culturalsurvival.org). Waadookodaading, an Ojibwe immersion school, was founded by a group of elders, language activists, and community members. All these people had one philosophy: “Language alone does not convey or connect people to culture. It is a medium through which culture can be learned” (Ammann, Brooke). Their goal is to start schools across the country, to show everyone that their Native American heritage, culture, and tribal languages are not - and will never be - lost.

Do, Not Observe

On the other hand, Richard Henry Pratt, Asher Wright, and many other founders created these boarding schools just to “eliminate traditional [Native American] ways of life and replace them with mainstream American culture” (americanindian.si.edu). Carlisle and the Thomas Indian School weren’t ordinary boarding schools; they were tragedies. They were tragedies that will never go away. But we, even as ordinary citizens, can do things to bring awareness to these important topics. 

Personally, I am not Native American, so I cannot speak on behalf of the entire population; however, I can try to make a difference. Brooke Ammann says, “In the Ojibwe worldview, there are two ways to learn, by observing and by doing”.  I believe that in order to stand up against all the things this country has done to Native American children, we must do, and act. If all we do is watch and observe, we will go nowhere. Nowhere.