Typical Day
This section serves as a general outline and comparison of the day-to-day life for students in off-reservation Native American boarding schools and inmates in state-run prisons. Make sure to click on the A Day in the Life hyperlink for an interactive timeline of a typical day in both a boarding school and a prison.
Introduction to Boarding Schools:
With strict military scheduling, minimal educational instruction, and rules limiting the expression or individuality of students, boarding schools were ‘schools’ in the “loosest sense of the word” [1].
Native American boarding schools were designed to ‘Kill the Indian, and Save the Man;’ stripping Native students of their traditions, cultures and identities, replacing ‘savage’ ways of life with civilized, White customs.
In 1879, the United State’s first government funded off-reservation boarding school opened in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. With Carlisle’s success in stripped Native students of their culture and ‘savage’ ways, the government would open and operate over 177 boarding school by 1900, educating almost 49,000 students within those twenty years [2][3].
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Click the link below to view a comparison of a 'Typical Day' at a Native American boarding school and prisons:
Sources:
[1] Ann Piccard, “Death by Boarding School: “The Last Acceptable Racism” and the United States’ Genocide of Native Americans.” Gonzaga Law Review 49, 1 (December 2013): 157.
[2] The United States, Office of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior. “Annual Reports of the Department of the Interior for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1899.” Government Printing Office (1899): 32.
[3] Annalee G. Good. “‘Unconscionable Violence:’ The Federal Role in American Indian Education, 1890-1915.” Studies in the Humanities 33, 2 (December 2006): 284.
[Image 1.] Annalee G. Good. “‘Unconscionable Violence:’ The Federal Role in American Indian Education, 1890-1915.” Studies in the Humanities 33, 2 (December 2006): 284.
[1] Ann Piccard, “Death by Boarding School: “The Last Acceptable Racism” and the United States’ Genocide of Native Americans.” Gonzaga Law Review 49, 1 (December 2013): 157.
[2] The United States, Office of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior. “Annual Reports of the Department of the Interior for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1899.” Government Printing Office (1899): 32.
[3] Annalee G. Good. “‘Unconscionable Violence:’ The Federal Role in American Indian Education, 1890-1915.” Studies in the Humanities 33, 2 (December 2006): 284.
[Image 1.] Annalee G. Good. “‘Unconscionable Violence:’ The Federal Role in American Indian Education, 1890-1915.” Studies in the Humanities 33, 2 (December 2006): 284.