Native American's Education Trauma

One of the most serious wounds to Native American success has been committed by the American Education system. Native languages and cultures are being lost, partially due to federal and state education policies over the last two centuries that called for an “Americanization” of Native students.

The government called it a solution to the “Indian Problem,” but to the Indians who went to the boarding schools, it was a time of abuse and disintegration of culture. Floyd Red Crow Westerman, a performer and Indian activist, was haunted by his days at the Wahpeton Indian Boarding School. Westerman spent his entire childhood in a boarding school away from his tribe and family. He sang about his experiences growing up: “You put me in your boarding school, made me learn your white man rule, be a fool.”

The federal government began sending American Indians off the reservation to boarding schools in the 1870s, when the US was still at war with Indians. An Army officer, Richard Pratt founded the first of these schools. He based it on an education program he developed in an Indian Prison. He described his philosophy in an 1892 speech: “A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.”

The schools forbade its students from expressing their culture. Everything from wearing long hair to speaking a single Indian word was prohibited. Bill Wright, a Pattwin Indian, said he lost not only his language, but also his American Indian name. He powerfully stated, “I remember coming home and my grandma asked me to talk Indian to her and I said, ‘Grandma, I don’t understand you,’ ‘Then who are you?’ She said. The intent of the schools was to completely transform people, inside and out. Language, religion, family structure, economics, livelihood, the way they expressed emotion, everything was completely changed. In the 1960s, a congressional report found that many teachers still saw their roles as civilizing American Indian students, not educating them.

In 1928 it was found that Native American students were on average 6 grades behind their white peers. Today Native American students are still struggling to attain a decent education. 64% of Native Americans polled to feel discomfort being in the presence of white people because of past and present injustices. More then a half of Indian students enrolled in public schools drop out of school before graduation. The most frequent reason Navajo dropouts gave for leaving school was that they were board. January 1992 issue of the Journal of American Indian Education, Donna Deyhle quotes a Native student: “The way I see it seems like the whites don't want to get involved with the Indians. They think we're bad. We drink. Our families drink. Dirty. Ugly. And the teachers don't want to help us. They say, "Oh, no, there is another Indian asking a question" because they don't understand. So we stop asking questions.”

However, steps are being made to rectify the Native American education system in order to right the years of oppression. In December 2011 president Obama announced his Executive Order on Improving American Indian Educational Opportunities and Strengthening Tribal Colleges and Universities. The executive order focuses on lowering the dropout rate of Native students; furthering determination and ensuring that student have an opportunity to learn native histories and languages while reviving a complete and competitive education. The goal is to prepare Native students for productive careers once they graduate.

The Native American education history in the US is an extensive example of historical violence and its subsequent historical trauma. Native Americans were systematically denied of a proper education because of their race and culture. The effects of the boarding schools have been felt through the generations, with a loss of identity and loss of history. Furthermore, discrimination of Native Americans is still a significant issue and the feeling of persecution is still engraved in the native collective memory.

Molly Dietz