Education and Native American Assimilation

PAPER 1 – EDUCATION AND NATIVE AMERICAN ASSIMILATION Education programs were instituted in the late 19th century to remove Indian children from the influence of tribal traditions and offer them a proper American ed- ucation. To make Indian children patriotic and productive citizens, government-run boarding schools, reservation boarding schools, and day schools were introduced. These schools strictly adhered to the speaking of only the English language. They were conducted with military-like schedules and discipline, and emphasized farming and other manual skills. The daily schedule was split between academics and vocational (job) training. By 1893, such education for Indian children was mandatory. RESEARCH QUESTION: Using the primary source documents and photographs provided, investigate the causes and effects of forced assimilation on the Native American people in the late 1800s and early 1900s; and how did the reality compare with popular American views of Native Americans? Writing process: Using the sources in the document packet, you should answer the following questions in the paper:

1. The first part of your paper should answer the following questions: a. What was the purpose of assimilating the Native American people? b. What were the perspectives of the US government officials, and the

American public?

2. The second part of the paper should address the following questions: a. What was the reaction of the Native American peoples? b. What were the effects of forced assimilation on Native American

culture, and society? c. How did Native Americans resist these assimilation attempts?

3. Finally, in the third part of the paper, answer the following question:

a. By looking at the photographs and documents, how do the views presented by the government officials and students’ themselves compare to the popular vision of Indians as presented in postcards, and advertisements of Part 3 of the document packet? This is your opinion; I am looking at how you interpret the documents and photos.

GUIDELINES: DUE SEPTEMBER 19, 11:30pm

• Length: 1000 - 1200 WORDS • Font: 12 point, Times New Roman. Default, 1-inch margins. • Submit to the Dropbox on D2L only. Do not give me a paper copy or email a

copy to me. • Please ensure that your name is on the paper. • Make up a title for the paper – you can be creative.

• There should not be any spaces between the paragraphs – indent the first word of the paragraph to indicate a new paragraph.

• Do not use any other sources for this paper – use only the documents provided on D2L.

o Use at least two documents from the primary source reading packet per topic (see outline below)

o When using the documents, do not quote the entire document, only one sentence. Use your own words to explain what the specific documents might mean when you use them as evidence.

• Write an outline to organize your ideas and lay out valid reasoning to support your claims.

Paper Outline: Use the “writing process” questions as topics for the paragraphs.

• • Introduction

o Thesis: What your paper is going to be about.

• Body Paragraphs (does not have to be 5 paragraphs!) Part 1

o Paragraph 1 § Topic sentence + evidence to support your topic

• (What documents/photos can be used here?). o Paragraph 2

§ Topic sentence + evidence to support your topic. • (What documents/photos can be used here?).

Part 2 o Paragraph 1

§ Topic sentence + evidence to support your topic. • (What documents/photos can be used here?).

o Paragraph 2 § Topic sentence + evidence to support your topic.

• (What documents/photos can be used here?). o Paragraph 3

§ Topic sentence + evidence to support your topic. • (What documents/photos can be used here?).

Part 3 o Paragraph 1

§ Topic sentence + evidence to support your topic. • (What documents/photos can be used here?)

• Conclusion o Briefly, summarize your findings from Parts 1, 2 and 3.

• Bibliography (Placed below the main essay)

o Even though I have given you the information, always add a bibliography if you are citing sources.

• Swart, Lisa (ed). Education and Native American Assimilation: Primary Sources. MTSU: Murfreesboro, 2018.