1800's	Native American Boarding Schools

Throughout the 1800’s Native Americans were increasingly confined to Reservations. Due to white settler’s interest in the land the reservations were on they were often relocated and downsized. Reservations changed the lifestyle that Native Americans were used to and they were often unable to hunt which served as a source of food, clothing, and housing. Many of the activities Native American women participated in such as tanning and quilling disappeared. The things Native American women were typically taught by their elders were no longer useful in their new living arrangements. Native Americans grew more and more reliant on government assistance as their way of life was increasingly altered. 

The U.S. government began creating boarding schools for Native Americans. Children, and sometimes adults left their communities to attend these boarding schools. The schools were used as a way to “assimilate” Native Americans to the European American lifestyle and to “civilize” them.

At the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, which was located in Virginia, Native American female students learned crafts such as sewing, making clothes, crocheting and knitting as well as household duties such as washing and cooking. The girls were also required to participate in a work-study program in which they went to live with European American families during the summer. They served as domestic servants for the families. The skills the girls learned at boarding schools left them with few options when they returned home and many became servants in European American homes. Some women, however, used their education and knowledge of the European American culture to resist efforts to destroy Native American culture (8).

Above is a photograph of Apache children when they arrived at the Carlisle Indian School and a photograph of them four months after their arrival. Click on the images for a larger view.

 

 

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