Native American Education

Since Europeans began colonizing what is now known as North and South America, there have been deep disagreements between colonists and their descendants and Native Americans about how and what Native American children should learn. In many pre-Columbian societies, education focused on survival skills, cultural maintenance, and technological adaptation. To a great degree, this style of education persisted among Native American societies until they came in close contact with European and American colonists. Though “schools” as institutions were rare before 1492, hieroglyphic writing among the Maya likely required intensive, formalized study. In the 16th century, Spanish Catholic priests trained Indian “notaries” to keep public records in indigenous languages across Mexico and Central America.

Before the American Revolution, Protestant missionaries founded schools for Native American children. In Massachusetts, John Eliot established several schools for “praying Indians.” Along with Algonquin translators Nesuton and others, Eliot published a Massachusetts translation of the Old and New Testament, the first book printed in the colonies. Dartmouth and Harvard Colleges were both founded in part to Christianize Indian students. In areas subject to Spanish and French control, few schools were opened.

In 1819, the U.S. government authorized $10,000 per year for education under the Indian Civilization Act. The money was distributed to missionary groups to establish schools in order to introduce the “habits and arts of civilization.” Teachers were also expected to promote government policy, including westward removal of native tribes. Many schools used Native language as a medium, and literacy in some Indian languages grew among tribes not subject to removal. Nearly half of the 147 Indian schools in existence in 1861 were administered by the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, and Chickasaw Nations in present-day Oklahoma, and funded by government annuity payments. The Cherokee national school system taught students in English and Cherokee, the latter using a syllabary created by Sequoyah in the 1820s.

Indian education policy changed abruptly after the Civil War. Though President Ulysses S. Grant's “peace policy” maintained the paternalistic outlook of earlier approaches, missionary control of Indian schools was formalized under the Board of Indian Commissioners. Aiming to eliminate corruption in the Indian Service, government leaders concentrated on efficient use of funds in Indian schools, which often led to underfunding. English-only policies were implemented, and Indian school curricula began focusing on industrial and vocational education. Seeking to “Americanize” Indian children, the government supported off-reservation boarding schools. Carlisle in Pennsylvania and Hampton in Virginia were among the best known of these schools. In these schools, reformers sometimes disagreed about the capacity of Indian students to become “civilized,” but nearly all agreed on the necessity to “Americanize” the Indian students.

Resistance to boarding schools was often strong in Indian communities. The mortality rate at boarding schools was high, and Indian children were often removed from their homes and taken to school by force. When students did return home, they were often ignorant of tribal customs and languages and had to relearn practices or face ostracism. For those who remained in White communities, racism and discrimination reminded “civilized” Indians that they remained apart from both worlds. Within schools, students were often hungry, housed in dilapidated facilities, subjected to humiliation and punishment if they spoke their own language, and taught by underprepared teachers who relied on a regimented curriculum.

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