Assimilation

Hey there, I glossed on over this yesterday...thought about it more...and think it may be time to revisit this...if you see any similarities to the present day, well, that's your prerogative...in the late 1800's...oh my, I did say that century...there were a lot of people, one may call them indigenous...that were no longer the owners of the land that they once inhabited...that's a nice way to say...a defeated nation...

The Native Americans...most of you, think the name 'Indians' is easier and the preferable one...started back when the 'founder' of the country, Christopher Columbus, thought he landed on the West Indies...thus, the people he saw, were the...well you know...the history moved on... and the growth of the Europeans did, too...one could say, they were all 'illegals'...I digress...

The Euros, who quickly took over the 'found' land...with their advanced technology...claimed it as theirs...established the USA...and there you go, a history lesson in 3 paragraphs...so, what was to happen to these 'Indians' that survived the onslaught?...ah ha, put them in the most barren parts of the country, call these spots 'reservations' and the new owners, leaders, er government, were happy...hmmm, well not totally...

There were too many of these 'Indians' left...so, to quell any of the remaining ones, to rebel...the government thought it best to 'educate them in the white man ways'...oooh, there you go, red and white...so, this was the mandate...separate the kids from the parents...send them to schools to do just that...the names that were used?...assimilation, retraining, and worse...

At one time, there were like 600 of these 'schools'...many were run by Evangelicals, as well as the government...but, it took one of the largest and certainly, the most notorious to raise the eyebrows of many...well, some liked it...this was Carlisle Indian School, in Pennsylvania...the Headmaster was Colonel Richard Pratt, for like 25 years...his motto was 'kill the Indian, save the man'...I can't make this stuff up...

Moving on...how this applies to moi...my dad was one of those who were 'boarded'...he was from Alaska...in the early 1900's...his place of destination was Chemawa, Oregon...which, by the way is still alive and kicking...thankfully, the practices of the 1860's are no longer in practice...immediately getting their hair cut, total disregard to their native language (English only), in truth, if caught speaking it, er using it...discipline...really, the goal was to make them...white...early on, turn them on to Christianity...teach them skills...of course, the plan...THE PLAN...was to get them to NOT return to the reservations...

All this done by separation of kids and their parents...by the powers to be...

Other...

For those who have never been at the other end of prejudice, call yourself lucky...

Dang, I got myself ticked off...let's just stop for the day...