ASA 2005
1
Nicdao, 1/29/05
Ethel G. Nicdao
University of New Mexico, Department of Sociology,
MSC05 3080, 1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
## email not listed ##
American Indian Boarding Schools and Their Effect on Assimilation and Biculturalism: A
Review of the Literature and An Empirical Test
To be an Indian in White America meant being carried off to a faraway place where the white
man cut off your hair, put you in a uniform, and told you that your ancestors were savages.
(Adams, 1995)
In the late 1800s, the United States federal government established off-reservation
boarding schools specifically for American Indians (hereinafter referred to as Indians). The
purpose of these boarding schools was to assimilate Indians into the White dominant culture. By
forcibly removing children from their families and communities, Indian children were also being
removed from their cultural influences and environment. Through education and assimilation
policies, government officials set out to accomplish the task of "civilizing" the Indians.
In this paper, I will review some of the literature on the boarding school experiences
during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Some of the questions that will be addressed include:
How and why did this assimilation process take place? What were the effects of the boarding
school experience on Indians? Were the government’s attempts of forced assimilation
successful?
History of Boarding Schools
Educating Indians was seen as a solution to the “Indian problem.” According to Fuchs
and Havighurst (1983), education for assimilation was considered more humane and less costly
than military control and extermination of Native Americans who stood in the way of
uncontrolled westward expansion. Through education and providing vocational training, Indians
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Convention