"Indian School"

Book Review # 102034

English > Analysis
Native-American Studies

"Indian School"

This paper examines the book "Indian School" by Michael Cooper.

1,391 words () | 0 sources | 2003 United States

Paper Summary:

The paper examines "Indian School" by Michael Cooper where he chronicles the history of the schools organized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The paper looks at how Cooper profiles some of its students and their hardships in the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. The paper discusses how the Native-Americans were forced to ignore their Indian culture and conform to the white man's ways. The author concludes that he will use this as an example of why it is important to incorporate all cultures in education.

From the Paper:

"In 1879, relations between the United States government and the Native Americans were very poor. The Native Americans were being forced into reservations by the expanding European-American population. Also just three years earlier, Lt. Colonel Custer and 250 soldiers were killed at the Little Bighorn River. When Captain Richard Henry Pratt came to the Rosebud Reservation asking for Sioux children, the Native Americans were very apprehensive. Captain Pratt spoke with forty warriors and chiefs and he convinced them that their ignorance of the white man's ways were actually hurting their civilization. He said the United States government would provide boarding and education for their children at no cost. After talking it over the Chiefs decided that it would be best if the children did get an education so that they would be better able to help their people negotiate with the white man. That winter hundreds of frightened Sioux children were taken by train from their homes near North Dakota to Pennsylvania, one thousand miles away."