Indians

Indians

Native American Boarding Schools During the Westward Expansion

People know about the conflict between the Indian's cultures and the settler's cultures during the westward expansion. Many people know the fierce battles and melees between the Indians and the settlers that were born from this cultural conflict. In spite of this, many people may not know about the systematic and deliberate means employed by the U.S. government to permanently rid their new land of the Indians who had lived their own lives peacefully for many years. There are many strong and chilling reasons and causes as to why the settlers started all of this perplexity in the first place. There was also a very strong and threatening impact on the Native Americans through the schooling that stained the past and futures of Native Americans not only with blood but also with emotion. It was all a slow and painful plan of the "white man" to hopefully get rid of the Indian culture, forever. The Native American schools were created in an attempt to destroy the Native American way of life, their culture, beliefs and traditions.

For a long period of time, no one is really sure how long, millions of people lived on a piece of land which they knew it by the name of "Turtle Island," which later came to be known as North America. These native peoples, first mislabeled as Indians by an explorer named Christopher Columbus, divided themselves into many different tribes, each with its own government, language, traditions and religions. Europeans, who slowly poured into the Indian's land, did not respect the Indians beliefs, interrupted their peaceful life and would do almost anything to get the land to them selves. The settlers also believed the land that both the Indians and the settlers lived on was theirs to themselves. They began to push the Native Americans off of their own land. Many of them fought back to keep their homes, some succeeded, some didn't.

By the 1800's most of the Native Americans...

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