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| Indian School in Carlisle, PA |
Considering what you have just learned about Indian Schools, read the following excerpts from School Days of an Indian Girl by Zitkala-Sa, and respond to the question below.
Reading:
Section I and II
Response:
Post your response in the comment section below - between 5 and 10 sentences.
Consider the injustices Zitkala-Sa and the other children suffered. In a short response, share some opinions on what you have just read. Provide analysis and reflection. Make personal connections.
Potential points of discussion to consider: What stood out to you? How would you have felt in this situation? What should the missionaries have done differently? Do you feel badly for these children? What do you think of Zitkala-Sa? Discuss her personality. Were the Indian Schools a good idea? What made them unsuccessful? Etc.
Your response should have a clear opening and closing sentence.
Note: This is an academic assignment. To earn full credit, follow all directions. Your response should use proper grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. No text or chat abbreviations, please.
18 comments:
The injustices of Indian school children could have been easily prevented if the missionaries had taken better precaution and got to understand the culture of Native Americans. There was not a mutual foundation set between the two societies which makes the missionaries vulnerable to make mistakes and the Indian children to be misguided of what the missionaries purpose was intended.
While i was reading the excerpts from the story i thought it was cruel that the Americans kicked the native Americans out of their homes. I learned that many Native Americans died on this journey to relocate to places like Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico. This Journey was called the trail of tears. In the story when she talks about how they have to travel the country without theirs parents, i believe that would be a hard adjustment for some people. I think Indian schools were a bad idea because even if an Native American would graduate college they couldn't get a job cause of their nationality and they were rejected by their own clans. Also the missionaries made them cut their hair which is a important part to their culture because hair was believed to be an extension of the soul.
It stood out that she stood up for herself. If I was in this situation I would have been pretty upset. The missionaries could have planned everything a little better. Yes, I do feel badly for these children, because they couldn't even understand the missionaries for the most part. I think the Zitkala-Sa is a very out-going, strong person. The Indian Schools were a good idea, but the language barrier and the fact the no one would accept the Indian children it to society made them unsuccessful.
If I was one of these children I wouldn't be able to live. I feel bad for these kids being taken form there family and put in one big school with a ton of different languages and no translator. I don't think the schools were a good idea because when one of the children came back to there family there family's look at them different. They didn't even let you have a chose of how you wanted your hair you had no chose they would just tie you down and cut it off.
While reading these passages some of the things that were happening stood out to me. The one thing that stood out to me was when I was reading the passage "The Cutting of my Long Hair" when I had got to the end of the book the Indian girl was having her hair get cut. The reason why this stood out was that Indians had thought of their hair as of a spirit symbol or an identity of themselves. And now this girls hair is being cut and she feels that her spirit is now gone. This is what had stood out the most when I was reading these passages.
As I read this story I felt bad for the Indian children. I felt bad for the children in many ways one way was that they were being taken away from their homes. They were leaving their family and friends to go to some school where they didn’t know anything about or anyone there. Also I felt bad because the girl in the story didn’t know how anything worked at the school like when the bells rang she didn’t know what was going on and the people who worked at the school couldn’t tell them what to do because they spoke English and the girls didn’t. Finally I feel bad for the children because they cut their hair. Having long hair shows that they are strong and powerful and the people at the school cut their hair short so the children feel week and powerless because they don’t have their long hair.
I feel that the white people shouldn't of pulled the Indian children out of there villages to take them to school. One reason could be how they would get home sick as Zitkala- Sa was. Another reason it was a bad idea is that not everybody spoke the same language and it was hard for Zitkala-Sa to know what to do. Cutting the children's hair was also a bad idea because it is sacred to the Indians, and it tolled their identity. So overall the Indian Schools was a bad and unsuccessful idea.
What stood out to me was when they were trying to cut the girl's hair but she didn't want it to be cut because she thought that if her hair was cut, then she would be considered a coward. I would have felt bad in this situation because of the torture and suffering that they were going through in that school. The missionaries should not have treated the children so terribly because if they treated the children nicer, then the children wouldn't be so afraid of them. I do feel bad for these children because they were not treated fairly in the school. Another reason would be that they would get beaten for not doing the right thing which was not a good way to treat some one. It wasn't their fault that they could not understand English. I think that Zitkala-Sa was a nice person and that she should not have gone to that school. The Indian Schools were not a good idea because the missionaries in there do not treat the children nicely. What made the schools unsuccessful was the fact that the children didn't really learn much from the school. Amanda Stump
The important part that I think that stood out the most was when they just put Zitkala-San a room and the only way she felt safe is next to the wall. She was thinking of a way to escape from all the confusion. The missionaries could have made them feel more comfortable while being there. Yes, I do feel very badly because if these children feel safe next to a wall and not with any person than there must be a reason why the children are saying that these people are very strict or the children are just not use to the surroundings. The Indian schools I think could be better but are better than where they could be with their parents. I think the Indian schools were very unsuccessful because there is a large quantity of children and all the children talk different languages and they could have put all the languages in their own group.
Americans should not have just taken the Native Americans from their homes and sent them to boarding schools. If I were in their shoes at the time, I would probably not have wanted to go because your being put in a place where there are several hundred different languages and not everybody spoke the same one. There are also many different cultures at the time so they would of had to adapt to that. Missionaries should have been way more organized before they just took all the kids and put them in one place. I feel pretty bad for the kids at the time because when they go back to their tribes they were often rejected. Zitkala- Sa was often embarrassed through the story. I think that overall the Indian schools were not the best idea at the time because of all the differences that the kids had. Some things that made the schools unsuccessful could have been the way that the missionaries tried to teach the kids.
Reading this story made me think of how good we have it now. The fact that the kids were being taken away from their families and having to go to a school that as many different languages has to be hard. I felt bad for the natives because even if they would be graduate school they still couldn't get a good job. I think that the schools should have provided translators for the natives so they could understand what was going on in the school.
In the Excerpts from School Days of an Indian Girl, the Indians that were there were getting pushed away from the old culture. One of the things that stood out for me was that the white Americans made the Indians dress differently. In this situation I would have tried to run or fight back against the white Americans but I would not want to get taken from my family and my culture that I grew up with. Another situation that stood out was they made the Indians cut their hair – witch for Indians it makes them think they have been defeated – but they tried to fight back against it and they lost because they white settlers were stronger. If the missionaries wanted to children to feel differently and not be upset they should have been able to bring one parent to make the kids feel at home also another thing they could have done differently they could have made sure they had job they went for instead the kids didn’t get jobs because of their race. I feel bad for the kids because they got ripped away from their parents and got moved to the other side of the country. Another reason I feel bad is that a lot of the children killed themselves because they would be beaten because they couldn’t understand what the white Americans said to them. The Indian school would have been a good idea only if they would have had interpreters and someone there they cared for the kids and if they would have not gotten made fun of because of their race.
In the story I think it was wrong for the missionaries to beat the kids when they did something bad because the Indians don't know english. Also the children were taught if an enemy cuts your hair off that you were a coward. The missionaries cut the girls hair short, but they don't know how much they are hurting them for they were taught different than the english culture. She did learn how to speak english, but she felt left out when her brother went to a party without her. Her mother was upset that her daughter wasn't herself.
While reading sections one and two of Zitkala-Sa. The School Days of an Indian Girl, I found some intersecting and personal points in the story. When she said that cutting her hair represents being a mourner or a coward, it stood out to me that having long hair represents an important symbol that the Indian girls try to make. If I was in her position of having to cut her hair, I would react the same way she did. I feel that the missionaries should at least give the passengers on the train some food instead of some little pieces of candy and gum. I do feel bad for the children that how to put up with this. I wouldn’t be able to live with the bad conditions that they are given like getting their hair cut/shingled. I think that Zitkala isn’t use to change, but tries to stand up for what she thinks is right like having her cut no matter that it didn’t work anyways. Reading only two section of Zitkala’s story is only just the beginning of going to school.
I feel like what the missionaries did was wrong because they're taking kids from their homes.
If I was taken from my home and didn't know what i was being taken for i would be angry. Maybe if the missionaries went about this in a different way the kids wouldn't be so scared. If the missionaries would have learned about the Native American culture they would of learned why the hair shouldn't be cut the kids wouldn't react how they did when they went to cut their hair.
My opinion on the Land of Red Apples and the Cutting of My Long Hair is a lot of things could have been changed. First the part of this story that stood out to me was that they had no Indians working at that school mostly all white people that the children couldn’t understand. Second thing is the missionaries could have done things differently like for example build schools near local tribes for the Indian kids to go to school near home with Indian teachers and they could keep their culture. That’s another thing that could have changed for the Indian kids is they should have let them keep their Hair/Culture and the reason I said culture is that in their culture getting hair cut off was a shameful thing and the missioners should have known that and let them keep there long hair anyways. In this situation I would have run away the school these kids went to seemed more like a military boot camp and not a school at all. This is my opinion of what I thought on the two storys.
Derrek Manbeck:My opinion on the Land of Red Apples and the Cutting of My Long Hair is a lot of things could have been changed. First the part of this story that stood out to me was that they had no Indians working at that school mostly all white people that the children couldn’t understand. Second thing is the missionaries could have done things differently like for example build schools near local tribes for the Indian kids to go to school near home with Indian teachers and they could keep their culture. That’s another thing that could have changed for the Indian kids is they should have let them keep their Hair/Culture and the reason I said culture is that in their culture getting hair cut off was a shameful thing and the missioners should have known that and let them keep there long hair anyways. In this situation I would have run away the school these kids went to seemed more like a military boot camp and not a school at all. This is my opinion of what I thought on the two storys.
From what I have read in these sections, It seemed like Zitkala-Sa was at first very excited to be there. But the way the school treated her and the other children made them absolutely terrified. Not to mention, she was not used to the constant noise which could have been even more stressful on her. If I was there, I would try to find a way out. This could have been avoided in a number of ways, the biggest one being the fact of having interpreters for all of the different tribes they had. Just knowing the culture of these children could have helped a ton, as well. Just because of them cutting Zitkala-Sa's hair, Zitkala-Sa thought they were a type of enemy. It's safe to say most of her time there was very uncomfortable and degrading.
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