Indian residential schools were education centers and boarding schools that had as objective the elimination of Native cultures in the US. Established by the government, these schools would take children away from their tribes to educate them in Western culture. At that time, it was believed that the only way for American Indians to survive in the new American society was for them to be assimilated into mainstream American culture. There were several reasons that contributed to the success and longevity of the boarding schools:
- Progressive Era values and achieving "modernity": During the late 19th and early 20th century, it was assumed that the future was full of promises of progress, technological and scientific developments and better education. Native American people were seen as the remnants of a past that contradicted this utopia. As such, there was an intention to “modernize” them by assimilating them into American culture. Assimilation had so much support because it coincided with the social values of the time.
- Complicity of Native people: Many students who stayed at Native boarding schools did become assimilated, to the extent that they went back to them and tried to continue their work. They thought that Western education was the solution to the problems of Native Americans, in particular their limited involvement in American life.
- Loss of agency of Indian communities: As laws limited their cultural practices, and their communities were fragmented by boarding schools, Native American tribes were weakened. Their loss of power and agency meant they were unable to defend themselves against racist policies.
