History

• The concept of Native American boarding school came from research by Richard Henry Pratt in 1879. Starting the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, Pratt used the concept of immersion to reeducate Native American children from 140 tribes.
  
  

Features

• In addition to an educational program during the school year, many Native American children were assigned to local farms and towns within communities. This continued the process of Euro-Americanization and also provided low-cost labor.
  
  

Geography

• Close to 500 schools extended all the way to California, within 30 years of the opening of Carlisle. The Bureau of Indian Affairs ran 25 off-reservation boarding schools while churches ran 460 government-funded boarding and day schools on reservations.
  
  

Significance

• Much of the educational process for Native Americans was conducted by missionaries. This caused a strong emphasis on the teaching of Christianity, effectively removing much of the traditional religion knowledge from generations of Native Americans.
  
  

Considerations

• While most boarding schools were closed or reformatted in the mid-20th century, the process of Euro-Americanization continued. Essentially, generations of Native Americans lost much of their culture and were forced to adapt to the overall society of the period.