Richard Pratt: “Kill The Indian . . . Save The Man”
By James Donahue
If there is any one thing that has scarred the Native American people the most it has been the invention of the off-reservation boarding schools for tribal children. While living among them from 1995-99, my wife and I heard about the horrors experienced by the Navajo, Apache and Hope families during this wicked invasion of their homes by government officials. They told how the children were literally grabbed from their homes and forced to move into school dormitories sometimes hundreds of miles away.
The reason for the boarding schools was clearly defined by Col. Richard H. Pratt when he founded the first of those hated facilities in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1879. In the founding speech he stated that “all the Indian there is in the race should be dead.”
Pratt went on to say: “A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one, and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.”
Pratt, who fought in the Civil War and then remained on to battle the Native American tribes in the plains wars, had the idea that by separating the children from their elders, the old tribal cultures could also be broken. His goal was to teach the children to reject tribal language, customs and belief systems and . . . in a sense, force them to adapt to the white society.
He experimented in educating Native American children when he began teaching classes in the English language, Christianity, art, guard duty and craftsmanship to a few dozen prisoners who had surrendered at the end of the Red River War at Fort Marion, Florida, in the 1870s.
The government’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) adopted Pratt’s ideas and began building boarding schools for tribal children.
During the time my wife and I lived among the Arizona tribes, the people were still telling horror stories about how their parents and grandparents attempted to hide their children from BIA officials who raided the tribal communities, forced their way into homes and seized the children. They said the children were taken off by bus to distant schools and were not allowed to return home for months, and then the home visits were brief.
Within no more than two generations the children of the tribes were speaking English; some of them unable to speak or understand the original tribal language or participate in tribal religious rituals. Instead of operating under the wisdom of tribal elders, the tribes established elected tribal boards that began making decisions for the rest of the people.
The tragedy in what happened was that as the young natives returned home but they were no longer part of the old tribe. They were Indians who were not accepted by the white men outside of the tribe, nor were they accepted by their peers. They were not allowed to hunt and fish and live on the land like their elders were, but hey were unable to find jobs. Thus they became wards of the government. Alcoholism became a big problem. The government has been providing housing and food for the natives ever since.
Many of the tribes have slowly integrated into the American culture, but they still retain their tribal pride. In fact, there has been a movement among many of the tribes to research and return to their roots. They are re-learning their old languages and letting the elders teach them the tribal customs so they are never forgotten.
Because the government gave the tribes parcels of their own land, there has developed a concept of small tribal governments existing inside the borders of the United States. The Navajo People, when we lived among them, were considering the creation of their own country since their tribal lands covered parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. It is the largest chunk of reservation land in the United States.
The impact of Pratt’s practice of “Americanization” of the Native Americans by forced cultural assimilation has had a profound effect upon all of the American tribes lasting to this day. While Pratt was not a physical killer of the Indian people, beyond his role as a military officer in the American/Indian conflict, he created a form of cultural genocide.
Pratt believed that before they could claim their place as “American citizens,” the aboriginal people needed to renounce their tribal way of life, convert to Christianity, abandon their reservations, seek a formal education and then find employment within the American society.
Things have not turned out the way Pratt envisioned them. And he forgot one important factor in this equation. The native people were here first. They were not Christians, but were not “savages” either. They first welcomed the white people who began moving into their territories. It was the savagery of the Europeans, and their muskets, who forced many of the natives to fight back. The white settlers eventually outnumbered and overpowered them.
And finally, their concept of the Creator should have been considered just as valid as all other forms of religion in the United States.
By James Donahue
If there is any one thing that has scarred the Native American people the most it has been the invention of the off-reservation boarding schools for tribal children. While living among them from 1995-99, my wife and I heard about the horrors experienced by the Navajo, Apache and Hope families during this wicked invasion of their homes by government officials. They told how the children were literally grabbed from their homes and forced to move into school dormitories sometimes hundreds of miles away.
The reason for the boarding schools was clearly defined by Col. Richard H. Pratt when he founded the first of those hated facilities in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1879. In the founding speech he stated that “all the Indian there is in the race should be dead.”
Pratt went on to say: “A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one, and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.”
Pratt, who fought in the Civil War and then remained on to battle the Native American tribes in the plains wars, had the idea that by separating the children from their elders, the old tribal cultures could also be broken. His goal was to teach the children to reject tribal language, customs and belief systems and . . . in a sense, force them to adapt to the white society.
He experimented in educating Native American children when he began teaching classes in the English language, Christianity, art, guard duty and craftsmanship to a few dozen prisoners who had surrendered at the end of the Red River War at Fort Marion, Florida, in the 1870s.
The government’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) adopted Pratt’s ideas and began building boarding schools for tribal children.
During the time my wife and I lived among the Arizona tribes, the people were still telling horror stories about how their parents and grandparents attempted to hide their children from BIA officials who raided the tribal communities, forced their way into homes and seized the children. They said the children were taken off by bus to distant schools and were not allowed to return home for months, and then the home visits were brief.
Within no more than two generations the children of the tribes were speaking English; some of them unable to speak or understand the original tribal language or participate in tribal religious rituals. Instead of operating under the wisdom of tribal elders, the tribes established elected tribal boards that began making decisions for the rest of the people.
The tragedy in what happened was that as the young natives returned home but they were no longer part of the old tribe. They were Indians who were not accepted by the white men outside of the tribe, nor were they accepted by their peers. They were not allowed to hunt and fish and live on the land like their elders were, but hey were unable to find jobs. Thus they became wards of the government. Alcoholism became a big problem. The government has been providing housing and food for the natives ever since.
Many of the tribes have slowly integrated into the American culture, but they still retain their tribal pride. In fact, there has been a movement among many of the tribes to research and return to their roots. They are re-learning their old languages and letting the elders teach them the tribal customs so they are never forgotten.
Because the government gave the tribes parcels of their own land, there has developed a concept of small tribal governments existing inside the borders of the United States. The Navajo People, when we lived among them, were considering the creation of their own country since their tribal lands covered parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. It is the largest chunk of reservation land in the United States.
The impact of Pratt’s practice of “Americanization” of the Native Americans by forced cultural assimilation has had a profound effect upon all of the American tribes lasting to this day. While Pratt was not a physical killer of the Indian people, beyond his role as a military officer in the American/Indian conflict, he created a form of cultural genocide.
Pratt believed that before they could claim their place as “American citizens,” the aboriginal people needed to renounce their tribal way of life, convert to Christianity, abandon their reservations, seek a formal education and then find employment within the American society.
Things have not turned out the way Pratt envisioned them. And he forgot one important factor in this equation. The native people were here first. They were not Christians, but were not “savages” either. They first welcomed the white people who began moving into their territories. It was the savagery of the Europeans, and their muskets, who forced many of the natives to fight back. The white settlers eventually outnumbered and overpowered them.
And finally, their concept of the Creator should have been considered just as valid as all other forms of religion in the United States.