A Lesson on Residential Schools (Correction)
Despite being original resident's of North American lands, Indigenous tribes have experienced (and continue to experience) the trauma's brought about by Colonialism. Having a new religion, unfamiliar people and their differing ways of thinking being imposed upon them, Native people have found themselves displaced within their own home. However Zitkala-Sa's American Indian Stories, although not blind to the harmful arrival of the Eurocentric presence, at moments seems to lightly assess the slight positives that came about from such changes, as opposed to the severe negatives that many texts, articles and spoken works have conveyed.
The author highlights how she in fact was curious about this school system and wanted to go. And throughout her exploration of this education system, although there were violences that did occur, I felt as though I noticed that these were not detailed which the author deeply explored.
The representation of the Residential School system indeed is a conversation which caught my attention because, based on all the information and stories that I have read and/or have come to learn from Indigenous people who have lived through the 60's Scoop, the school system was indeed a negative spaced that seemed to have the intention of erasing the Native culture while masquerading it as trying to help it. Although they advertised that their purpose or intention was to help and assist Indigenous communities by providing and equipping them with skills or tools to which THEY deemed would be beneficial to the people on their journey towards colonialism, history and personal indigenous testimonies have shown otherwise, These schools systems did more harm than good and behaved as a dangerous space for children or students were violated and assaulted in various different forms.
According to documents like the TRC, it presents a point of view which leans towards the opinion that these schools behaved as the setting for a cultural genocide to take place. This is because education system, like the ones represented in Zitkala-Sa's American Indian Stories were an essential part to eliminating Aboriginal people as a distinct group.
-LG
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