What Life Was Like For Native Americans In The Wild West Era

March 2024 · 1 minute read

"Kill the Indian in him, and save the man." That was the goal the American government worked toward by ordering Native children to attend boarding schools, per History. Land from the Dawes Act that wasn't given to Natives was sold to railroad companies, the proceeds going toward opening such schools. The Natives were commanded to send their children to these schools, where they were "Americanized" by being ordered to cut their beautiful hair off, dress in Anglo clothing, learn English, and forget their way of life — right down to changing their names. For thousands of children, life at a boarding school was inhumane, abusive, and just outright shocking.

Richard Henry Pratt, who founded the Carlisle School in Pennsylvania in 1880, boasted, "I am a Baptist, because I believe in immersing the Indian in our civilization and when we get them under, holding them there until they are thoroughly soaked." The proverbial drowning of Native cultures included teaching children to be ashamed of their traditions and literally beating and starving them into submission. Death occurred often from illness and disease. Actor Floyd Red Crow Westerman, who attended such a school as a child, would later write, "You put me in your boarding school, made me learn your white man rule, be a fool." 

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