Lost of Language, Lost of Self
Written by: Daniel Brown
Native Americans have to endure a lot over the
years. The constant attacks on their culture to the complete destruction of
their way of life. During this destruction, many things got lost along the way.
In particular, many Native Americans started to lose their language that had
been in their families for generations. This was due to the fact that many
whites would force Native American children into boarding schools and force
them to learn English, leaving their native language flailing in the wind. The paper
will focus on one boarding school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and how it tried
to destroy the Native American language.
Before the discussion of Carlisle begins, lets
take a look at the history of the boarding schools The boarding schools of the
Native Americans were no picnic. The whites would put the Native Americans
through some truly horrific things. Upon arrival, Native American were stripped
of their birth names and given new ones. If the Native American children even
mentioned their birth names instead of their white name, they were whipped. If
the Native American children spoke in their native tongue instead of English,
they were whipped. Basically , if the Native Americans did anything that was remotely
related to their Native culture, they were whipped. The goal of these school
was to “kill the Indian, and save the man”(History Stories,1). Whites wanted
the Native Americans to be nothing like their ancestors, and everything like
white ancestors
The Carlisle school in Pennsylvania continued this
horrible pattern- nay- founded this horror. This school was the model form
which that all the other boarding schools would follow. It is known form the discussion
above that many Native American’ s were forced to give up their birth names and
receive new, Anglo Saxon names. However, this is not all they forced to give up.
The children were given haircuts, new clothes, and “a proper” way to speak. In
other words, the whites told the Native American children to abandon their old
ways because they were inferior to the white way. The language of the Native
Americans was viewed as barbaric and uncivilized. It was weird on the ears for whites
, and did not flow as nicely as the English language did. Due to this, speaking
English was not only made an important part of Carlisle’s curriculum, but Native
American life. Native children were forbidden to speak in their native tongue.
If they so much as uttered a word in their language, beatings, whippings, and
lye, a type of soap, to the tongue would follow.
After
time, these “teachings” started to stick. Many Native children lost the
language of their family, and started to speak in English more and more
frequently. Here is the problem though. Native Americans spirits do not speak
in English, but in the language passed down from Native American families. Native
American children are losing what makes them who they are. They are losing
sight of all the tradition’s their society has practiced for generations. Without being able to speak in the language of
their family, and without the knowledge of Native American practices, the
children are becoming outsiders in their own society. This is all thanks to the
Carlisle boarding school forcing the white ways on to Native American children.
Here’s the
perfect example of how the Native Americans were molded by the American ideals of
perfect speech, values, and discipline: This was taken from
the address of the graduating class of 1912. The student is speaking who will
be known as Chief Buffalo
Child Long Lance, a Lumbee form North Carolina.
“When we have
gone through, for the last time as students, the brick portals of this
institution, into the great world of competition, we do not wish to be
designated as Cherokees, Sioux, or Pawnees, but we wish to be known as Carlisle
Indians, belonging to that great universal tribe of North American Indians,
speaking the same language and having the same chief — the great White Father
at Washington.”
The whole goal of
white Americans was to destroy what makes the Natives Americans who they are.
By making the Native Americans lose their language, the whites are making them
lose their whole tribal identity. No longer do Native Americans associate themselves
as a single ethnic group, but as a whole ethnic group ruled by the whites.
However, despite all
this misery, shines a bright light. Even through the Carlisle school left quite devastating
legacy, the Native American language and culture was not completely eradicated
the way whites had hoped. The Navajo Code, a Native American language that was
used to hide American WWII tactics from the Japanese, is the perfect example as
to how the Native American language /culture survived. In addition, The Navajo
Code also shows the perfect irony in American culture. A Native American
language was needed, after decades of trying to be destroyed, for America’s
survival.
Survival does not mean one forgets though.
Just because the Native American language/culture was able to endure through the
horror of American abuse, does not mean scars were not left behind. Even to
this day, the polices and teachings of the Carlisle lead boarding schools are
still engraved in Native American minds. There are some Native children that were
never taught the native language. Why would parents, grandparents, or
uncles/aunts teach their children /relative a language that would just end in
beatings or something even worse? Furthermore, due to the fact of not knowing
the language, as well as not knowing how to cope with the abuse they suffered,
many Native Americans find themselves lost. As a result , depression began to
form, which also led to addictions of alcohol and drugs. “Crimes committed to feed
addictions led to incarceration. The Native incarceration rate is nearly 40% higher
than the national average”( Walker, 1).
In the end, the main point to grasp is this. Native Americans are starting to lose how they are.
Because of the destruction left by the Carlisle boarding schools, many Native have lost their native
language. As a consequence, Native Americans do not have the means to communicate with their
ancestors spirts, continue the legacy they laid out, or feel at home in their own society. Without a
legacy to carry out, or a place to call home, how can Native Americans live with peace and clarity?
References
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