Coast Salish cultural survival response

Indigenous resistance and racist schooling on the borders of empires: Coast Salish cultural survival By Michael Marker explains the horrible discrimination towards the indigenous tribes of the Pacific Northwest. In the late 1800’s children of these tribes were forced to go to boarding school, once there they were forced to abandon all of their ancient traditions and assimilate into modern culture. Should they refuse, harsh punishments awaited them. When the government finally decided that forcing these children to attend such schools was unethical they decided to unsegregated public schools and allow Indian children to attend. The children that went to these schools face such harsh criticism that soon their parents were sending them back to the boarding schools they had once been so desperate to be free from.

In reading this I cannot help but think about the assimilation policies for aborigines in Australia during the mid 1900’s. Aborigine children that had fair skin were taken from their families and homes and forced to go to school. Once at these schools they were trained in the ways of modern culture and then placed with a white foster family. Most of these children never saw their real family again. The children of this ancient culture would become known as the lost generation. The racist policies seen in the late 1800’s and 1900’s are not just unjust, but unethical. Unfortunately, racism may never be abolished in the world, until then inequality and ethical criticism is a daily reality. It saddens me to learn of the treatment of native Indian children and make me realize that this harsh reality my never be changed.