American Indian outing programs

rdf:langString American Indian outing programs

rdf:langString Native American outing programs were associated with American Indian boarding schools in the United States. These were operated both on and off reservations, primarily from the late 19th century to World War II. Students from boarding schools were assigned to live with and work for European-American families, often during summers, ostensibly to learn more about English language, useful skills, and majority culture. Many boarding schools continued operating into the 1960s and 1970s. The boarding schools were established by law in 1891, and more were founded by the federal government in the early 20th century. Their goal was to educate Native American children to learn English, math, literacy, and European-American mainstream culture. This was thought to be necessary for the survival of Native Americans in modern American culture. Richard Henry Pratt developed the first such boarding school at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in 1879, which became a model for the government program. He also developed the outing program. In 1891 the federal government authorized by law establishing other Indian boarding schools. By 1900, several other American Indian boarding schools in the west had begun federal outing programs modeled after that of Carlisle. These included schools in Salem, Oregon; Lawrence, Kansas; Riverside, California; Carson City, Nevada; and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Most of the children involved in outing programs lived and worked with their assigned families for part of every day and often whole summers. Other children stayed with their assigned families throughout the year. Typically, boys were assigned to do farm work and girls were assigned to domestic tasks. Pratt emphasized that children participating in outing programs should be treated as members of the assigned family, rather than as servants. But enforcement of such a vision was lacking. For most children, taking part in outing programs entailed long days of hard work with little time off; such work was also typical for members of farm families.