Question

Many American Indians were sent to boarding schools in the late 19th century in the belief that:

A. English language abilities would help them get employment on recovering Southern plantations.
B. assimilation would make them more like white Americans.
C. formal education would compensate for the injustices done to them.
D. reservations would benefit from leaders who had been taught about government.

Answer 1

B. assimilation would make them more like white Americans.

Answer 2

The correct answer is:

B. assimilation would make them more like white Americans.

The Native American boarding schools had the main goal of assimilating Native Americans into American culture.

These boarding schools were organized by Christian missionaries of different churches during the late 19th and mid 20th centuries. The government paid religious orders to give basic education to Native American children on reservations. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) also founded boarding schools based on the assimilation example of the off-reservation Carlisle Indian Industrial School.