Reference no: EM133567278
Prompt: For scholars of Settler Colonial Studies, assimilation serves a unique function in the process of settlement. Because the elimination of Native peoples serves as the central organizing principle for a society structured on settler colonialism, assimilatory policies become part and parcel to the logics of elimination. Recall Wolfe's point that, with the closing of the frontier, "elimination turned inwards, seeking to penetrate through the tribal surface to the individual Indian below, who was to be co-opted out of the tribe, which would be depleted accordingly, and into White society" (Wolfe 2006, 399). He further notes: "[D]epending on the historical conjuncture, assimilation can be a more effective mode of elimination than conventional forms of killing, since it does not involve such a disruptive affront to the rule of law that is ideologically central to the cohesion of settler society" (Wolfe 2006, 402). Our New York Times article on Indigenous boarding schools paints a clearer picture of this dynamic where, on the one hand, settlement necessitates frontier violence and, on the other, that violence seems to be in tension with the overall so-called progressive, civilizing sentiments that accompanies the settlement of those "wild, untamed" lands west of the Mississippi.
With that in mind, please answer the following:
Using Patrick Wolfe's article and the New York Times exposé as a reference, please identify and expound on a specific approach to assimilating Native children employed by these federally-backed religious boarding schools. (e.g., forcing Indigenous children to become industrial and agricultural laborers according to a Western model of work)
In your own words, explain what eliminatory or genocidal end this assimilation approach serves. (i.e., some might argue that forcing Indigenous children to become industrial and agricultural laborers according to a Western model of work enacts death on a social or cultural level by breaking any ties an Indigenous child might have with their ancestral lands and practices of stewardship and subsistence living)