To Educate American Indians

Beginning in colonial times, Europeans believed in a God-ordained responsibility to “civilize” the Indigenous populations they encountered in the “New World.” The United States inherited that responsibility and began a formal program of educating American Indians in the early days of the Republic. By the turn of the twentieth century, a federally-run school system included the notorious Indian boarding schools and reservation day schools. For ten years, 1900-1909, educators working at those institutions met with other mainstream teachers and administrators at the annual meetings of the National Educational Association (NEA). The class will cover the history of American Indian education with particular emphasis on the writings of those Indian school educators. This class is based on Larry Skogen’s book To Educate American Indians: Selected Writings of the NEA’s Department of Indian Education 1900-1904, published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2024, and his forthcoming book covering the years 1905-1909 to be published in 2025.