Jim Thorpe's Experience with Assimilation at Indian Boarding Schools
Kate Buford, author of Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe talked about the American Indian athlete's experience with the Carlisle Indian Industrial School which was set up to assimilate Native Americans into white culture. She provided an overview of the Indian Boarding Schools set up around the United States and the reasons for these schools.
Description
Kate Buford, author of Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe talked about the American Indian athlete's experience with the Carlisle Indian Industrial School which was set up to assimilate Native Americans into white culture. She provided an overview of the Indian Boarding Schools set up around the United States and the reasons for these schools.
Bell Ringer Assignment
- What was the purpose behind these Indian boarding schools?
- What is meant by radical assimilation? What actions took place at these Indian boarding schools?
- What was the reasoning behind these boarding schools focusing on sports?
Additional Resources
- Bell Ringer: Society of American Indians Conference
Anthropology Professor Larry Nesper talked about the Society of American Indians Conference. The group of Native American leaders from around the country met in October of 1914 on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to discuss the issues important to Native Americans at the time including land and treaty rights.
- Bell Ringer: Native American Citizenship
Native American citizenship in the United States has a long problematic history that continues today. Frank Pommersheim talked about past cases and legislation that have contributed to problematic history of Native American citizenship in the U.S.
- Bell Ringer: Indian Removal Act of 1830
Oklahoma City University History Professor Blue Clark discusses the Indian Removal Act of 1830, and the impact that it had on Native American tribes.
Participants
Vocabulary
- Assimilation
- Carlisle Indian Industrial School
- Indian Boarding Schools
- Jim Thorpe
- Native Americans