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The role of western Massachusetts in the development of American Indian education reform through the Hampton Institute's summer outing program (1878-1912)
Abstract
The question of how to design educational programs which are relevant to Native American Indians, has plagued both Indian and non-Indian educators for more than a century. How does an educational system provide instruction which is vital for survival in mainstream society and at the same time, maintain a Native student's rights to think and exist in the world as an indigenous person? The devastating shortage of Native American Indian teachers, and administrators, as well as the urgent need for bilingual education and culturally appropriate curriculum, continue as unresolved obstacles. Perhaps in order to constructively alleviate the dilemmas of contemporary Indian education, one must look to the past and determine where failings and successes occurred. Historically, a major contributor to the American Indian education of the twentieth century, has been the off-reservation boarding school system. Both the school system and the educational training programs have had a direct effect on Native American Indian cultures. The model for the off-reservation boarding school was established in 1878 at Hampton Agricultural and Normal School, in Hampton, Virginia. The Hampton Indian educational plan had two major components, the instruction of English and the development of vocational skills. In 1879, Hampton Institute established a summer outing system program. The study presents a historical record of the significant events which lead to the development of the Hampton Institute's outing program in western Massachusetts, its influences on Indian education and its historical connection to the Americanization policies for Native American Indians during the late nineteenth century. The time period examined by this research is from 1878 to 1912, the years during which Hampton's Indian educational program received funding from the United States government. The process of using education as a means of Americanizing Indian students continues to exist in contemporary times. The research conducted for this study further reveals and confirms this and provides some broad generalizations and recommendations which may lead to the development of Native and non-Native educators guiding principals for modification of current and future Indian educational programs.
Subject Area
Bilingual education|Multicultural education|Education history|Minority & ethnic groups|Sociology
Recommended Citation
Almeida, Deirdre Ann, "The role of western Massachusetts in the development of American Indian education reform through the Hampton Institute's summer outing program (1878-1912)" (1992). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9305803.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9305803