Civilizing the Anishinaabe-Ojibwean People - Case Study Example

English Research Paper: Anishinaabe The Anishinaabe-Ojibwean people constitute the second largest tribe in North. America. They occupy their ancestral land of Ojibwe and they spread across three provinces of Canada as well as Five American states. The people of Ojibwe boast of covering a wider geographical region than any known tribe in North America. Their existential purpose is unity, oneness of all things. The People of Ojibwe believe that harmony with all created things has been achieved. They believe as well that the people know their origin and that they cannot be separated from the mysterious cycle of living things such as birth, growth, death and new birth. The stories are rooted deep in their hearts. They can not dare forget since the stories have been told well over time, in history and by legends, dreams and in symbols. The message is in the song of the grandmothers to their grand children. It is a message of the Spirit-individual and collective. The people of Ojibwe maintain that they are a people with three names. Chippewa, Ojibway and Anishinabe. Chippewa is an official name recognized by the Authority and used during official matter. Anishinaabe is a name the people call themselves. One meaning of the name is “The original people as opposed to people who came later” The other name Ojibway which has several spellings is a name believed to have been given by the enemies. The name implies “To pucker” The Ojibwe people believe in the teachings of the seven prophets which they refer to as the seven fires. The seven fires gave them the direction of migration and so it is believed that they migrated and found their sacred place. It is estimated that the journey took 500 years to come to an end. The people of Ojibwe have since been living in the area known as Minnesota. It was 400+ years later that the Europeans settled in the area. According to Jean Liedloff, the continuum is the concept that In order to achieve optimum physical, emotional and mental development, humankind especially babies need the experience to which those of our kind (species) adapted during the process of evolution. The experiences include: constant physical contact, sensing, breastfeeding et cetera. This paper analyses the question, “Where are we now” with a focus on residential schools. My interest is to learn more about the residential schools for the people of Ojibwe. Over time, there have been shifts in the aboriginal education policy. The shifts which were intended to assimilate the aboriginal families depended on the relationships between the aboriginal and the non Aboriginal families. Missionaries originally tasked themselves to ensuring that the children from the aboriginal families acquired formal education. The missionaries, however, had an intention of converting the children to Christianity and “civilizing” them. (Joshee, Johnson 55). The first known boarding-school plan for aboriginal youth began in 1620 under the instructions of recollects whose duties were to ensure the Indians were civilized into Christianity values and sedentary lifestyle. After an understanding had been made with the missionaries and the parents of the aboriginal children, the parents accepted that their children go to industrial and day schools knowing that their children would return home on a daily or weekly basis. When it became vivid for the missionaries and the policy makers that the aboriginal children were not being assimilated as had been anticipated, the government swore to improve the techniques used in civilizing the aboriginal children. (Joshee, Johnson 55) Assimilation through education gained momentum and led to the rise of residential schools. The residential schools were constructed with an aim of segregating the children from the influence of their parents which was most observed when the children attended day and industrial schools. (Joshee, Johnson 55) Church-run residential schools were raised with a prime objective of isolating children from the socializing structures of their lives. It happened that the school rule procedures kept on changing to match the needs of the policy makers. Even though the government spent little in school maintenance, the children on the other hand were relied upon by the church for routine chores. The children were subjected to a routine of school, prayer and labor. In the end their time in class was considerably reduced and so their academic proficiency. Some children spent as long as 15 years in aboriginal schools with some of them confessing open denial to speak their language and practice their culture. (Joshee, Johnson 56). They often lived with a looming threat of punishments as well as humiliation in the event that one spoke the aboriginal language. It was unlawful for any aboriginal parent not to send their children to the residential schools. This way, the aboriginal families and the community as a whole suffered greatly. One Anshinaabe mother recalls her arrival at the Indian residential school in Saskatchewan. “From the day my mother walked my brother, sister and I up to that ominously looming structure, I began to understand the depth of those black-robes power and influence. Almost immediately, my mother’s authority was undermined and subverted by a nun who authoritatively pushed her out of the door.” (Joshee, Johnson 55) The parents of the aboriginal children applied pressure and thus assimilation faded and it was replaced by integration. Between 1946 and 1948, during the hearing of the Indian act, Aboriginal communities and Organizations submitted that the sponsored federal vocational education did not prepare the Indians adequately for higher education, hindering them from achieving economic parity with their counterparts. At the start of the 1950s, residential schools were slowly eradicated. The aboriginal children commenced schooling within the provincial system together with their non-aboriginal counterparts. With time it was observed that educationally the aboriginal children did not benefit since the indifference and discrimination that they were shown drove them away from school or made them shy away from classes hence increased drop out cases and consequently lack of economic opportunities. ‘Where are we now?” this is one question the aboriginal families and community as a whole need to ask themselves or at least should have asked themselves. It is no doubt that with time the aboriginal communities have evolved and are thus at par with the required standards of education. To date the anshinaabe’s have developed their own schools and education system. They have since had schools that allow hem to speak their own language and practice their own culture. The People of OJibwe have now the freedom to indulge in activities according to their culture and practices. They have the freedom to speak their own languages, as the rules have since been amended to accommodate the aboriginal languages. They have their own organizations and groups that cater for their well being as a people rich in culture and they are now viewed as people. We can therefore acknowledge that the question “where are we now?” has been adequately addressed in the context of interest. We now understand the evolution of the education system of the people of Ojibwe from the time they were forced to withstand the harsh conditions to present when they can make their own decisions independently, without the influence of a third party. The integration thus was one positive move that in a light note can be described as have enlightened this generation of humans. We can therefore conclude that the question “where are we now?” has been fully discussed in the sense that the Ojibwe people are independent. They don’t have to lean on others (white skins) in order to sort out their issues. They depend among themselves and they adhere to the rules set to govern them. Works Cited Michael McNally, David . Honoring elders : aging, authority, and Ojibwe religion. New York : Columbia University Press, 2009. Print. "Anishinaabe Education." Algoma Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Apr. 2014. . Duba Onedera, Jill . The Role of Religion in Marriage and Family Counseling. n/a: Routledge, 2008. Print. "Home." Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Apr. 2014. . "Indian (Anishinaabe) Education Program." Indian (Anishinaabe) Education Program. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Apr. 2014. . Johnson, Lauri, and Reva Joshee. Multicultural education policies in Canada and the United States. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2007. Print. "Our Mother Tongues | Ojibwe." Our Mother Tongues | Ojibwe. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Apr. 2014. . Rymhs, Deena. From the iron house imprisonment in First Nations writing. Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2008. Print. Williams, Carol. Indigenous women and work from labor to activism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2012. Print. Woods, Philip A.. Alternative education for the 21st century: philosophies, approaches, visions. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print. MLA formatting by BibMe.org. Read More