Today we went to
the Heard Museum to learn about Indian boarding schools. When I first walked into
the exhibit, I listened to the children that previously had gone to a boarding
school but were now grown up. These Native Americans gave a brief talk about
how they were crying when the train came to pick them up, and how their family
was yelling at the teachers that their child was too young to be taken away.
After I listened to every person, I felt sad because I would never recover from
leaving my family. Even though I could get married and have a family with a
different culture, I would not enjoy switching cultures. After thinking about
how hard life would be living that way, we went to look at pictures of the
children when they first arrived. Every child had a frown on their face, not
even one child was smiling, even the two and three year-olds. The saddest part
of the exhibit was when they showed the barber chair which was where all the
children’s hair was chopped off. Long hair is a tradition to Native Americans,
so that is why it is so important to them and heartbreaking when you hear the
hair getting chopped off. This exhibit was very interesting, and I feel like I learned
a plethora, but it also made me frustrated and confused why Americans would
change other people’s religion and culture.
