Synthesis and Response to Indigenous Resistance and Racist Schooling on the Borders of Empires: Coast Salish Cultural Survival

            Michael Marker’s Indigenous Resistance and Racist Schooling on the Borders of Empires: Coast Salish Cultural Survival discusses the causes for the split and assimilation of the Coast Salish people. The Coast Salish people were Native Americans that lived in the same area for thousands of years, until the United States and Canada were created, which caused a split within the population. This split resulted in the Native Americans having difficulties maintaining their different rituals and therefore maintaining their culture as a whole. 

            However, the most detrimental aspect of the two nation’s expansion was the attempts of the United States and Canadian governments to assimilate the Coast Salish people. The two governments created schools that aimed to alter the children’s views on their culture and to change the traditions and values that were upheld by their ancestors. In the schools, the children were treated very harshly and were punished for exhibiting any behaviors that corresponded to their culture.

            Personally, I am outraged that this was ever a problem. The United States was founded as a means to escape religious tyranny, and it seems so hypocritical that the people of this country could not accept the Coast Salish and embrace the differences that they had.