Why read Education for Extinction?

Book cover of Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875-1928

Book description

The last 'Indian War' was fought against Native American children in the dormitories and classrooms of government boarding schools. Only by removing Indian children from their homes for extended periods of time, policymakers reasoned, could white "civilization" take root while childhood memories of 'savagism' gradually faded to the point of…

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Native American history

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Why read it?

1 author picked Education for Extinction as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Farina King

Author

Adams’s book exposed the Indian boarding school agenda and system as genocide for many readers. His book was one of the first publications that I read about Indian boarding schools as it represents a significant historiographical shift and approach to Indigenous experiences in boarding schools since the first writings of Native American boarding school students such as Zitkála-Šá, Charles Eastman, and Luther Standing Bear. The revised edition of his book could not have come at a better time with the announcement of the Federal Indian Boarding School Truth Initiative that followed about a year later in June 2021.

From Farina's list on The best books on U.S. Indian boarding school experiences.