America's Indian Education Policies: Education for Environmental In- justice

Abstract

Abstract

Problems of environmental in-justice affect both urban and rural areas of our nation, and while it is important to recognize that communities of color often bear the greatest burden of environmental hazards generated by both industry and agriculture, it is also important understand how national policies have been instrumental in creating a climate in which environmental in-justice can proliferate. This article looks at ways in which American educational policies and actions have contributed to and indeed continue to contribute to these inequities. In particular, this research explores the connection between the early policies which the United States government applied to Native American education (i.e., forced attendance, boarding schools, eradication of language and culture, etc.) and current issues of environmental in-justice, specifically ones that affect Native lands. Using a variety of primary and secondary sources, this research attempts to show how the educational policies rigorously applied to Native Americans by the United States government—policies which were designed to erase Native American culture and to move this people group into the stream of modern American society in the space of a generation—in reality was mis-education that opened a door of vulnerability to environmental exploitation.