Indigenous Resistance and Racist Schooling on the Borders of the Empires Synthesis

            To give an overview, the article “Indigenous Resistance and Racist Schooling on the Borders of the Empires” talks about the Coastal Salish people and how they were affected by the drawing of the USA-Canadian line in the Pacific Northwest. A couple ways that the Coastal Salish people were affected was through the schooling they were told to receive, and the physical border that was put up between Canada and the USA.

            One way that the Coastal Salish people were affected by the influence of the government and the border was through the public schooling. The public schools were more concerned with making the Coastal Salish children abandon their cultural and religious knowledge to learn American or Canadian ways. This was viewed as racist and led to the tribe people being so upset and disappointed in the public schools that they started to school the children themselves. This has led the children to continue in the way of the Coastal Salish culture at the cost of having to have parents teach them.

In terms of the physical border put up, it hindered the Coastal Salish people from communicating with one another. Pre-border, members of the tribe could easily relay messages or even travel to and from the two locations. Now with the definite border, there is security and such lining the boundary between the two countries. This makes it hard for members of the tribe to travel short distances across the border. Having to go through security was an unnecessary procedure according to the Coastal Salish people, one that shouldn't have to be performed.

For both of these reasons, the Coastal Salish people were disappointed and felt oppressed to the point that they no longer wanted their children schooled by the public. They would rather teach their own kids traditions with the “assimilation attitude” of the United States.