“Only 52 percent of Native American students who graduated in 2004 attended college right after high school, and of these students, only 39 percent had completed a bachelor’s degree by 2010” (Klein). Statistics show that there is a wide gap in education between White Americans and Native Americans. The American government could be responsible for the reason that Native American students are falling behind their white counterparts. America destroyed the Native American’s education system by stripping them of their culture. The Native American education system has been altered and demolished throughout history due to the influences from the American government. To begin, Native Americans were forced to attended schools where they were stripped …show more content…
These institutions provides a quality education and a positive, ample learning environment. These tribal school would benefit Native Americans far more than any American public or private school. The reason that these institutions would benefit them more is because their education is of value to their teachers and they are encouraged to enjoy learning and to continue their education. In the novel, Four Souls written by Louise Erdrich, the effects of not receiving a proper education are demonstrated. Some of the Native Americans have the ability to speak to the English language. However, the differences between the Ojibwa language leads to miscommunications between the white Americans and themselves. Nanapush states “ Friends, relatives, nindinawemaganidok (everything that has existed in time), I am Nanapush, ... I am one hundred percent pure Anishinaabeg and I speak my language and the English both. But today, that English language tastes foul, tastes rancid in my mouth, for it is the language in which we are, as always, deceived. Lies are manufactured in that English language” (Erdrich 154). The Native Americans felt this way because they had been tricked multiple by the white American because they didn’t entirely understand the English language. In some of the Native American boarding schools, they were banned from speaking their native tongue and were forced to learn English. The implementation of English into their lives may helped interact with the white American, but they may also have forgotten their own native language. According to Camera, Aaron Payment, chairperson of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Michigan, states that "The first Americans have become the last Americans". The American government has taken the first Americans and destroyed their education system in order to