For Indian women, it thus meant even more than losing their race rights, it also meant losing their traditional gender rights. 3. Dolphus, a Cheyenne River Lakota Native American, says that "I was supposed to attend a Halloween party. I decided to dress as a nun because nuns were the scariest things I ever saw." She has a very plastic way of remembering what the boarding school experience meant for Native American women. Going of to Christian schools from tender ages, often no older than four or five, meant that these individuals would be separated from their families for a whole year, with rare visits mainly due to boarding rules and affordability for the Native American family. On the other hand, many have witnessed abuses from boarding schools and have later told accounts of their mistreatment there. From all these point-of-views, boarding schools...

We may assume that some women supported Americanization out of a desire to better and easier integrate in the conquering society and because they had realized that there was no real way in which the new society could be resisted. Others instead most likely chose to create their own enclave when it came to the new engulfing society and retain their core values and roles despite the surrounding new society.
The Women's Role. On the Internet at http://www.bluecloud.org/role.html.Last retrieved on November 1, 2007

Smith, Andrea. Soul Wound: The Legacy of Native American Schools. Amnesty Magazine. On the Internet at http://www.amnestyusa.org/amnestynow/soulwound.html.Last retrieved on November 1, 2007