Missions and Education
Missionary work and education worked
together in the Christianizing of the New World following its discovery. The
Catholic Church took the lead in this endeavor in the Americas. The earliest
universities were founded by priests. Native Americans liked the esthetics of
the churches, but seldom enjoyed the structured life required by most
religions. Nearly all the work at the missions was performed by the newly
Christianized peoples. This proved to be true as other churches such as the
Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists entered the picture.
Once a church established itself with a
particular Native American tribe, it built schools taught by the religious
missionaries. There were usually two forms of school: a day school often run on
the reservation or a boarding school. Elizabeth attended the second school.
Most of these institutions tried to remove the cultural and tribal ways of
life. Instead of accepting the Native Americans, religious leaders believed changes
had to take place. They must give up their ways of living and doing to be fully
Christianized. The result for so many tribes was eventual destruction.
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