Synthesis of “Indigenous Resistance and Racist Schooling on the Borders of Empires: Coast Salish Cultural Survival” by Michael Marker

This article by Michael Marker is discussing how the governments of the United States and Canada have tried to redirect the culture and common practice of the Coast Salish people of British Columbia and Washington State. These two governments have tried to take away what these people stand for and the way they do things by creating laws against them. Trying to make it so that these people would not be able to freely travel across borders to exchange information and  keep their customs alive is one way they were trying to be repressed. The article mentions that the Coast Salish people did not recognize the borders that governments had established, but they simply knew that their territory was from this point to another point. The governments also developed boarding schools so that the children could be away from the unfavorable environment and become more "Americanized". They also tried to strip the culture of their native language, by outlawing the use of it. These changes that they tried to force on these people caused a great number of issues because it was so confusing. Children were picked on in boarding school and detached from their parents at home. They eventually developed ways to resist the governments' repressive strategies, thus reclaiming control of their own destiny.