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Native American Culture Put To the Test When the white Americans began migrating to the Great Plains in the 19th century, the lives of Native Americans dramatically changed, forever. The new emigrants who came to the land of the Indians brought with them many diseases and bacteria that the Natives were not immune to. An Indian chief remembers, "the white people came, they brought with them some good, but they brought the small pox, and …

…on the ruins of the old" (p.152). Americans tested the strength of the Indian people, who in return proved to be a much stronger culture than the United States had ever imagined. The forced assimilation may have even brought Native Americans closer together because the education received in the boarding schools gave Indian students a shared experience and a common means of communication. In no way did America succeed in destroying the Native American culture.