The cultural assimilation of Native American peoples began when the first European settlement took root in what is now considered New England. The cultural assimilation of these native peoples continued well into the 19th century with the predominant thinking of Caucasian Americans that the native tribes had little to contribute to the emerging United States. This assimilation involved the forced placement of young Native American children in boarding schools operated by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in order to “re-educate” or “Americanize” them in the eyes of Caucasian American citizens. The BIA's goal was to force Native Americans to leave their heritage and culture behind and enter the mainstream culture dominated by Caucasian Americans. Even at the turn of the century there were no attempts in any form to offer Native American students a culturally appropriate education. These schools promoted Native Americans to dress and speak like their Caucasian American counterparts. The persecution and assimilation of Native Americans to adopt the English language has been recognized since the late 1960s as a huge problem. Two of the largest tribes that have been most documented in history as having been subjected to such treatment are the Cherokee and the Navajo. These two tribes have recognized the growing problem of a dwindling supply of native speakers. Older members of these two tribes who speak the language fluently are beginning to die off, and younger generations are losing the ability to speak their native language at an increasing rate. It is vitally important that appropriate actions are taken to revitalize both the Cherokee and Navajo languages. Languages ​​that have no native speakers are generally called extinct or dead languages. Languages ​​that have no native speakers in the younger generation are known as moribund