Native American Boarding School Era 1860-1983
Residential boarding schools and the historical trauma caused by the brutal acts of genocidal tyrants is finally surfacing and the family members of the many missing children are struggling to face this nightmare come true.
Starting in 1860, Native American children were forced by the United States government into residential boarding schools with the intentions to “kill the Indian and save the man”. After drastic and failed attempts to completely destroy and eliminate the Native race, the government concluded that they would assimilate the race and “civilize” the “savage Indians”.
Forced assimilation, meaning to conform to white society norms was the goal of the United States and across Canada. Young children were ushered into schools with much resistance from their families oftentimes with empty promises made to the children’s parents of visitations and summers at home. Society wanted to take care of the country’s “Indian problem” and wished to strip the Natives of their culture, language, and practices.
Many accounts from boarding school survivors detailed humiliating acts being performed to them upon their arrival at their new schools. Native children’s long, sacred hair was immediately cut off, their traditional clothing, beautiful beadwork, photographs of their family, medicine pouches, and personal items were often burned or destroyed; never to be returned.
Native children were humiliated, being called “dirty Indians”. They were doused in alcohol, kerosene, and DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) and other known pesticides to “disinfect” them. Young Native children now clothed in matching, uncomfortable uniforms made of poor quality to teach them about “sameness, regularity, and order”. School staff assigned each child a new English first and last name and beat the children brutally for speaking Anishinaabemowin -stating the language was the devil’s language.
The reports of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse are horrid, and the nightmares are endless. The trauma that affected our ancestors continues to affect generations today. In May of 2021, the gruesome discovery of 215 Native children in unmarked graves at the Kamloops Residential School in British Columbia, Canada has opened a floodgate of emotions and has sparked a nationwide investigation to bring our children -our ancestors- our family members’ home. This discovery only reminds others that this traumatic period in our history existed. However, we have never forgotten.
Since the discovery, many changes have occurred. In May 2022, “Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland released Volume 1 of the investigative report called for as part of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, a comprehensive effort to address the troubled legacy of federal Indian boarding school policies. This report lays the groundwork for the continued work of the Interior Department to address the intergenerational trauma created by historical federal Indian boarding school policies.” (https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases).
“The investigation found that from 1819 to 1969, the federal Indian boarding school system consisted of 408 federal schools across 37 states or then territories, including 21 schools in Alaska and 7 schools in Hawaii. The investigation identified marked or unmarked burial sites at approximately 53 different schools across the school system.
As the investigation continues, the Department expects the number of identified burial sites to increase.”(https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases) In September of 2021 a bill was introduced to the Senate to establish the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States and sets forth its powers, duties, and membership. The bill is also intended to modify the curriculum for 8-12th grades to incorporate teachings about Native boarding schools. It is time rewrite our history books and educate the truth to current and future generations about Native American Boarding Schools.
It is time to expose the cruelty our relatives experienced by Catholic nuns, priests, and other authority figures. Children lost their lives at boarding schools. Their deaths were kept secret, their parents were lied to, and the children suffered; all while missing the people they loved most-their families. It is time to educate future generations and teach the truth about our past.
WEBSITES
The U.S. history of Native American Boarding Schools — The Indigenous Foundation American's Native American Boarding Schools VIDEO
