Thread by @IndiaArtHistory

How Europeans treated Native Americans.
(A Thread)

When extermination of Native Americans failed, "civilizing" became the new US policy. This meant that the Indians would become "civilized" - read & deculturalized.

U.S. and Canadian authorities took Native children from their homes and tried to school, and sometimes beat, the Indian out them. Now Native Americans are fighting the theft of language, of culture, and of childhood itself.

The purpose of these Native American boarding schools was to remove Native Americans from their home and cultures in order to change their identities and lifestyles to be like the "white man". Native American children were forced to think and act like the dominant white culture.

Not only were languages and beliefs changes, but appearances as well. Hair styles, clothing and even names and body languages were changed. The intention was to completely erase the Indian way of life.

Indian people were made U.S. citizens, on June 2, 1924. After 80 years under the Indian Citizenship Act, Native peoples remain the most economically impoverished segment of American society, with all the attendant problems of poverty.

One report says Church officials killed children by beating, poisoning, electric shock, starvation, prolonged exposure to sub-zero cold while naked, and medical experimentation, including the removal of organs and radiation exposure.

The entire (be it historical, cultural, psychological or religious) conditioning of the white man, the Christian or the American is the anti-thesis of having any civilization or morality.