NEW: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is launching a first-of-its-kind comprehensive review of the “devastating history” of the U.S. government’s policy of forcing Native American children into white assimilation boarding schools. huffpost.com/entry/deb-haal…
Under the new initiative, the Interior Dept will investigate past boarding school facilities and sites, the location of known and possible burial sites near school facilities, and the identities and tribal affiliations of Native children who were forced to go there.
The point of these boarding schools, which the U.S. government funded from 1869 into the 1960s, was cultural genocide.
Hundreds of thousands of Indigenous children were taken from their families and forced into faraway boarding schools to be assimilated into white culture.
Hundreds of thousands of Indigenous children were taken from their families and forced into faraway boarding schools to be assimilated into white culture.
Indigenous children as young as 5 years old endured horrific levels of physical, sexual and psychological abuse in these schools. Many died.
Their parents were banned from speaking to them, and if they didn’t comply, they faced reductions in food rations and incarceration.
Their parents were banned from speaking to them, and if they didn’t comply, they faced reductions in food rations and incarceration.
By 1926, the U.S. government had removed nearly 83% of Native children from their families and enrolled them in one of these horrific 367 boarding schools across 30 states.
“At no time in history have the records or documentation of this policy been compiled or analyzed to determine the full scope of its reaches and effects,” Haaland said today. "We must uncover the truth about the loss of human life and the lasting consequences of these schools.”
Sec. Haaland's grandparents were forced into boarding schools.
Her ascent never ceases to be remarkable.
"I come from ancestors who endured the horrors of the Indian boarding school assimilation policy carried out by the same department that I now lead." huffpost.com/entry/deb-haal…
Her ascent never ceases to be remarkable.
"I come from ancestors who endured the horrors of the Indian boarding school assimilation policy carried out by the same department that I now lead." huffpost.com/entry/deb-haal…
Why is Haaland doing this now, years after this horrific policy ended?
Because it's the truth. And so many ppl feel "intergenerational trauma" from their families being ripped apart.
The bodies of children who died at these schools are only now being unearthed in mass graves.
Because it's the truth. And so many ppl feel "intergenerational trauma" from their families being ripped apart.
The bodies of children who died at these schools are only now being unearthed in mass graves.
Most Americans were never taught about this in school.
The U.S. government did this to hundreds of thousands of Native American children.
It went on for a century.
The U.S. government did this to hundreds of thousands of Native American children.
It went on for a century.
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