Thousands of Native American children were forcibly removed from their families and sent to U.S. boarding schools dedicated to eradicating Indigenous culture.
Many died. Those who lived are still struggling to make sense of who they were and who they are.
nytimes.com/2021/07/19/us/…
Many died. Those who lived are still struggling to make sense of who they were and who they are.
nytimes.com/2021/07/19/us/…
Students were prohibited from speaking their Indigenous languages. Their personal belongings were taken away or destroyed.
Bessie Smith, who is now 79 and continues to use the name given to her at her former boarding school in Arizona, said she nearly forgot her native tongue.
Bessie Smith, who is now 79 and continues to use the name given to her at her former boarding school in Arizona, said she nearly forgot her native tongue.
Those who survived the schools described violence as routine. “I thought that it was part of school,” said Norman Lopez, now 78, who was sent to a boarding school in southwestern Colorado around age 6.
Jacqueline Frost, 60, holds a photo showing how she was forced to adopt the look and attire of a white girl. She said she was beaten by a Ute aunt who served as a matron at a federal boarding school designed to assimilate Native children.
“When people do things to you when you’re growing up, it affects you spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally,” said Russell Box Sr., a member of the Southern Ute tribe who was 6 when he was sent to a boarding school in Colorado.
The recent discoveries of unmarked graves at government-run Indigenous schools in Canada led Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to announce that the U.S. would search the grounds of former facilities for possible burial sites of Native American children.nytimes.com/2021/06/23/us/…
Read more on how many of the survivors of these Indigenous boarding schools are reclaiming their identity. nytimes.com/2021/07/19/us/…
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