Thread by @benwikler

The brutality of Indian boarding schools is a stain on our country's conscience—and a history that far too few non-Native Americans know. It's time to learn it and reckon with it. If this is unfamiliar to you, here are some links to start with: 1/

https://twitter.com/GovEvers/status/1447588595401887759

This two-part story from 2008 by @NPR lifts up the voices of some survivors of a program founded on the principle of, as its founder put it, "all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man."

npr.org/templates/stor…

At least ten of these boarding schools, founded in the last 19th century and operating for decades, were in Wisconsin. One after another, these schools sought to destroy any vestige of tribal culture.
jsonline.com/story/news/202…

At St. Joseph's Indian Industrial School on the Menominee reservation, "The students were punished if they spoke their native language, some survivors told Shillinger. One told Shillinger that school workers would put kerosene shampoo or soap in their mouth if they were caught."

My godmother Ada Deer, former chair of the Menominee nation, never learned the Menominee language—because her father had been so traumatized at an Indian boarding school that he never spoke it again. The scars from that experience haunted his entire life.

The abuse rampant at Indian boarding schools was not limited to the official program of cultural termination. It included physical, sexual, and mental abuse of children, who had regularly been forcibly removed from their families.

newsmaven.io/indiancountryt…

Canada ran a similar program. This summer, Canada has been reeling at the discovery of at least 1300 unmarked graves of children at former boarding school sites. scientificamerican.com/article/canada…

In 2018, hundreds of thousands of Americans marched, rightfully, in protest of the Trump policy of forcible family separation. In my w @MoveOn, I was lucky to work with the Families Belong Together coalition to plan those protests—and ensure this history was lifted up too.

It is only by being honest about our history that we can learn what we're capable of—and find ways to organize against the recurrence of past horrors. There are those who now seek to erase the teaching of honest history. But only reckoning brings resolve.

theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

Once you start looking, you'll find a wealth to read and learn. Here's one survivor's account that weaves in the broader story.
smile.amazon.com/Children-Left-…