Bringing Indigenous Children Home

Photo Credit and Caption: “From 1879 until 1918, over 10,000 Native American children from 140 tribes attended Carlisle.” (Wikipedia)

Last month, U.S. Secretary Deb Haaland published an op-ed about the terrifying history of residential boarding schools for Native American children. She wrote, "We have a generation of lost or injured children who are now the lost or injured aunts, uncles, parents and grandparents of those who live today." Some of those lost children's remains were finally laid to rest this summer, after being discovered in the U.S. and Canada. What do we need to know about this history and how can we help?

This summer's tragic discoveries.
Ground-penetrating radar revealed hundreds of unmarked graves near two former Canadian residential schools for Indigenous children. Canadians have been asking their government and the Catholic Church to acknowledge their roles in the creation and mismanagement of those boarding schools. Thanks to prominent voices, like actor Dan Levy, sharing news of the discoveries, Canadians quickly joined forces to create memorials comprised of children's shoes, flowers, and toys. Last week in the U.S., the remains of Native American children who attended the Carlisle Indian Boarding School in Pennsylvania were returned to relatives and buried on Rosebud Sioux tribal lands in South Dakota. The remains of an Alaskan Aleut child were returned earlier this summer as well. 

"Kill the Indian and save the man." 
Residential schools for Indigenous children were designed to annihilate their cultures and force cultural and religious assimilation, even if the founders claimed to prioritize education and well-being. Richard Henry Pratt, the founder of the Carlisle Indian Boarding School, is famously known for two contradictory things. He is the first person on record using the term "racism," which he said while opposing racial segregation, and he also believed that he needed to "kill the Indian and save the man." That bigoted belief was the organizing principle for Indian boarding schools. Some tribes agreed to send their children to residential schools because the U.S. had decimated their lands and depleted their resources. Others were forced to participate under grotesque conditions, like federal agents starving the tribe into submission.

The new U.S. federal investigation.
Representation matters. With U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (a member of the Pueblo of Laguna) at the helm, the U.S. is finally launching a federal investigation into hundreds of residential schools for Native American children that were run by religious institutions and the U.S. government. By searching the Department of Interior's records and consulting with Tribal Nations, the investigation will identify which schools may have conducted secret burials and determine the tribal affiliations of the schools' students. A final report will be presented to Secretary Haaland in early 2022. 

Follow the U.S. investigation. In this 10 minute PBS NewsHour clip, U.S. Secretary Deb Haaland talks to Judy Woodruff about the new federal investigation into the dehumanizing boarding schools Indigenous children were forced to attend in the United States.

Listen to Canadians' stories. Residential schools have impacted families for generations. In addition to inhumane treatment, children were stripped of their heritage and culture. Listen to these stories from Canada.