This piece examines the questions of forgiveness and healing, particularly in the context of “is forgiveness the only way to heal from historical trauma? Someone asked the author (Dina Gilio-Whitaker) this question during an interactive play titled “Urban Rez.” Unlike other communities that have come into power and have taken control of their own destinies, […]
A Navajo woman named Eulynda Toledo-Benalli shares her family’s history with the boarding school system in the U.S. Her father was kidnapped and sent to school in Colorado, while generations later, Toledo-Benalli was sent to school in Rehoboth, NM with her siblings. They suffered abuse at the hands of the schools, and their parents didn’t […]
When Chilocco first opened, 100 students attended the school, culminating in 18,000 students from 126 tribes over nearly 100 years. The text includes the memories of students, along with pictures from the school. Book Available for Purchase Here Source:Brumley, Kim. Chilocco: Memories of a Native American Boarding School. Fairfax, OK: Guardian Publishing House, 2010
What is now Sherman Indian High School began as the Perris Indian School in 1892. Like other Indian boarding schools, Sherman sought to forcefully assimilate Native American students at all cost. Students had mixed experiences. Some suffered horrific abuse while others speak positively of their time at the school. Sherman today is the opposite of […]
Graves at Carlisle don’t always have the correct names, markers, dates of death, or birth dates. In the case of Earnest Knocks Off, he has two headstones among the 200 students who are buried at the school. Unfortunately the supporting paper archives are incomplete, which isn’t helpful as tribes demand the return of the remains […]
A Century of Genocide in the Americas: The Residential School Experience is a short but powerful documentary about how Indian Residential Schools became a haven for institutionalized sexual abuse. The inspiration for the film comes from the First Nations survivors who have taken legal action against the institutions that perpetuated this destructive cycle; these are […]
If you wanted to change an ancient culture in a generation, how would you do it? You would change the way it educates its children. The U.S. Government knew this in the 19th century when it forced Native American children into government boarding schools. Today, volunteers build schools in traditional societies around the world, convinced […]
This story chronicles the journey of Young Bull, a Cheyenne boy taken from his parents. He is sent to an Indian boarding school where he struggles to hold onto his culture. Available for Purchase Here Source: Bunting, Eve, and Toddy, Irving. Cheyenne Again. New York, NY: HMH Books for Young Readers, 2002.
General Richard Henry Pratt is best known as the founder of the Carlisle Indian School. His impact on federal Indian policy and education was the foundation for Indian boarding schools across the country. This book chronicles his military career, which included conflicts with Native American tribes, and jailed those who surrendered. From there he became […]
This article discusses how, from the late 1800s through the early 1970s, the American government removed American Indian children from their parents and placed them in government-run boarding schools as part of the plan to decimate American Indians as a distinct people. It discusses the schools’ inhumane living conditions as well as the abuse suffered […]
Many former students identify the most painful legacy of Canada’s Indian Residential Schools as the loss of First Nations culture and language resulting from cultural denigration, religious indoctrination, and the removal of children from their families. The federal government insists that no cause of action exists for loss of culture or language arising from the […]
This article considers, from the experience of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement, the limitations of the current formal justice system and the common ways that lawyers and parties act within it. Looking at the combinations of lawsuits, settlement negotiations, structured compensation schemes, truth and reconciliation processes, and memorial and education programs now provided for in […]
