Nearly 1,000 American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children died while attending boarding schools set up by the U.S. government to erase their tribal ties and cultural practices, according to an Interior Department report.
The U.S. government spent nearly $25 billion in today's dollars on operating 417 boarding schools across 37 states and territories. Children were subjected to physical and sexual abuse, forced assimilation, conversion to Christianity, and prohibition from speaking Native languages.
The report recommends the federal government apologize and take steps for healing, including creating a national memorial, investing in research to help Native communities heal from intergenerational trauma, and revitalizing Native languages.
The Interior Department identified almost 19,000 children who attended federal boarding schools between 1819 and 1969, acknowledging that there were more unknown victims of this traumatic history.
#native-american-history #boarding-schools #cultural-assimilation #intergenerational-trauma #native-languages-revitalization
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