What churches were involved in Indian boarding schools?

The Catholic Church was a key player in the devastating colonization of the Americas, operating more Indian boarding schools in the United States than any other religious group, and more than all other religious groups combined, according to Kathleen Holscher, an associate professor and endowed chair of Roman Catholic ...

What religion were Native American boarding schools?

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition has found 523 boarding schools operated across 38 states, including 115 previously unidentified schools that were largely run by Christian churches.

What religious order ran the Indian schools?

The Catholic Truth & Healing website lists 87 Catholic-run Native boarding schools before 1978 across 22 states. Seventy-four of those schools were run or staffed by Catholic women religious. Fifty-three different congregations of sisters were affiliated with the schools.

Who was involved in Indian boarding schools?

The first boarding schools were set up starting in the mid-nineteenth century either by the government or Christian missionaries. Initially, the government forced many Indian families to send their children to boarding schools.

What were some common practices at Indian boarding schools?

Three of the 25 Indian boarding schools run by the U.S. government were in California. Their goal was to stamp out all vestiges of Native cultural traditions and replace them with white, Christian customs and norms. It was common practice for administrators to bathe new students in kerosene and to cut off their hair.

Research uncovers role of churches and religious groups in Indigenous boarding schools

Were Indian boarding schools Catholic?

About half the schools were supported by the U.S. government, but were operated and staffed by Christian denominations, including the Catholic Church.

What 3 things were the Indian children in boarding schools not allowed to do?

Schools forced removal of indigenous cultural signifiers: cutting the children's hair, having them wear American-style uniforms, forbidding them from speaking their mother tongues, and replacing their tribal names with English language names (saints names under some religious orders) for use at the schools, as part of ...

What ended Indian boarding schools?

The federal government shut many of them down in the 1930s, and the big story of Indian education became public school education. But some of [the boarding schools] continued, actually, at the demand of the Indian families, who used them as a poverty relief program for their families to survive the Great Depression.

What was the abuse at Native American boarding schools?

They told stories of being punished for speaking their native language, getting locked in basements and their hair being cut to stamp out their identities. They were sometimes subjected to solitary confinement, beatings and withholding food.

What happened to Indian children in boarding schools?

There were more than 523 government-funded, and often church-run, Indian Boarding schools across the U.S. in the 19th and 20th centuries. Indian children were forcibly abducted by government agents, sent to schools hundreds of miles away, and beaten, starved, or otherwise abused when they spoke their Native languages.

What did the Catholic Church do to indigenous peoples?

Catholic missionaries accompanied Native peoples to reservations when they were removed from ancestral homelands throughout the United States. Many tribes were moved from the east to west and eventually relocated in Oklahoma.

Did the Jesuits run Indian schools?

Many of the boarding schools were run by Catholic religious orders, including the Jesuits. The experiences of individual alumni are diverse; some have expressed gratitude for their education, but many have asserted that the schools were a place where they were robbed of their Native identity.

What happens to the Indian girl in 1923?

The 1923 finale reconnected Teonna with her father after she escaped the school that was beating her culture and language out of her. Their reconnection was bloody, however, including the deaths of Teonna's grandmother and Hank, the shepherd who tried to help her.

What is one reason why so many native students died at boarding schools like Carlisle?

Disease was one reason why many Indian Boarding Schools closed. Though not the reason Carlisle shut down, at least 168 children who attended Carlisle died from tuberculosis, pneumonia, and the flu at the school.

Why did natives convert to Christianity?

Impressed by white technology, many Indians believed that white culture must hold some spiritual power as well, and they were willing to hear what the missionaries had to offer. Some became practicing Christian converts while others were violently opposed to any white influence at all.

How did Christianity affect the Native American people?

For America's indigenous people, late 19th century Christianity meant forced assimilation and cultural domination. Through government-sponsored boarding schools, Christian missionaries worked to convert native children, who were often referred to as "savages."

What did Native American boarding schools forbid?

At boarding schools, staff forced Indigenous students to cut their hair and use new, Anglo- American names. They forbid children from speaking their Native language and observing their religious and cultural practices.

What was the forced Christianity for the Native Americans?

And so, the stage was set for the rampant religious and ideological transformation of the Native American Tribes, involving forced conversions and the tearing apart of families so that the children could be taught to think and behavelike the settlersby sending them to Indian Boarding Schools.

Are there still Native American boarding schools today?

Institutions such as the Santa Fe Indian School and the Sherman Indian High School, in Riverside, Calif., still operate under this model, emphasizing Native sovereignty and preserving traditional languages and cultures.

What was the true purpose of the Indian boarding schools?

The end goal was to eradicate all vestiges of Indian culture. By the 1880s, the U.S. operated 60 schools for 6,200 Indian students, including reservation day schools and reservation boarding schools.

How long did Indian boarding schools last?

The investigation found that from 1819 to 1969, the federal Indian boarding school system consisted of 408 federal schools across 37 states or then territories, including 21 schools in Alaska and 7 schools in Hawaii.

Why were Indian boarding schools shut down?

In the mid-20th century, many of these schools shut down due to reports of neglect and abuse, while those that remained made enormous changes. Four are still open today.

How many Indian children were taken from their parents?

An estimated 25% to 35% of Native American children were removed from their families prior to the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978. The Indian Child Welfare Act protects Indian children by prioritizing placement with extended families, within the tribe or with an Indian family.

Why were Native American children taken from their parents?

Many parents sent their children because Native children were not permitted to attend local public schools with white students, making assimilation boarding schools the only available opportunity for formal education.

What bad thing did the Ghost Dance lead to?

Notes from Indian Country: The Ghost Dance leads to the Massacre at Wounded Knee. As South Dakota headed into December of 1890 there was serious consternation among the colonists about a religious ceremony appearing on the Indian reservations called the Ghost Dance.