What were Native American genocide 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 was the cultural genocide Native American 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.

What were the horrors of Native American boarding schools?

Forced by the federal government to attend the schools, Native American children were sexually assaulted, beaten and emotionally abused. They were stripped of their clothes and scrubbed with lye soap. Matrons cut their long hair. Speaking their tribal language could lead to a beating.

What was the tragedy of the Native American boarding schools?

While researchers say the known toll is still far from complete, there are at least hundreds of Native children who died while attending boarding schools. In site after site, children's bodies were stuffed into graves without regard for the burial traditions of their families or their cultures.

How many Native Americans were killed in Indian boarding schools?

Between 1819 and 1969, the U.S. ran or supported 408 boarding schools, the department found. Students endured “rampant physical, sexual, and emotional abuse,” and the report recorded more than 500 deaths of Native children—a number set to increase as the department's investigation of this issue continues.

The Reckoning: Native American Boarding Schools’ Painful History Unearthed

How many native children were killed in residential schools?

The probe began after nearly 1,000 unmarked graves of Indigenous children were unearthed at Indigenous boarding schools in Canada. Native Nations scholars estimate that almost 40,000 children have died at Indigenous boarding schools.

Why did Native Americans died in boarding schools?

Lindsay Montgomery: Unfortunately, in boarding schools like Carlisle, students would die for various reasons. A lot of it was associated with tuberculosis and other infectious diseases like cholera. Influenza was a common cause of death. A lot of it also stemmed from long-term malnutrition.

How were Native American children punished in boarding schools?

Federal Indian boarding school rules were often enforced through punishment, including corporal punishment such as solitary confinement; flogging; withholding food; whipping; slapping; and cuffing. The Federal Indian boarding school system at times made older Indian children punish younger Indian children.

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.

Do Native American boarding schools still exist?

As of 2023, four federally run off-reservation boarding schools still exist. Native American tribes developed one of the first women's colleges.

What happened to Native American children when they went to an Indian boarding school?

At boarding schools, Indian children were separated from their families and cultural ways for long periods, sometimes four or more years. The children were forced to cut their hair and give up their traditional clothing. They had to give up their meaningful Native names and take English ones.

Why were natives forced into boarding schools?

The removal of Native American children from their families to attend boarding or Indian schools is a dark chapter in history. This practice began in the late 19th century and continued into the 20th century. The primary motivations were assimilation and cultural erasure.

Were Native American children forced to go to boarding schools?

At the 408 federal Indian boarding schools across 37 states or territories that Native American children were mandated to attend, children and teenagers were forced to assimilate into Western culture.

What was the cultural genocide of Native American children?

Some 100,000 Native Americans were forced to attend these schools, forbidden to speak Native languages, made to renounce Native beliefs, and forced to abandon their Native American identities, including their names. Many children were leased out to white families as indentured servants.

How many natives were killed by colonizers?

European settlers killed 56 million indigenous people over about 100 years in South, Central and North America, causing large swaths of farmland to be abandoned and reforested, researchers at University College London, or UCL, estimate.

How many Indians were killed in California?

Contemporary historian Benjamin Madley has documented the numbers of Californian Indians killed between 1846 and 1873; he estimates that during this period at least 9,492 to 16,092 Californian Indians were killed by non-Indians, including between 1,680 and 3,741 killed by the U.S. Army.

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

A group of boys in school uniforms, circa 1890. As part of this federal push for assimilation, boarding schools forbid Native American children from using their own languages and names, as well as from practicing their religion and culture. Clothes mending class, circa 1901.

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.

How many kids died at Carlisle Indian School?

More than 180 Native children died at Carlisle, often from a combination of malnourishment, sustained abuse and disease brought on by poor living conditions.

What would happen if Native American parents refused to send their children to boarding schools?

The Bureau of Indian Affairs—the federal agency tasked with distributing food, land, and other provisions included in treaties with Native tribes—withheld food and other goods from those who refused to send their children to the schools, and even sent officers to forcibly take children from the reservation.

What is a Native American child called?

Papoose (from the Algonquian papoose, meaning "child") is an American English word whose present meaning is "a Native American child" (regardless of tribe) or, even more generally, any child, usually used as a term of endearment, often in the context of the child's mother.

How many Native American children were taken from their families?

Hirsch's research found that somewhere between 25 and 35 percent of all American Indian children had been placed in adoptive homes, foster homes or institutions.

How many Native American children were killed?

At least 500 Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children died while attending Indian boarding schools run or supported by the U.S. government, a highly anticipated Interior Department report said Wednesday.

Did the Catholic Church run Indian boarding schools?

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

What was the forced Christianity for the Native Americans?

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."