The predominantly Catholic congregations who administered the residential schools implemented corporal punishment and forbid children from speaking their Native languages to achieve this assimilation.
In Missouri, nearly two centuries ago, the Jesuits forcibly moved six enslaved Black people to the St. Louis area to help build their forthcoming institutions. That same year, they also laid the groundwork for a “plan for “the civilization of the Indian,”a practice that separated families and stripped young Native Americans of their culture through assimilation.