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New research reveals the vast scope of the Native American boarding school system, which for more than a century removed Native children from their homes and families in an effort to assimilate them. Students at the schools gave up their names, their labor and sometimes their lives.
They told Willie Grayeyes (Diné) to sleep in his clothes to not even take off his black shoes. At any moment, the Tuba City Boarding School staff members said, the 7-year-old would be called upon.
The Messed Up History Of Native American Boarding Schools
By Marina Manoukian/Feb. 5, 2021 3:15 pm EDT/Updated: March 8, 2021 9:43 am EDT
Although boarding schools for Native American children in the United States still exist, they re a far cry from their original iteration. The first native boarding school was opened in 1879, and for almost 100 years, they became another arena of forced assimilation and genocide.
Parents were coerced and intimidated into allowing their children to attend boarding schools, and if parents continued to refuse, children were often kidnapped. Children were hostages taken to pacify the leadership of tribes that would dare stand against U.S. expansion and Manifest Destiny.