06/03/2021
The recent news about the discovery of the Indigenous children’s mass grave in Canada is absolutely heartbreaking.
While this will be a huge step for Canada to directly address, the fact is there are a number of boarding schools here in the USA that have never reconciled the same type of atrocities. There are several still in operation today that are overseen by the BIE (Chemawa and Flandreau.) If the same type of digging took place into the history of those schools, it is likely the same type of horrors would be uncovered.
It’s important to note that these are not the type of boarding schools, or academy's, that non-natives attend like the one in Wolfeboro, NH. The Indian boarding school in the USA is often an outlier of society that was largely used to follow General Pratt's theology of 'Kill the Indian, save the man' during the assimilation era of US policy. This is a very dark chapter in US history, and not nearly enough attention has been given to the long-lasting impacts it has had on tribal communities.
This is why I strongly believe that every youth counts. Every graduation matters. And the work we do is critically important.
Thank you for your support in advancing the mission of our organization. It truly matters in the communities we serve.
To learn more about the history of boarding schools, please visit:
Learn more about the history of boarding schools, first established by the BIA in Washington in 1860.
