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Thread: U.S. counts Indian boarding school deaths for first time

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    U.S. counts Indian boarding school deaths for first time

    AJ has posted frequently on Canada's treatment of its indigenous peoples in church-run boarding schools; now it's the U.S.'s turn:

    U.S. counts Indian boarding school deaths for first time, but leaves key questions unanswered
    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. The report identified over 400 schools and more than 50 gravesites and said more gravesites would likely be found.

    The report is the first time in U.S. history that the government has attempted to comprehensively research and acknowledge the magnitude of the horrors it inflicted on Native American children for decades. But it falls well short of some independent estimates of deaths and does not address how the children died or who was responsible. The report also sheds little new light on the physical and sexual abuse generations of Indigenous children endured at the schools, which were open for more than 150 years, starting in the early 1800s.

    The report and an accompanying news release acknowledge the harms to Indigenous children but stop short of offering an apology from the federal government, which tribal leaders have been requesting for decades. Last month, Pope Francis apologized for the Roman Catholic Church's role in Canada's boarding school system, and First Nation leaders there are asking him to apologize in person when he visits the country this summer.

    Interior Secretary Deb Haaland's grandparents were both 8 years old when they were forced to attend boarding school, she said Wednesday at a news conference. "Many children like them never made it back to their homes. Each of those children is a missing family member, a person who was not able to live out their purpose on this Earth because they lost their lives as part of this terrible system," Haaland said, holding back tears.

    The trauma caused by federal Indian boarding school policies — including the separation of children as young as 4 years old from their families — dates back generations and is ongoing, Halaand said. The report is the first step toward understanding what assistance people need to overcome that trauma, she said, including mental health services and language revitalization, since children were abused and forbidden from speaking their native languages at the schools.

    "Even though it's ceased or stopped in many places, the vestiges of it is still continuing today," said James LaBelle, Sr., who is Inupiaq and a vice president of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, a nonprofit that helped compile the report and advocates for survivors of Indian boarding schools.

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    We have a Catholic Church locally that used to run an orphanage of Native Americans. The atrocities that occured there 100yrs ago are the stuff of legend.

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    Frozen Chosen A.J.'s Avatar
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    Wow. Thanks for posting this. I had no idea the US had a similar system to ours for indigenous children. We've had numerous groups working on healing and restoration between Indigenous and Europeans for years. It's a process and a journey. The evil perpetrated against the children in these schools is almost incomprehensible. Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a formal apology to the Indigenous Peoples of Canada and since then, approximately $3B has been paid out to 28,000+ former students.

    I've been in some Christian meetings where they were doing the process of asking for (European descent) and extending forgiveness (Indigenous peoples) ... it's heartbreaking and horrifying to hear what the indigenous people went through at the hands and intentions of the whites , and not just in the schools, but it's encouraging to watch and participate in the process.

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    So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John's Avatar
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    I don't want to stir up the pot here but some of those tribes back in the day committed heinous acts of torture on a fairly normal basis. The women were put in charge of the torturing and it was unreal. There may have been some bad feelings lurking around towards the natives, in context, many probably thought it justified (treating natives poorly).

    Captives in American Indian Wars - Wikipedia

    Torture, Mutilation and Brutality (Comanche History) - Fort Tours

    That's a few links, if you look around you can find more but you probably won't want to. They did some seriously sick stuff.

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    Frozen Chosen A.J.'s Avatar
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    While that may be true, John, the last residential school in Canada closed in 1997. Prime minister Harper formally apologized in 2007. In Canada, the government also did something now referred to as the 60s scoop where indigenous children were taken away from their natural families and placed in white homes. We're not talking about ancient history. We're talking recent history.

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    So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by A.J. View Post
    While that may be true, John, the last residential school in Canada closed in 1997. Prime minister Harper formally apologized in 2007. In Canada, the government also did something now referred to as the 60s scoop where indigenous children were taken away from their natural families and placed in white homes. We're not talking about ancient history. We're talking recent history.
    Yep. Institutions have a way of becoming corrupt. I wasn't defending bad behavior.

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