{"id":31383,"date":"2023-10-02T12:58:48","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T18:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/report-finds-115-indigenous-boarding-schools\/"},"modified":"2023-10-02T18:58:48","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T18:58:48","slug":"report-finds-115-indigenous-boarding-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/report-finds-115-indigenous-boarding-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Report finds 115 Indigenous boarding schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Boarding
Boarding school in 1885 in Albuquerque. Such schools are part of a long history of the United States government taking Indigenous children from their homes. A federal law established in the 1970s aimed to protect children and families, but it\u2019s facing a challenge in the Supreme Court. (National Archives)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

From the remote parts of northern Alaska to the coastal edges of Florida, Native American Boarding Schools were set up in or near tribal nations to assimilate Indigenous children into white, Christian, American society.<\/p>\n

The legacy of the federal Indian boarding school system is not new to Indigenous people. For generations, Indigenous people across the country have experienced the loss of their culture, traditions, language and land at the hands of federal boarding schools.<\/p>\n

In 2022, the Department of Interior released a report identifying 408 Native American boarding schools operated, funded, or supported by the United States government.<\/p>\n

This report was the first time a federal entity provided a detailed glimpse into the extent of Native American boarding school history across the U.S.<\/p>\n

However, there are more schools, not federally supported but operated instead by church institutions, that still worked to assimilate Indigenous children.<\/p>\n

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) has spent years researching extensively to identify an additional 115 boarding schools that carried out U.S. policies meant to assimilate Indigenous children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe anticipate there will be more,\u201d NABS Deputy CEO Dr. Samuel Torres said in an interview with the Arizona Mirror.<\/p>\n

NABS\u2019s research brings the total number of schools to 523, making it the most extensive known list of schools to date that encompasses Native American boarding schools.<\/p>\n

In Arizona, the number of boarding schools is 59, the second highest in the country, behind Oklahoma\u2019s 95. Neighboring New Mexico had 52. In the list published by the U.S. Department of Interior, Arizona had 48 boarding schools, and the NABS list adds 11.<\/p>\n

Torres said NABS\u2019s mission is not just to hold those institutions accountable that were federally supported, operated, or funded but all of the institutions that worked in that timeline to assimilate Indigenous children.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t just the federal government that did this. Of course, the federal government had a huge part, but it was also Christian missionaries who often did not have funding or support from the federal government,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n

He added that it\u2019s vital for people to recognize that these religious institutions benefited from the same Native American policy decisions made by the federal government and other Native American agencies across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe end goal was largely much the same,\u201d Torres said. \u201cIt was the cultural reprogramming of Native children. It was the intention to strip Native people of language, culture, tradition and ties to the land. That part can\u2019t be overstated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Director of Research and Education for NABS Deidre Whiteman who agreed with Torres, said that NABS\u2019s mission is about truth and justice, and in doing so, they can\u2019t leave anyone out.<\/p>\n

\"Students
Students at an unidentified Arizona Indian School in 1945. (Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records\/Arizona Memory Project)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe can\u2019t sugarcoat (it),\u201d Whiteman said because all these schools had a mission to remove Indigenous children from their homes and assimilate them.<\/p>\n

Parker said that all Indigenous people and their communities were affected by Native American boarding schools, whether they were federally funded or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just one entity that was responsible,\u201d Whiteman added. \u201cIt was multiple agencies, organizations and institutions, and the federal government who implemented these schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

To add some perspective to the sheer amount of schools across the country, NABS developed an interactive digital map in partnership with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada (NCTR),<\/p>\n

\u201cNCTR is honored to partner with NABS to expand the international research of these assimilative institutions,\u201d said Jessie Boiteau, the senior archivist for the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough this digital map, we are not just capturing history,\u201d Boiteau added. \u201cWe have created a tool that can be used today to impact what happens in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NCTR is an organization that documents Canada\u2019s First Nations people\u2019s experiences with the residential schools established in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re eager to be able to allow folks new and intimate ways of interacting with this information that has for generations been swept under the rug by settler state politics, culture, and society,\u201d Torres said. \u201cIt has largely been the philosophy of U.S. exceptionalism to just forget about those uncomfortable instances of history.\u201d<\/p>\n

The interactive digital map provides information and locations for all 523 known Native American boarding schools in the U.S., alongside the known Indian Residential Schools established across Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here strongly demanding that we don\u2019t forget, as a society, that this happened to our relatives, to this land, and it is a, for better or for worse, a historical instance that connects everyone that calls these lands home,\u201d Torres said. \u201cIt\u2019s a responsibility for every person, Native and non-Native, to play a part in some way toward the restoration of that which was disrupted.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to NABS, the map can demonstrate an international scope and context geographically for the first time. Users can find the locations and general information about all 523 schools, including known dates, operators, and historical notes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe this tool is going to greatly help our relatives who are seeking answers and who are on their own healing journeys,\u201d Torres said in a news release announcing the launch of the map.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery Indigenous person in this country has been impacted by the deliberate attempt to destroy Native families and cultures through boarding schools,\u201d he added. \u201cFor us to visually see the scope of what was done to our communities and Nations at this scale is overwhelming, but this work is necessary to uncover the truth about this dark chapter in American history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whiteman said that the release of NABS\u2019s latest findings for schools and the interactive map is an essential resource for future research conducted around boarding schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cResearchers, educators, and policymakers now have a place to start to inform understanding and future change,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Torres said when it comes to information surrounding the boarding school policies and era, a lot of it is being interpreted as abject violence, physical violence, epistemic violence and sexual and psychological violence that is commonly associated with boarding schools.<\/p>\n

That treatment did occur, but Torres said it\u2019s important people recognize that Indigenous people did not just accept it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was resistance, and there\u2019s been generations of resistance,\u201d Torres said, noting that there were Native leaders who stood up against this treatment to demand educational sovereignty.<\/p>\n

This is why there are still Native American boarding schools across the U.S., though they are drastically different from their predecessors. It is also why NABS notes in their list of schools that boarding schools are still in operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were started as these places of assimilation, these places of cultural genocide, but now they\u2019ve shifted into something different,\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n

Torres said that many schools now include Indigenous languages, science, and traditional knowledge in their education process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to recognize that the resistance required to transform those institutions to places of redeeming an education process for Native families, communities, and nations has taken place and does not exist in a vacuum,\u201d Torres added.<\/p>\n

In an effort to preserve the history behind the federal Indian boarding school legacy, the Department of Interior launched an oral history project in September.<\/p>\n

\u201cCreating a permanent oral history collection about the federal Indian boarding school system is part of the Department\u2019s mission to honor its political, trust and legal responsibilities and commitments to tribes,\u201d Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland said in a news release.<\/p>\n

The project is part of the Department of Interiors Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative and will be the first of its kind to be undertaken by the federal government.<\/p>\n

The oral history project will be led by the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, which will work to document and make accessible the experiences of the generations of Indigenous children who attended the federal boarding schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. government has never before collected the experiences of boarding school survivors, which tribes have long advocated for to memorialize the experiences of their citizens who attended federal boarding schools,\u201d Haaland said. \u201cThis is a significant step in our efforts to help communities heal and to tell the full story of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

NABS will receive $3.7 million in grant funding to support the oral history project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis historic project is a lifeline to preserving the voices and memories of Indian boarding school survivors,\u201d NABS CEO Deborah Parker said. \u201cMany of our ancestors did not have the chance to share their experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parker said that NABS is grateful to Secretary Haaland and the Department of the Interior for this support, and the work through this oral history project will allow NABS to continue their work \u201cin seeking truth and justice, ensuring survivor\u2019s stories are never forgotten, and bringing healing to future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

NABS intends to start conducting video interviews with boarding school survivors across the United States this fall and will release a full schedule with details for Indigenous survivors interested in participating.<\/p>\n

This story was written by Shondiin Silversmith it was originally published in AZ Mirror <\/a>shared by Source NM<\/a> and has been republished here with permission. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018We anticipate there will be more,\u2019 says CEO of Healing Coalition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1240,1222,799,28,1241],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-aztec","tag-bloomfield","tag-farmington","tag-headlines","tag-kirtland"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31383"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}