Survivors Expose the "Black History" of Native American Boarding Schools: Using Numbers Instead of Names and Being Beaten and Cursed When Speaking Native Language Boarding | Indigenous | Schools
Overseas Network, August 8th (Xinhua) - The Washington Post published an article on August 7th, revealing the "black history" of Native American boarding schools by telling the firsthand experiences of four survivors.
The four interviewees are all over the ages. An 86 year old man claimed that he was sexually assaulted by other students at a boarding school when he was 10 years old; A Native Alaskan man stated that for six years he had been referred to by numbers and had not been called by his own name; Another interviewee said they still remember the scene of their mother wiping tears when they left home for boarding school at the age of 7; Another 72 year old survivor stated that he was captured at the time and did not even have the opportunity to bid farewell to his family.
The interviewees also stated that in boarding schools, they have to do a lot of miscellaneous work and often face discrimination and exclusion in the classroom. Any slight mistake can result in physical punishment and abuse. If they speak their own tribal language, they will be subjected to verbal abuse and physical abuse. Women also need to cut off their long hair and often suffer from sexual harassment.
The Washington Post reported that a previous survey by the US Department of the Interior on Indigenous boarding schools showed that from around 1870 to 1969, the US government established over 400 Indigenous boarding schools in 37 states, with tens of thousands of Indigenous children attending these schools. It is believed that thousands of people died in these schools, and many were sexually assaulted, physically abused, or traumatized.