1900: 20,000 children in boarding schools.Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.'īy 1926, nearly 83% of Indian school-age children were attending boarding schools. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. 'A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one, and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous factor in promoting Indian massacres. Read our publication Healing Voices Volume 1: A Primer on American Indian and Alaska Native Boarding Schools in the U.S. Many children never returned home and their fates have yet to be accounted for by the U.S. They suffered physical, sexual, cultural and spiritual abuse and neglect, and experienced treatment that in many cases constituted torture for speaking their Native languages. Native children that were voluntarily or forcibly removed from their homes, families, and communities during this time were taken to schools far away where they were punished for speaking their native language, banned from acting in any way that might be seen to represent traditional or cultural practices, stripped of traditional clothing, hair and personal belongings and behaviors reflective of their native culture. Though we don't know how many children were taken in total, by 1900 there were 20,000 children in Indian boarding schools, and by 1925 that number had more than tripled. The stated purpose of this policy was to “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.”īetween 1869 and the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Native American children were removed from their homes and families and placed in boarding schools operated by the federal government and the churches. Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policiesīeginning with the Indian Civilization Act Fund of Maand the Peace Policy of 1869 the United States, in concert with and at the urging of several denominations of the Christian Church, adopted an Indian Boarding School Policy expressly intended to implement cultural genocide through the removal and reprogramming of American Indian and Alaska Native children to accomplish the systematic destruction of Native cultures and communities.

List of Indian Boarding Schools in the United States.Working for Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation for Boarding School Survivors and Descendants The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

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