Boarding Schools

White Supremacy

(16:49) “Thousands of Indian Children are being placed in Bureau of Indian Affairs Boarding Schools in order to educate them to the white man’s way.” - Unnamed Narrator

• It is difficult to be educated by the very people who have harmed your community and whose goal is erasure of your community, especially when education is a critical piece to Native American communities.

Children being ripped from their families and homes.

1. (16:56) “Children were literally Stolen [in the night], forced, dragged away from their parents to boarding schools. Where they were mistreated.” - Marcella
2. (17:08) “ When a new car comes into the yard they run in the house and “ mama are they coming after us now?” And they're always everyday and every night, when a car comes , they're afraid that they're coming now to get them.” - Unnamed narrator
3. There is an idea that settlers have the right to steal children and bring them up the “right” way, that they need to be corrected, which in reality is the white American way.
4. (17:31) “ I remember us getting off the bus and all lining up and they told us to go into showers and then they took our clothes and put them in a box and sent them home. And From then on we wore what's called GI clothes, Government Issued” -Madonna
5. (17:46) “ We were just kept totally isolated and they were in control of everything. They would lock us in upstairs.” - Madonna
6. (18:04 ) “ They locked us, they locked us in.” - Madonna’s Sister
7. Dehumanization and criminalization started from a young age much as it does for many BIPOC communities today. The actions taken in boarding schools have resonance with the School-to-Prison Pipeline today. The School-to-Prison Pipeline funnels children out of public schools into the criminal justice system. The practices enforced in boarding schools could be internalized and transformed into a form of trauma that then is passed down to later generations.
8. (23:33) “The UN has alist of violations under the category of genocide. In that list there is an item that says, that if one culture takes the childrenfrom this culture and moves them over and puts them with another culture, that is an act of genocide.” - Unnamed Speaker in front of a Workshop
9. Even though this is named as genocide, no action taken to ensure that erasure of culture does not continue today for children.
10. Current day, there is still bodies being found under schools today-- shows that these schools were purely to eradicate the Indian people and their history
11. (31:10) “ 4th grade, In boarding school, in Eaglebeut. I said, I’m gonna stand up by wearing my moccasins to school. I remember people asking me why are you wearing those, why aren’t you wearing shoes. I remember being laughed at. But the next day I wore them again and other girls were wearing their moccasins. Something as simple as that was SOO powerful because our people was SOO oppressed” - Marcella

• Simple acts were revolutions, due to the depth of oppression
• Trauma -- to live in a world/home that completely dismisses the loss of life
• In schools -- activities like pioneer hats
• Black and brown people experience in America's educational system celebrating and learning about genocide of their ancestors.
• Not being acknowledged for your accomplishments, qualities, interests, activities, presence, existence, ancestors history