Forced Assimilation: America’s reckoning with Indian boarding schools
Donovan Archambault, from the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, speaks about abuses he suffered at government-sponsored Native American boarding schools, during a U.S. Department of Interior event at Montana State University, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023, in Bozeman, Mont. The Interior Department says more than 400 of the abusive, government-backed schools operated across the U.S. AP Photo/Matthew Brown
For 150 years, the United States government operated hundreds of Indian boarding schools. Native American children were separated from their homes and families with the goal of complete cultural assimilation. Many of these children died of abuse and neglect, and never returned home.
The schools operated from 1819 to the 1960's. Last month, President Joe Biden became the first sitting president to apologize for what had been done.
An indigenous writer, environmental historian and ethnobotanist shares her thoughts on the historic apology, disturbing details of what Native American children went through at the government-run boarding schools, and her personal family connection to this.
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Rosalyn LaPier
Indigenous Writer, Environmental Historian and Ethnobotanist
Professor of History, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Enrolled Member of the Blackfeet of Montanal, Métis