American Indian boarding schools
American Indian boarding schools were established in the United States starting in the 1870s, primarily aimed at educating Indigenous children while also promoting assimilation into European-American culture. Initially operated by various Christian organizations, these schools quickly became government-sponsored institutions focused on eradicating Indigenous cultural practices. Children were often forcibly removed from their families and subjected to strict discipline, with an emphasis on learning English and adopting Christian beliefs, while traditional languages and customs were suppressed. The educational conditions were frequently inadequate, leading to malnutrition and harsh treatment, including physical abuse.
As the movement progressed, many children underwent significant emotional and cultural dislocation, with some returning home unable to recall their Indigenous names or languages. By the mid-twentieth century, most of these schools had ceased their militant assimilation practices, but many continued to operate due to a lack of educational options for Indigenous communities. The late 2020s saw renewed calls from Indigenous leaders for acknowledgment and investigation into the lasting impacts of these schools, particularly following discoveries of unmarked graves of former students in Canada. The U.S. government has since launched initiatives to research and address these historical injustices, including efforts to document the experiences of former students and propose reparative measures for affected communities.
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American Indian boarding schools
American Indian boarding schools were established beginning in the 1870s for the purposes of educating Indigenous children in the United States. Initially, the schools were operated by various Christian churches and organizations and were intended to both educate and convert the children to Christianity. Within a short time, however, the US government began opening schools aimed at removing children from their Indigenous culture and teaching them to speak English, practice Christianity instead of their traditional religious practices, and change other aspects of their lives to assimilate them into White society.
In the middle of the twentieth century, the schools continued operating to serve Indigenous children without other education options, though most eliminated the militant attempts to convert and assimilate students. The vast majority of the schools were closed by the early part of the twenty-first century. During the 2020s, Indigenous leaders and advocates increased calls for the US government to research and address the lasting impacts of boarding schools on Indigenous communities, and formal investigations took place.
Background
In the latter portion of the nineteenth century, the American government frequently found itself at war with American Indians over land. The battles were costly in terms of lives and money, and the government began looking for ways to mitigate those conflicts. At around the same time, the abolition of slavery and the end of the Civil War in 1865 led many advocates to look for a new cause. Many of them turned their attention to the circumstances of American Indians, who were often taken advantage of by the government and mistreated.
Some began opening day schools and boarding schools on or near American Indian reservations to educate the community's children. While these earliest schools were often operated with the intent of helping Indigenous people, those who operated the schools thought the best way to achieve this was to have Indigenous children become more like White children. The schools nearly always insisted that children give up their traditional hairstyles—boys' braids were cut off—and they were forbidden from wearing traditional dress. The schools forced children to speak English until many forgot their Indigenous languages, and they promoted Christianity over traditional spiritual beliefs of their culture.
Eventually, the government realized that it would be considerably easier to teach young children to give up their Indigenous culture than to retrain them when they were older, and the government began sponsoring day schools. However, while students lived at home, their traditional ways were reinforced by their families and communities. Boarding schools near reservations faced the problem of homesick children running away. Parents would hide children rather than allow them to be taken back.
In 1879, Richard H. Pratt, a former member of the US Cavalry and a Civil War veteran, opened the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Pratt was famous for the saying, "Kill the Indian and save the man." He believed that it was best for all concerned if Indigenous people learned to think and act like White people. He reasoned that having the school far away from the reservations would minimize the problem of runaways and all but eliminate any exposure to the children's Indigenous culture, thus speeding the process of replacing their culture. Pratt's school became the first of many throughout the United States. By 1885, more than one hundred schools were opened around the United States. Many, including the Carlisle School, were located in abandoned military facilities.
Overview
The schools were not only located in military settings, they were often run like military camps. Students would awaken at 5:45 a.m. to sounds of bells or bugles and be marched from activity to activity, with very little time between activities or for leisure. Part of the day would be spent in classes, including Christian religion classes, while the rest would be spent learning various skills. Boys would be taught farming skills, despite the fact that many of them came from areas where the type of farming they were being taught was not possible. Girls learned household skills such as cleaning, mending, and laundry. The intent was to teach them to work as servants, as many still viewed Indigenous people as capable of little else.
Although the schools were government-sponsored, they were generally poorly supported. Many former students would later report insufficient food, clothing, and other necessities. Sickness was rampant because of lack of hygiene and medical care and the close quarters in which they lived. The children were often required to work to help pay for the school's operation. When they finally completed their studies, they were often indentured to local residents as servants or farm hands.
Discipline was strict and often harsh. Students would later recount being hit with boards or leather belts for breaking any rules. Students who were caught speaking in their Indigenous languages would often be forced to eat lye soap that would burn their mouths. Because many of the schools were former military bases, they often had prison cells where the children would be locked for infractions such as running away. Many instances of sexual abuse of both boys and girls by school staff were later reported.
Officials ordered American Indian families to send away their children, some as young as four years old. Many children returned home on school breaks and were unable to remember their Indigenous names or language. Some families resisted attempts to take their children. In response, Congress passed a law in 1891 that required parents to send their children to schools or lose their food rations and other government support.
In the mid-1920s, amid increasing evidence of many economic, social, and health problems on American Indian reservations, the US Department of the Interior ordered a study into the situation, led by department employee Lewis Meriam. The 1928 Meriam report included a very critical review of the poor conditions in many American Indian boarding schools. It revealed the poor treatment, malnutrition, poor educational standards, and forced labor in the schools. As a result, many were closed and replaced with day schools closer to or on reservations.
Some schools remained open—with improved conditions—at the request of parents who did not have another option for education for their children. At the height of the American Indian boarding school movement, researchers estimated that more than one hundred thousand children were forcibly removed from their families and sent away to school. By the late twentieth century, only about one-tenth of that number remained in boarding schools.
In May 2021, the unmarked graves of over two hundred children were discovered on the grounds of a former government-run boarding school for Indigenous students in Canada. The number would grow to almost a thousand in the coming year as Canadian officials investigated further. The discovery led US secretary of the interior Deb Haaland to announce the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative. The goal of the initiative was to look at records to create a list of former boarding schools, locate possible burial sites, and identify students by name and tribal affiliation.
Per the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, the Department of the Interior (DOI) released its first report in May 2022. At that point, it had identified more than five hundred student deaths at boarding schools across the US, though officials anticipated that the number would continue to climb. The report also found that 408 schools were supported by the US government between 1819 and 1969. Haaland announced that Interior Department officials would embark on a yearlong “Road to Healing” tour to gather testimonies from former boarding school students to create a permanent oral history of the schools. After the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative’s first report, tribal leaders and Indigenous activists from around the country called for a federal truth and healing commission to fully investigate boarding school abuses and to recommend next steps for healing. In May 2022, representatives Sharice Davids, a Ho-Chunk tribal member, and Tom Cole of the Chickasaw tribe sponsored legislation to create a truth and healing commission, with Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren leading the process in the Senate.
As investigations into the impact of American Indian boarding schools continued, in 2024 the DOI released its second, final report. Further work had led to adjustments in findings related to the boarding school system, including the total number of government-sponsored schools and the number of children who had died. In addition to reporting that the federal government had actually sponsored 417 boarding schools, the authors stated that approximately 973 children involved in the system had died. The report also estimated the total monetary amount the government had dedicated to these schools between 1871 and 1969 while recommending that a similar amount should then go into healing and reparation efforts for Indigenous communities. That same year, the Washington Post had published an article detailing the extent of sexual abuse perpetrated at Catholic-run boarding schools, and following a subsequent formal apology from US Catholic bishops, Joe Biden became the first sitting president to issue an official apology regarding the federal government's part in the operation of the schools.
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