news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

[Text/Observer.com Chen Sijia] According to the Associated Press report on July 31, a U.S. Department of the Interior released a survey report on the 30th showing that in the 150-year history of boarding schools for Native American children, at least 973 Native American children died due to abuse or disease. U.S. Department of the Interior officials called on the U.S. government to apologize for what these boarding schools did and provide compensation to the Native Americans. The Washington Post said that as of now, the White House has not made any comments on the latest report.

The investigation found that between 1819 and 1969, at least 18,624 Native American children were forced into boarding schools, where they were forced to "integrate into white society." At least 59 religious groups were funded by the U.S. government to operate these boarding schools. Of the 417 boarding schools for Native American children across the country, 210 were run by religious institutions.

U.S. Interior Department officials said that these boarding schools would give Native American children English names, require them to participate in military training, and force them to do physical labor such as farming, brick making, and railroad construction. The report also acknowledged that the actual number of Native American children entering boarding schools was higher than the statistics, and there may be more children who fell ill in boarding schools and died after being sent home.

The report states that at least 973 Aboriginal children died in residential schools. Investigators found at least 74 marked or unmarked graves of children at 65 of the former residential schools. The report did not specify the cause of death of each child, but Interior Department officials said their causes included disease and abuse.

The report also shows that the U.S. government allocated more than $23.3 billion for Native American boarding schools, other similar institutions and related "assimilation" policies between 1871 and 1969, calculated in inflation-adjusted dollars for fiscal year 2023.

The initiator of the investigation, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American cabinet minister in U.S. history, told U.S. media: "The federal government has deliberately implemented strategic actions to force Native children to be separated from their families through the boarding school policy, depriving them of their identities, and erasing their language, culture and connection with Native groups."

Haaland bluntly stated that this was an "organized attempt" by the US government to eradicate the so-called "Indian problem", "either assimilate them or kill them outright." She urged the US government to formally apologize for the relevant issues, but did not disclose whether she would call on US President Biden to apologize.

One of the boarding school survivors, Donovan Archambault, 85, former chairman of the Fort Belknap Native Reservation in Montana, recalled that he was sent to boarding school at the age of 11, where he was abused, forced to cut his hair and forbidden to speak his native language.

Archambault said that because of this painful experience, he gradually recovered after more than 20 years of alcoholism and never talked to his children about his school days. "An apology is necessary and they should apologize for it. But we also need a broader education about what happened to us. For me, this is a forgotten history."

U.S. Department of the Interior officials have suggested that the federal government provide funds "comparable to the scale of investment in boarding schools" to invest in indigenous education, revitalize indigenous languages ​​and other projects to compensate Native American communities. A legislation currently under consideration in the U.S. Congress also proposes the establishment of a "Truth and Healing Commission" to record the injustices that occurred in these boarding schools.

The legislation plans to give the commission the power to subpoena witnesses, but the Associated Press said the proposal was opposed by the U.S. Catholic Church. Members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote to the U.S. Congress last week, asking the "Truth and Healing Commission" to avoid taking a "confrontational stance."

In May 2021, the remains of 215 unidentified children were discovered at a former Aboriginal boarding school in British Columbia, Canada, shocking the international community. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Haaland immediately announced the launch of the Federal Aboriginal Boarding Schools Truth Initiative to investigate the damage and impact caused by Native American boarding schools.

The first investigative report released by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2022 initially estimated that more than 500 indigenous children died in boarding schools. U.S. media pointed out that the latest report confirmed that the scale and scope of this "terrible system" exceeded people's imagination, and the deaths and losses caused were far higher than expected.

The United States has enacted a series of laws and policies in its history to establish boarding schools for indigenous peoples, and has implemented "forced assimilation" on indigenous children for nearly two centuries, causing them to suffer physical and mental abuse, resulting in a series of social problems including the decline of cognitive abilities of indigenous students. However, The Washington Post said that as of now, the White House has not made any comments on the latest report.

This article is an exclusive article of Observer.com and may not be reproduced without authorization.